It never occurred to me I could write poetry until a high school teacher praised a short paragraph of mine by telling me it read like poetry. From that day on I self-identified as a poet and storyteller.  Catcher In the Rye was the first piece of writing that gave me goosebumps.  Jack Kerouac and the beats were among my earliest influences, but by the time I entered the university Shakespeare's sonnets had already made their impression. I was fortunate enough to have several brilliant teachers at the University of Massachusetts who drew me deeper into the world of English 17th Century poets -- especially John Donne. Later: Shelley, Keats followed by the Romantics: Blake, Wordsworth and Coleridge.  It wasn't until after graduation that I found Whitman.  The poetry crowd I hung out with drew me to Rimbaud and I spent days reading every biography of Rimbaud I could find. One of my life's regrets is that my French was never good enough to appreciate Rimbaud in his own language. As a young man I met Ruth Stone and she kindly guided and reinforced my poetic journey.  After thirty years as a librarian, writing poetry, short stories and features for magazines and newspapers I retired from the library work world and directed my creative energies to poetry, beginning to get published in small on-line and print journals. My most recent favorite poets are: Michael Ryan, Matthew Dickman, David Chorlton, Michael Rattee, Hayden Carruth, Steve Orlen, Matt Donovan and Mark Doty. Diminuendo Press of Texas published my first collection, EVERY CROW IN THE BLUE SKY, in December of 2009. My book is dedicated to my wife, Barbara, and to my parents, Miriam Hoffman Needle and Sam Needle who raised six children in a house filled with books. My second collection is titled THAI COMIC BOOKS: POEMS FROM MY LIFE IN THAILAND WITH THE PEACE CORPS: 1967-1969. Preview available at: www.burgessneedle.com

Collection of poetry published in 2009: EVERY CROW IN THE BLUE SKY by Diminuendo Press
Collection of poetry published in 2013: THAI COMIC BOOKS: Poems from my life in Thailand with the Peace Corps: 1967-1969

Burgess Needle is a Tucson writer whose work has most recently appeared in OfZoos (Singapore), Raving Dove, Connotation Press, Iodine, Concho River Review, Full of Crow, The Broadkill Review, Decanto (UK), Boston Literary Magazine, Nutshell (UK), Fat City Review,Under the Radar (UK) and Brittle Star (UK). His fiction has appeared in Connotation press, BlackMarket Review (UK). He taught English for two years in a small Thai village for the Peace Corps, been a co-director of the Southern Arizona Writing Project, co-published and edited Prickly Pear/Tucson [a poetry quarterly] for five years, was a school librarian for thirty years and, as a Minister in the Universal Life Church, performed two marriages. Diminuendo Press of Ft. Worth, TX published his first collection of poetry: EVERY CROW IN THE BLUE SKY.See: www.everycrowinthebluesky.com He may be reached at: bbneedle@cox.net

EVERY CROW IN THE BLUE SKY
Includes a FLASH preview of my poetry collection, information about me, appearance of book cover and a few reviews

THAI COMIC BOOKS
Includes some poems from the book, also photographs of the author in Thailand, reviews and an audio clip