Derrick Brown

Last October I was lucky enough to be invited to appear on the Livewire radio show in Portland, Oregon as part of the Wordstock book festival. I was especially lucky because paratrooper-turned-poet Derrick Brown read some of his work that night (or unlucky, perhaps, seeing as how Gred Robillard and I were the next folks on stage, and Derrick is a hard act to follow). He somehow manages that funny/moving thing all in the same poem, and he's a great performer.

The next day I cornered him at his ...