was born in 1923, grew up in Westchester County, N.Y., and studied at Harvard; he now lives and writes in a cabin he built in Hillsdale, New York State. He graduated in 1947 and the first of his books of verse was published in 1954. He has been variously employed as tree-surgeon, journalist, teacher, house-painter, pollster and, in 1968, he was a candidate for US Congress, running on the Liberal Party’s anti-Vietnam war platform; he is known locally as a fiddler, banjo-player and dance-caller. Poems have appeared in many magazines, including the New Yorker and London Magazine, and anthologies, including the 1996 Norton Anthology. He is well known for his live performances and has twice been Visiting Poet at the Cheltenham Festival.