Between 1963 and 2006, I taught political theory at several universities here and overseas, ending up in Albany, New York. I had studied literature as an undergraduate and was always especially attracted to poetry. I had written verse pretty seriously as a high school student and English major at the University of California (Riverside), but it pretty quickly became a sideline as I focused on the historical literature of politics—Plato, Machiavelli, Hobbes, etc. Over the years I have publishe