GENE FENDT grew up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, the eldest of twelve children born to Gene and Mary Fendt. After this happy childhood, he spent the greatest part of his teaching career in the very middle of the country, where he was granted the first Albertus Magnus Chair in Philosophy at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. Besides poetry, he has published on a broad range of topics, a number of which show up among these poems.