Poet: David Laws lives in Bellingham, where he works as a musical instrument repair technician. He also hikes, cooks, gardens, plays piano, tries to play violin, performs a little magic, pays attention to politics and reads a lot.

Poetry then: "I wrote some truly bad doggerel when I was in high school in the sixties ... Then I wrote a long humorous narrative poem to celebrate my parents' 50th wedding anniversary, in 1994. It was actually not all terrible. I tried my hand again in 2002 and that nearly ended my career, but I enrolled in the English Department at Western Washington University, hoping to write fiction and memoir, never imagining that I would try poetry again. I took a couple of poetry classes there, and the spark was lit."

Poetry now: Laws is published in several issues of Jeopardy, the undergraduate literary journal at Western. He edited the 2005 edition. He also has a poem in "Tribute to Orpheus," from Kearney Street Books, and has another coming in "Tribute to Orpheus II," from the same publisher.

MISCOMMUNICATION

Raven rasps crooked counsel

from an evergreen branch;

I croak back, but he reads

my mimicry as mockery

and flaps away, flinging

a final wisecrack

over one bright dark wing.

Reach DEAN KAHN at dean.kahn@bellinghamherald.com or call 715-2291.