Ted Kooser has selected my poem “Motor Lodge” for his column, American Life in Poetry (Column 540, July 27, 2015). It’s the first sonnet in a three-part sequence, "Summer Jobs," which originally appeared in The Paris Review (Number 131, Summer 1994). My thanks to Richard Howard for accepting the little sequence! It was reprinted in The Disappearing Town (Miami University Press, 2000), my first full-length collection of poems. I'm grateful to my friend, the late Jim Simmerman, for recommending the manuscript to James Reiss, the wonderful poet who edited the Miami University Press Poetry Series, and urging him to publish it, even though the press was restricted to second books and beyond. I believe it was the only first book that ever appeared in the series. Thanks to both Jims!