Jim Morrison

On mornings like this as I drive toward work at 6:21 am 4th Street stretches ahead without end as I stick my arm out my window and roll back my sunroof as the sky begins to lighten my long-dead father waves to me from a barber chair as the red white and blue pole spins

Fred Voss, a machinist for 32 years, has had three collections of poetry published by Bloodaxe Books. He is regularly published in magazines such as Poetry Review, Ambit, Atlanta Review, and Pearl, and has twice been the subject of programmes about his poetry on BBC Radio 4. Fred is regularly invited to read in the UK, including the Ledbury Poetry Festival, and in 2011 he and his wife, poet Joan Jobe Smith, were featured readers at the University of Pittsburgh. His latest book, Hammers and Hearts of the Gods, was selected by the Morning Star as one of the Top Seven Books for 2009. In 2011, the third edition of the eclectic hardcover journal Dwang (Tangerine Press) included a special section of his work, with new poems, a critical essay, an interview, etc. In summer 2012, World Parade Books will publish his first novel, Making America Strong.