[2] He served in Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and in Vietnam before beginning a MS in physics at SUNY Buffalo.
[2] With the publication of Obscenities, however, he changed course and pursued creative writing, studying under poets John Logan and Irving Feldman.
His master's thesis was an early version of Millrat; his advisor for the project was the poet William Sylvester.
His stay at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri provided the material and setting for the later book, The Million Dollar Hole; his work as military police officer in Vietnam's Quảng Ngãi Province is rendered in his debut collection, Obscenities.
He discovered, in a book package delivered for the troops, Donald Allen's The New American Poetry 1945–1960 anthology, and was drawn to the early work of poet Edward Field.