What are you reading?

It sounds crazy, but I'm reading a philosophy textbook: "Philosophy," by Gary Percesepe. I'm not taking any classes or anything; it's just an anthology of different philosophers. It's got everybody from Plato, Nietzsche, Martin Luther King Jr., and Thoreau to C.S. Lewis.

Lewis isn't normally known as a philosopher. Does the book present a different interpretation of the subject as a whole?

There are about 10 chapters, and each has about six or seven philosophers and their take on subjects like ethics, humanity, responsibility, values, truth. It's a really cool book. These are questions we've been trying to answer since the beginning of modern humanity. Other topics I could be reading about are fleeting and temporary. I want to participate in this kind of discussion.

How did you discover it?

About a year ago, I needed inspiration. I went to the McKinley book sale looking for books by various authors and I found this one, which seemed better edited than the others. I'm continuously looking for inspiration from writing. Oftentimes, getting inspiration from other poets is problematic because I don't want to bite ideas from other people. That's the goal — to come up with your own stuff.

So where does reading these thoughts take you, and your poetry?

It's a meditation. A daily thought to think of. From there, it leads to conversations, and from there, some kind of judgment I make about what they're saying. And from there — to writing.