Safdie lives with his wife and a cat at 11415 34th Ave. SW, Seattle, WA 98146. His phone number is (206) 246-2232, his e.mail address jsafdie@ctc.edu. He was born 4 April 1953 in Oklahoma City OK. He's five ten, weighs around 200 pounds and has brown eyes and hair. He earns his keep through teaching and writing. He got a masters at the University of Colorado. His vocations/hobbies are Writing, Reading, Watching sports on TV, traveling. He calls his religious characteristics "existent," his politics "radical." He's been published widely in magazines and has two chapbooks in print. Among his works are Saturn Return, Spring Training, American Summer, September Song and The Story of O. His work has been reviewed in Poetry Flash and Bolinas Hearsay News. Among the contemporary poets he was able to think of whom he considers important to him are Dorn, Notley, Raworth and Bromige--but "NOT Silliman, Watten, et al."

Among the poets of the past he finds important to him are Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Keats, Pound, Williams, Rilke, Olson, Spicer--and "many more (he) can't think of."

His favortie critics include DH Lawrence and Walter Benjamin, but he says he doesn't seek out critics. Says Safdie: "I do like poetry with subject matter, so perhaps that makes me (oh no!) a "language-poetry basher". I'd better check my Oedipal longings at the door. I'd better get with the program. I prefer poets and poems that explore the human condition as it is, rather than what it might be. I think 'undreamt of possibilities' are a copout for exploring the now. Technique? Form? In art, one idea is as good as another-- Willem de Kooning. I believe that."

As a critic Safdie's aim is "To explore the parameters of the work fully and honestly to the best of (his) ability." He considers the current poetry scene "Weak. In transition. Oh poet, you should get a job."

Regarding his background in science and philosophy, he says, "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha."

The sports he likes are "baseball and basketball, mostly. Tennis, sometimes. Not football." He predicts the Indians will win this year's world series in 7.

He describes his life-in-general as "Busy, satisfying."

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