Michael Ballard is an emerging poet living in Tucson, Arizona.

The themes that obsess him—love, death, loss, regret, the fleeting nature of existence—are not new, of course, having been at the core of poetry since its beginnings. However, the gravity of the subject matter, Michael believes, should not require the woe-is-me type of verse one might typically expect.

His aim is to approach the most serious subjects, whenever possible, with humor and irony, all in an attempt to bring us closer to the weightiest of conundrums: what does it mean to be alive?