It's been nearly nine years since I published my first book of poetry, Of Pain and Ecstasy: Collected Poems. Since then, I published five college textbooks on business law, the legal environment of business and immigration law through my current publisher, Textbook Media Press and numerous papers in law reviews and refereed academic journals on law and ethics. I also self-published several books of short stories in English and Spanish and some 200+ poems here and at other poetry sites.

This summer as a fun project I'm working on a second book of poems that I will publish as Echoes of Dawn at Dusk and also a Spanish version of my lesser output of poetry written in Spanish and translated into Spanish from my English originals that will be called Ecos del Alba en Tinieblas. If you'd like to take a look at samples of poetry that will be included in these two books, you can go to my author's page at Wattpad at the above link or to my Booksie profile page at https://www.booksie.com/users/victordlopez-82664. Both sites also have samples from my non-fiction (other than textbooks), short stories and poetry readings.

I have an active research agenda for this summer and next fall, but these projects are a way to ensure I continue using both sides of my brain and remain connected to my fiction and poetry roots that long predate my academic career. It is also one of the ways that I de-stress and take needed breaks from my day job and serious research.

Hear me read this poem in my podcast at https://open.spotify.com/episode/6UL0AatS3JDxzqTybKKEtj?si=3eUXbABlTi6anNSyq1NeKQ