I have long considered myself a poet at heart. But for a county-wide essay contest regarding conservation in the Texas Panhandle, for which I won first prize, and a small number of collaborative works with my brother, Shawn M. Klimek, who is a published writer and poet, I have been previously unpublished. I am the third child of seven, born in Phoenix, Arizona, raised in Texas, served a tour in the US Army in West Germany, worked as a pizza cook and beekeeper's assistant while pursing a college degree, then with a career in California as a county government employee in software development and data management. I am currently retired and residing in the Philippines with my Filipino wife, daughter, and two step-children.