THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SEND TO THE POET WHOM YOU'VE ADOPTED THROUGH THE "ADOPT-A-POET" PROGRAM AT POETS.ORG

A paycheck

Another Enya album

Harrowing bout of alcoholism

All-consuming sense of artistic self-importance that lasts throughout adolescence but gradually dissipates as he matures

Way with words

Print of Thomas Kinkade painting with "DEATH TO PHILISTINES" scrawled in blood across calm, pastoral setting

An MBA degree

Unfiltered cigarettes, jazz music, new suit

Bowl of fruit on a simple wooden table in the morning, with soft light from an open window

Fresh rhymez

Some of those big black pants that Goths wear with all the chains and spikes

A life