Mr. Van Hoogmoed started writing poetry when his twins needed to read a poem in the fifth grade. ''I didn't like what they were assigned so I wrote two for them,'' says Mr. Van Hoogmoed, who has been prolific ever since. Most recently his work has been published and in Kiss and Part: Laughing at the End of Romance and Other Entanglements (Doggerel Daze, 2006) and in Chicken Soup for the Soul in Menopause (HCI, 2007). A horticulturist, Mr. Van Hoogmoed specializes in pest control on nursery plants. He lives in Mobile, Alabama.