Rob Jacques was raised in northern New England, graduating from both Salem State University and the University of New Hampshire. He served as an officer in the U. S. Navy during the Vietnam Era, and he has taught literature courses at Northern Virginia Community College, Olympic College, and the United States Naval Academy. His poetry appears in regional and national journals, including Prairie Schooner, Atlanta Review, American Literary Review, The Healing Muse, Poet Lore, and Assaracus. War Poet, published by Sibling Rivalry Press in 2017, is a collection of his poems related to his experiences while on active duty in the U. S. Navy. Having completed a civilian career as a technical editor/writer for the U. S. Navy and the U. S. Department of Energy, Jacques lives on a rural island in Washington State's Puget Sound. Strongly influenced by the works of Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and James Merrill, his poems explore metaphysical aspects of life and love as well as paradoxes that arise as flesh and consciousness move together through space and time.