Bill Cushing and Chuck Corbisiero
 Born in Virginia, Bill Cushing grew up in New York, attended school in Pennsylvania, began college in Missouri but found himself back in Virginia and New York as well as Florida, Maryland, the Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico before moving to California. Returning to college at the age of 37, Bill was called the “blue collar poet” by his peers at the University of Central Florida because of his time as a marine electrician on oil tankers, naval vessels, and other commercial ships. He earned an MFA in writing from Goddard College in Vermont. He now teaches at East Los Angeles and Mt. San Antonio colleges and lives in Glendale with
this wife Ghisela and their son Gabriel. Bill has been published in Another Chicago Magazine, Brownstone Review, genius & madness, Mayo Review, Metaphor, and West Trade Review. He has poems in two recently-released anthologies, Getting Old and Stories of Music, and had a short story about his youth in New York City appear in a recent issue of Newtown Literary Journal.

Chuck Corbisiero, a native New Yorker who now lives in Los Angeles, is a guitarist who plays Jazz, Blues, Brazilian and various other musical genres. Chuck earned his B.F.A. in Musical Performance and Arranging at the City University of New York - The City College, during Gil Evans' tenure as Artist in Residence from 1982 to 1983. He teaches guitar and also plays the upright bass violin as his second instrument. He points to Wes Montgomery as his primary musical influence and has played guitar for a number of major acts in Las Vegas, Reno, and Lake Tahoe. Most notably, he served as Eddy Arnold's guitarist for 10 years until 1992. Chuck also
composed the score for “Of Men and Maids,” a musical comedy.


SOME NOTES OF A RELIGIOUS NATURE
by Bill Cushing

                            Jesus was sent
                            to die for our sins
                            like some package
                            from UPS.

                            He delivered the goods
                            to humanity
                            and we delivered him
                            back to Heaven

                            battered, beaten,
                            mutilated.
                            Some creation
                            we turned out to be.

© 2016 Bill Cushing 
Bill Cushing and Chuck Corbisiero were the Featured Poets at the July 2016 Second Sunday Poetry Series