Charlie Becker is a poet and visual artist who has been studying and writing with the Community Literature Initiative in Los Angeles for the past eight years. He has performed or read at open mics throughout Los Angeles and Pasadena, and his first book of poems and drawings, Friends My Poems Gave Me, was published in collaboration with World Stage Press in 2016. Charlie’s poems tend to be about nature, art, family, and friendships. Some of his recent poems have been published in The Comstock review, Quiet Diamonds, Passager Journal, The Dandelion review, Silver Pinion, Months to Years, and Oyster River Pages. In addition, many of his Charlie’s poems have been inspired by his special education students or children who have language and speech disorders; he recently retired after working as a speech pathologist for more than thirty years. Presently, he lives in Laguna Woods, California where he writes and draws as he walks or works in his garden.