Keith Taylor (born 1952) is a Canadian poet, translator and professor.
"In the Presence of Large Predators"
We're sure now: wolves have found their way back
here, to the lower peninsula,
first reported by a park ranger
looking north across the Straits, through snow,
uncertainly watching a gray pair
skitter across the ice, their tracks lost
in the storm, then only a few prints
for years, some scat found twenty miles south,
before a night vision camera
catches a movement, and the lanky legs
massive chest and triangular head,
those green eyes glowing once again
Born in British Columbia, Taylor spent his childhood in Alberta and Indiana. After earning an M.A. in English from Central Michigan University, he worked a variety of odd jobs: the co-host of a radio talk show, a house painter, a freight handler, a teacher, a freelance writer. He also worked at Shaman Drum, a leading independent bookstore, for twenty years. He currently lives in Ann Arbor with his wife and daughter and is a professor in the creative writing program at University of Michigan.
His poems have appeared in many journals, including The Ann Arbor Observer, The Chicago Tribune, The Detroit Free Press, The Los Angeles Times, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Notre Dame Review, ' Poetry Ireland Review, and The Sunday Telegraph Magazine (London). Taylor is the recipient of, among other awards, a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Battered Guitars: The Poetry and Prose of Kostas Karyotakis (University of Birmingham, 2006)