The Caterpillar and the Butterfly

A collection of autobiographical poems by Richard Greene.Richard Greene has been writing poetry intensively since he retired from a 38-year career in international development in the mid-1990s. A lawyer by training he fell into his development career by accident when after law school though planning not to practice law but interested in international affairs he accepted an unsolicited job offer from the U.S. Agency for International Development. After a few years in Washington (or Foggy Bottom as the location of the U.S. foreign policy establishment is known) he was assigned as legal advisor to the USAID mission in Laos and there discovered that the development business suited his interests and inclinations very well. Greene wrote poetry beginning in the 8th grade and continued through college where he studied with a Professor Henry Rago who later became editor of Poetry magazine the leading U.S. poetry journal. However he wrote few poems after law school as he became absorbed in international development but turned back to poetry as he neared retirement.