What's this we hear about Moose and poetry?

There once was a drummer named Moose
Who played for a band that did spoofs
The band was the 'getiX
But Moose waxed poetic
When not banging drums for those goofs.

Although he's best known for playing the thundering beats of classic rock, ApologetiX alumnus drummer Bill "Moose" Rieger cherishes the gentle rhythm of classical poetry. You might say he walks softly and carries two big sticks.

An avid reader, Bill also writes poetry, although nothing like the limerick leading off this article :)

"I first started reading poetry my senior year in high school," he says. "I took a class in British literature. That's when I first read Keats, and I started liking the British romantic poets. It's just been a casual thing ever since then. I also got into some of the American poets, like Emily Dickinson. I started writing about the same time."

"Lord Byron is probably my favorite ... also John Keats, William Wordsworth, Percy Bysshe Shelley and Edgar Allen Poe."

When we approached him about this article, Bill was reading a Wordsworth poem called "The Happy Warrior" -- a fitting title for a man with poetry springing from his heart as pummels his instrument into submission.