Poetry. Born in Venice, California, Opstedal's collection roams the coast of his home state. ".thumbing through the bronze pages of a sky / that has no memory / red dirt Topanga / turquoise and jade / The way she turns away in the fading light / might strum the strings of silver waves"-excerpt from `Float Switch.' "Although I am a typical American mongrel, the last name's Norwegian. A retired US Army colonel at a reading I gave in La Jolla said that I had `eyes crazed by 1,000 years of killing whales.' I took it as a compliment"-Kevin Opstedal.