Born in 1957 in Barstow, California. At 19 he became involved in a domestic dispute that resulted in a murder and was sentenced to life without possibility of parole.
Autumn 1985, Spoon began a 4-year poetry course at San Quentin state Prison; prisoners, staff and poets from the outside began calling him “poet.”
Spoon has written poetry, plays, novels, tales, short stories and the auto-biography “By Heart,” awarded in PEN-USA's prison writing contest. 2010 he published his book of poems “Longer Ago.”
Spoon’s friends and supporters collect signatures under a petition to give him second chance.