Robert Hunter had his poetic beginnings in the Palo Alto, CA coffeehouse scene in the mid-sixties. It was there that he began writing poetry and found his future song writing partner Jerry Garcia. Although Hunter had been writing poetry for several years, his career did not begin in earnest until 1967, when he mailed the lyrics to "St. Stephen", "Alligator", and "China Cat Sunflower" to his friend Garcia and the Grateful Dead. He was almost immediately taken on as the primary lyricist for the band. In collaboration with Garcia's musical talent, Hunter began turning out dozens of poems that would later become wel