Although known primarily as a visual artist, Indiana is also the author of numerous poems. He began writing poetry as a student at Arsenal Technical High School, where some of his poems were published in the school newspaper, The Arsenal Cannon. “Jim Riley’s Dead. . .,” one of his published works, is an ode to the Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849–1916), known as the “Hoosier Poet” and “Children’s Poet.”
