On NPR in the last ten years there was an interview with a poet
(male).  He read from the title poem of a collection he had put out. 
It was a funny/poignant poem with a long list of lines starting with
something like "after the" and reciting a litany of disasters like
breakups and losing his job and stuff like that.... (like: after she
left me and took the cat -- after my car broke down) The final line
was him getting a fortune cookie with the fortune "all the bad times
are behind you now" (or something to that effect).  Oh yeah! The title
is something along the lines of "All the bad times are behind you
now."

I've searched and had others search the web and first/last line poetry
reference books with no result.  I know the general info is correct
but I must be mis-remembering the specifics.

Hello.

Your book is probably "Any Rough Times are Now Behind You: Selected
Poems and Writing: 1979-1995" (1996) by Dave Alvin. See the listing on
Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1884615090/

Alvin's book was indeed profiled on March 7, 1996, and again on August
30, 1996, on NPR's "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross, according to these
messages in the Usenet group alt.radio.networks.npr,  archived by
Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=Pine.A41.3.95.960914080410.115486B-100000%40login1.isis.unc.edu&output=gplain
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=4ida8k%24ri%40newz.oit.unc.edu&output=gplain

search strategy: npr, poems, times, "behind you"
I hope this helps.

---

Clarification of Answer by juggler-ga on 24 Aug 2002 18:18 PDT

I notice that this 1Bookstreet.com has the book in stock:
http://www.1bookstreet.com/product.asp?sku=1884615090

Sorry for not rating or responding earlier.  (It's embarassing but
it's the way my mind works...)

Thanks for your quick response and for finding the book.  I now have a
copy and, while the poem in fact is not as fun as the poem in memory,
I am very pleased.