Overview

I wrote these poems over the last ten years, since the publication of my only other chapbook Salvage and Other Poems. Many people think poets write poetry because they have something profound or important to say. I think poets write poems because they like poetry. What I try to do is tell a story in an artful and entertaining way. I dislike much of the poetry I read in journals and magazines. I confess that much of it I do not understand, especially if it's written for an elite, academic audience. I write for people in my extended community and for anybody else who can pick up on what I'm laying down. I have never consciously decided to write any one kind of poem. I write what I am inspired to write, and I discover the form in the process of writing. Most of these poems are lyric poems, almost all written in free verse. The exceptions are written in rhyming iambic pentameter. Some poetry readers consider rhyme outdated, but I still like it. Poetry is song. Most of these poems are autobiographical, but I agree with T.S. Eliot: Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion; it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things. Finally, without the technical know-how of my good friend and colleague Amy Lynn Hess, I might never have produced this collection. Thanks again, Amy Lynn. Thanks also to my great friend of many years Brad Diller for the illustration.

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