The Song Itself collects poems that range from blues lyrics to surreal lists, from slices of life to flights of fancy, in rhyming as well as free verse. Most were written between January and July 2018. Richard Leach is an American poet and visual artist, whose visual art and secular poetry are shared online and in self-published books. He also writes Christian sacred poetry. His words for hymns and anthems have been set to music by many composers, and are widely published and sung. He lives in Stamford, Connecticut.