I have been writing poetry since I was very young. Fortunately, few of those early writings survived. During my turbulent adolescent years, writing became a passion. It became a way of dealing with the complexities of my own inner life, as Robert Frost seemed to have meant when he wrote that the writing of a poem 'ends in a clarification of life - not necessarily a great clarification, such as sects and cults are founded on, but in a momentary stay against confusion.' Along with an ever-growing appreciation for the poetry of other artists and a love for words-for the sounds and combinations and visual impact, as well as significance and meaning-writing poetry has continued to be a way of finding my own momentary stays against confusion. Most of what I write, therefore, continues to be in first person, and many of the poems reflect this 'kicking at the darkness until it bleeds daylight' (Bruce Cockburn). Perhaps there's something autobiographical in all writing. However, that doesn't mean I have had all the experiences I write about. That's not how writing works. For a long time, my poetry did not see the light of day. Gradually, I became more open about letting others read some of my work, and these readers, in turn, wanted to read more. I began to publish a few pieces here and there. Even while I write most often from my own need to write, and while some poems have been gifts for specific people, nevertheless, there is a connection to others. Over time, I have been repeatedly encouraged (not least by Nancy, my wife) to expand publishing my poetry.
I decided to put together a sort of 'sampler' of poems. They cover many years of writing, include many styles, and reflect those influences that have become part of who I am, in much the same way as when T. S. Elliot famously said, 'Good poets borrow, great poets steal.' He was talking about neither plagiarism nor imitation but rather about how the works of other artists become incorporated into the writer in a transformative way, not unlike how food eaten becomes a part of who we are. In a world of perhaps too many books and in which books have become easy to overlook, I struggled with why I should bring one more into being. In the end, I suppose, books are like people: there are perhaps too many in our world, and they are perhaps too easy to overlook, but each is, in so many ways, unique and each makes the world what it will be. I started this project in 2015 while living in Thunder Bay, Ontario. I invited my son, Ely, a visual artist living in Vermont, to collaborate. He has contributed several original pieces and the cover drawing. Like writing itself, life has a way of interrupting plans, and this project has been 'on hold' for some time. During that time, I have moved and continued to write and have included two newer poems.
