Original Sin

So you ask, what's behind the poetry? Cynicism. Sarcasm. Sadness. The balance of love and joy weighed against hate and depression where the latter wins out and we all lose. Advancing age where one senses his or her own mortality and responsibilities we bear to make things right - and that there likely will never be enough time to do so. That so much of what we write about with passion is not the love and kindness that exists, but the love and kindness we want and need to exist but that more often evades us. Putting these thoughts into print is a way to fend off the ghosts that appear before me every day, that reach out with fearsome intimacy and whose deadly intentions are cast out momentarily only by thoughts of family. Then there's the satisfaction one derives from wordplay and the occasional paroxysm experienced when arriving at just the right turn of phrase.