Playful Courtesies

About the Book

My poems sharpen my sight, so that I see better what is there to be seen. I will find some situation or image or nuance that catches my eye, intrigues me. Sometimes, that seeing lends itself as an image for me, and then a line, just one at first that, when written down, enters into a cadence, a rhythm, a sense of sound and echo that emerges into a sequence of lines that flow, usually quickly. And then, the lines stop, the images seem complete, and then they announce to me that the poem is complete. That is true whether the image is a raindrop, a face, a pose, a tree, a flower, a bird, a shadow, or the innuendo of faith or country - whatever. This book draws upon poems written some years ago, mostly in the years 2009 and 2015. There are also a few current poems that insist themselves into the collection as they are accumulated into the current year's file. As I revisit poems of years ago, quite often the occasion presents itself to memory - but not always so. Sometimes, that occasion is as if unnecessary and, indeed, almost in the way of the poem as it has come to be. Revisiting is always a pleasure; it becomes one of the spurs toward forming the collection itself. Indeed, it is the pleasure and the satisfaction in that book that brings it about. Satisfaction is such a boon to life.

About the Author

I am a retired minister from the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) living in central Illinois. During the course of my ministry, noting that some of my work came with a special sort of cadence, I began writing poetry on purpose; that was in the early 1980s. The process and product of writing poetry has been useful and satisfying to me over the years. In April 2004, I began a few years of fruitful attendance on the poetry workshop DesertMoonReview.com. I learned a great deal about poetry in that attendance - its reading a s well as the writing. I have frequently shared poems with the particular "muses" who occasioned the poems. I now live in retirement with my wife of fifty-three years, two dogs and several cats.