Please consider, when reading my poetry
It is poetry, it's not always autobiography.
I have a gift, to zip back and forth in time
And then to render that journey in rhyme.
I tell what I felt then and sometimes connect
It to the world today, to let you see correctly
What it has meant for me to be the real me
And to let you understand the me you see.

I feel that is my job, a journalist in rhyme,
Sometimes to paint pretty fantasies, and
Often to paint thoughtful pictures of what
I have come so solidly to understand.
I may tell of a time that hurt so much
That I set it down on paper to assimilate
A better outlook and to remember it all
So to learn before it becomes too late.

Sometimes I publish a piece to read
That someone is heartbroken for me
Because they are sweet enough to care
I might be going through a sad reality,
When the portrayal I made that worried
And shook them about my rhyme
Is a story from decades ago, a tale
That comes from a much earlier time.

If I learn this has happened, I tell
The truth about that instance
And make them feel better for it
When and if I might have the chance.
So, thank you my loving readers
For taking the time to even care.
I write to make an effect on you
But never, ever meaning to scare.