Dear reader,

Poetry may not be as popular as it once was in comparison to other literary genres. Stories of murder, mayhem and mystery fly off the shelves, while poetry is often times overlooked. Yet it has much to offer.

I came to appreciate poetry later in life when I was introduced to it during a “Great Books” week-long seminar at the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Stephen Fallon shed new insights into the sometimes cryptic works of Emily Dickinson. That class got me started on a long pilgrimage through the literary world.

Yeats, Browning, Housman, and Rilke are some of my favorites. David Whyte, one of our contemporaries, is a life expander starting with his book “The Heart Aroused,” and his other writings that followed.

Reading and writing poetry can release your mind’s potential to be even more of a gift you naturally share with those around you. And who knows, maybe you’ll become more of an interesting person, even to yourself.

Patrick J. Wood

Publisher