What makes By the Pond unique I feel is its cohesiveness as whole.  While the faith base is Christian, the ideas, themes, and struggles are universal. The introduction and epilogue frame the poetry as to my intent. I have tremendous faith in God as father. Yet, I do not expect, or even want anyone to believe as I do. We all have our own path.

22 years ago (almost 23 years now) I walked into a church to sing with a very small group for the first time. I had always wanted to try that and was ask the week before. I do not read notes. I sing by ear as I call it. All I know and can say for sure is that I remember entering and leaving that Mass. Something was wrong. I felt attacked and could not understand why. In an hour, my world turned inside out. I walked in church fine that Saturday and left not fine. I began to dream and write. It was a flood. During that hour some closed door in my head opened. There was a lot of anger in the initial poetry. Within 3 months I started to see a psychologist. I spent most of the 90s going to him.  This is the best I can explain it. I still cannot recall what occurred in that hour.

By the Pond reflects that journey from 1977 to 1993 and then 1993 to 2015.  1993 being the point at which everything changed. I destroyed much of that poetry from 1993-1995. My psychologist was visibly shook by this. He had read them all. I did not destroy them all. There are a few in By the Pond. The rest are in a book I put together and had copyrighted in 1996 but never published.  It was not quite what I wanted it to be, but I felt a strong need to document up to that point. My hope had always been for my poetry to be in a form to help others through struggles whether those struggles be mental health, a physical condition, or life. For me my poetry was my saving grace. I had somewhere to put all the thoughts and ideas whirling around in my head. The introduction and epilogue are so import to read. They tell you how I see By the Pond as it reflects me and how important it is to stay grounded. How important it is to live life and reach out to others.