Book excerpt: Poetry is closest to the heart. Through its symbols, word pictures, intuition, feelings and emotions it is a hint of history, the momentary present and a visionary tool of the future. A poem or a painting is analogous to an iceberg10% visible, 90% hidden meaning. The reader provides the narrative. These poems, with the exception of five or six, were written after 2000. They show my explorations into the arts, love, people I met along the way, my protestations, introspections, and new perspectives I gained after times of change, personal problems and separations from those I love. The poems enabled me to find new strength, to harness my thoughts of years past, to live peaceably in the present and to recognize that a future of dreams and hopes can become reality.