The Orchard By The Sea

''The Orchard by the Sea’’ is my second collection of poems. The first, ''The Maze Beyond the Garden,’’ also published by Xlibris, skimmed the cream; this one is, I hope, somewhat deeper and, perhaps, darker. I have long considered that measure of some sort, whether accentual, syllabic or metrical, is essential to poetry. Further, I believe a poem should not be a puzzle to solve but an experience to be felt even at its first reading, although further reading may disclose dimensions not readily apparent. I have also found myself drawn to the intricacies and contradictions, as well as the dramatic possibilities, of the monologue or soliloquy, since years can easily be compressed or moments extended while sustaining a particular time, place and mood. Not all the I’s are me nor all the you’s someone else. And the events are often fusions of memory and imagination and further altered by the passion of the moment or the logic of the form – the seeming inevitability of the next image. For the rest, I must let the work speak for itself and for me.