I started to take poetry and writing workshops in the late eighties and found a real love for the craft.  One of the most fascinating things I found was that there really are 'no rules' when writing - per se.  Sure, there are Haikus and other structured forms of poetry with guidelines which have particular tempos, rhythm and structure, but in the world of 'personal poetry' there are no rules.

As everyone, I've been through many changes and transitions throughout my life journey.  Some of those transitions were downright painful and others blessed with joy.  Often times applying pen to paper doesn't derive itself from the joys of life unfortunately. For this is the journey.

The Journey

"For this is the journey that men make to find themselves.  If they fail in this, it doesn't much matter what else they find.  Money, position, fame, many loves, revenge are all of little consequence and when the tickets are collected at the end of the ride, they are tossed into the bin marked failure.

But if a man happens to find himself - if he knows what he can be depended upon to do, the limits of his courage, the positions from which he will no longer retreat, the degree to which he can surrender his inner life to some woman, the secret reservoirs of his determination, the extent of his dedication, the depth of his feelings for beauty, his honest and un postured goals - then he has found a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life" 

- James Michener -
"The Fires of Spring"