I have been a poet since my teens. I hope I have improved with age, you be the judge. I still think poetry should be readable and accessible to all. Poetry should touch a common human chord to remind us of an emotional space where we have been before. I hope my poems can take the reader there.

Editing is a much more difficult job than writing. This book began with about twelve hundred pages of manuscript that had to be winnowed to about two hundred pages. To make things even more difficult I titled the book The Poet's Favorites only to discover that everything I ever wrote was one of my favorites. Poems are a bit like children. You love them even if they are really bad. Nevertheless they must be disciplined even if ever so gently. So a lot of my favorites have ended on the cutting room floor. Maybe one of your favorites met a similar fate. What I am saying is, this wasn't easy. I...

The easiest part of putting together a collection of poetry is deciding what not to include. I wonder if all poets are humbled by the bulk of their efforts and the mediocrity of so much of it. Of course a declaration such as this opens the door to criticism as the implication is that these poems represent my best work. Indeed I have tried to revise and improve on the older poems and I feel I have done my best. But the critic would be missing the main point. Basically, these are just poems that I like, it's that simple. I harbor no delusions of being the next great American poet. What follows...

I suppose every serious poet should, at some point, at least attempt to define some of his views as to what poetry is. This is my attempt. I have stated many times that I believe poetry should be readable. But I believe that it need not be so simple that it is totally without literary merit. Since poetry operates on many levels, a poem may have both a literal and a more nuanced meaning. When I wrote the poem "Astonishment" for my book "The Next Valley," I realized that it was a pretty good outline of what I think poetry is. In that poem I state that poetry is the "rose frosted in ice, the...

I have been writing poetry for about fifty years and I have several rather inflexible beliefs about what I think poetry should be. First and foremost I believe poetry should be readable. One should not need a PhD in literature to understand the meaning. Second, poetry should be lyrical. It does not have to be structured or rhymed but the language should flow. Third, poetry should evoke emotion. It should touch some common human chord. It should remind us of an emotional space where we have been before. I hope I have achieved at least some of these goals in these poems.

Story is everything Story is life And we all get to write our own story It is a pity that we are not born with the knowledge that our story will become whatever we want it to be. But the facts are that we must all struggle to define our own destiny. My stories are meant as moral parables, designed to teach a lesson or at the least to inspire a question. Enjoy And join me in the journey of finding your own unique script. Barry Middleton is a retired mental health counselor and lives in Sarasota, Florida.

Unlike my other books of poetry, these verses were all written recently. I hope I have not outgrown naivety. My poetry is studiously emotional, personal and simple. It has been my lifelong belief that poetry should be consumable by and speak to common people. My poetry is about life, most notably my life. Some might call it provincial. It is definitely not a study of literature nor has it anything to do with fashion. My poetry is about feelings, success and failure. It is about rebirth, ruts, observations, mistakes, love, joy, tears, unrequited dreams and memories. "Hunting Memory" is a...

I have been writing poetry for about fifty years and I have several rather inflexible beliefs about what I think poetry should be. First and foremost I believe poetry should be readable. One should not need a PhD in literature to understand the meaning. Secondly poetry should be lyrical. It does not need to be structured into a form but it can be. The language should flow however. Thirdly poetry should evoke emotion. It should touch some common human chord. It should remind us of an emotional space where we have been before. I hope I have achieved at least some of these goals in these poems.