One day while researching poetry exercises for my poetry class, I came upon the idea of Recipe Poems. This exercise asked the poet to think of a food recipe and write a poem around it, about it, incorporating it - however it would work. I loved the idea, as there is nothing I love more than poetry, except for food So I wrote my first Recipe Poem. Being a vegetarian, of course, I was not going to use a recipe for chicken cacciatore. I fell in love with writing Recipe Poems and turned to the Internet for finding recipes. I Googled "Vegetarian Recipes" and found a ton of ideas. Some of those...

Achieve a healthier mental state. Experience a mental calmness. Eliminate a lot of stress from your life. Be happier and feel more joy in life. These are some of the benefits of having a still mind. Millions of people walk through life everyday with continuous thoughts of worry, fear, doubt, and other negatives, going through their minds. When they are having these thoughts they are not at peace within themselves. Many people wish they could stop the thoughts in their heads, but don't know how. I have written this book to share what worked for me. By following the three simple steps outlined...

In 1996 I had the opportunity to travel to Italy with my mother, father and brother Vince. I spent two weeks in Sicily visiting my mother's side of the family and two weeks in Italy where I met my father's relatives and visited Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and points in-between. Everywhere I went I took a multitude of photographs and wrote about my experiences. As a result of that trip this book was created by putting tougher a collection of the poems I wrote and the photographs I took on my trip.

"What if gay marriage were legal in the 1800s and the most popular honeymoon spot was Japan?" I collaged images of Japanese woodcuts created in the 1800's in full color with photographs that were taken in the 1800's of men together. These ten images are like a set of old photographs that were taken as souvenirs of their honeymoons, and the poems let each of them tell their story.

In 2009 I took a 2001calendar that I had bought and had been saving. It was printed in Italy on linen paper. The full color illustrations were of Japanese woodcuts created in the 1800's. I also had coffee table books I had been collecting that were full of old black and white photographs from the early 1900's. I searched through the books of photographs cutting out selected photographs and pasted them into the woodcut illustrations. I found images of buildings to include in each. In the end I saw them as snapshots people took as souvenirs, or memoirs, of their adventures. I titled each to...

These poems are little descriptive stories about people. Some of these are rooted in autobiographical material. Others are completely fictitious. Still others are inspired by people I know, or by people known through the media. I can't help putting my individual twist on some of them; commentary, if you will. Some of this comes out as opinion concerning religion and sex. Please don't be offended, as no offence is intended. I hope you enjoy these poems. If any of them make you think of yourself or someone you know, it's OK. If none of them make you think of yourself or someone you know, please...