That inner voice can sometimes be alarming. But feel the feelings those words evoke, as opposed to worrying about their meanings. Real poems allow us to experience what we might not admit. We say poets speak for us. They don't. Their work allows us to feel for ourselves. Their poems listen.

23 Poems written by Jack Lehman in Rockdale, the smallest incorporated village in Wisconsin.

Writing, real writing, is a wonderful metaphor. Whether writing or reading, we can grasp a significance for us that changes as we do. That's what I want to communicate to you in this book. You already have the tools, you already have all the experiences you need to draw upon, you already have the intuition to see below the surface of things. What you need is the opportunity to bring these into focus and the encouragement to know this will work and bring you more fulfillment than any, ANY, false expectations ever did.

Here is a writer's story told from within. Lorine Niedecker - the shy daughter of a carp fisherman, who lived most of her life beside a flooding river in a barren cottage without electricity or running water - has gone on to become one of America's top poets. Also, readers will get tools with which to appreciate all poetry.

My two dogs, Dharma and Holly, set out to solve a series of mysteries that parallel those of Narnia and Dickens. Old dogs teach readers new tricks.

Sometimes it's a short story that plays off of a Hitchcock movie classic, sometimes a noir novella like Twisted Circles Turning or Downward Facing Dog, in which a mystery story writer uncovers surprising clues about his own life while working on the story of a detective who practices yoga and rides an motorcycle. Whatever it may be, things are not always what they seem.

A prolific writer and publisher of H.P. Lovecraft, here we dig below the surface of his words to find the real Derleth. Plus, get 30 "shorts" originating at my acre of undeveloped land outside of Derleth's Sauk City.

. A movie being shot in front of an old Yugoslavian hotel. Past the actors and cameras, the man directing it was none other than...the legendary...Orson Welles. His public persona seemed to be give the people whatever they wanted ("boy genius," it didn't matter that he now weighed almost 400 pounds). But he made them work. Like Hitchcock he played his audience. Made us partners in what we saw. And I believe it is that active participation, more than the cinematography, the acting, the story, that we end up valuing.

Short stories and poems that follow progression of my life. Fictionalized for heightened conflict. A unique way to capture emotional truth.