Says the author: Art, Passion, Poetry was inspired largely by the fact that with teaching, research, writing, and painting, I have had less time for playing the piano, which I dearly love, and have played since age five. I have transmuted the musical urge into a different kind of music: poetry, where I think my musical instincts are more developed than at the keyboard. However, the words of poems are as notes to me, and each line a chord or arpeggio or trill that, when the poem ends, has given me a distinct piece of music, with reflections of lived experience, memory, creativity, analysis,...

What motivated/inspired you to write this book?

Reflecting on the diverse experiences of life: a grand marriage; foreign travel - weve lived in Paris, Florence, and southern Spain; teaching, painting, raising children, gardening, and practicing classical music; writing books on history, a novel, etc.; it struck me that my life has not only contained much art and striving for knowledge, but it has given me much to remember, to engage with, both with myself and my loved ones about our past, our present, and future.

Even streams store much along their banks, create sheltered coves and marshes,...