The name of our book, Poetic Portions, was inspired by Ralph Waldo Emerson's statement that, "The only gift is a portion of yourself. Therefore, the poet brings his poem...," This collection of work has no theme, but represents our efforts to include a variety of voices and visions that poets present in their work. Being able to include a number of poems by most authors allows us to reveal something of the range of styles, ideas, emotions and humor expressed by individual poets. We appreciate the talents of writers and their courage in expressing themselves and sharing their work. We respect these offering of poetic portions of themselves with gratitude.