From the Introduction: "U is an exploration of the idea that trusting your first instinct when writing can lead to very unexpected and interesting places. It was written using a form of poetry that most of us learned in grade school known as acrostic poetry. An acrostic poem is one in which the first, last, or other letters in a line spell out a particular word or phrase. For example - here's one for the word LOVE: Love Opens Virtually Everything There was - however - a twist with my acrostics. My first letters didn't spell out any particular words on purpose. Instead - I chose seven letters (bcimruy) - which by themselves are words (be, see, I, am, are, you, why) - as the starting points for each line. I then used every possible combination of those seven letters in succession to establish the final structure of the piece - which - when I wrote it down on a piece of paper beforehand - looked something like this: BCIMRUY CIMRUYB IMRUYBC MRUYBCI RUYBCIM UYBCIMR YBCIMRU I then wrote seven poems for each letter: 1 poem that begins and ends with the letter in question - like this: C U R An amazing person An amazing creature An unparalleled And Beautifully imperfect Being Uv light And dark And the remaining 6 poems were numbered and followed a prescribed pattern which went something like this (or was supposed to go something like this but I unknowingly broke the pattern a few times): CIMRUYB - 1 time CBIMRUY - 2 times CYBIMRU - 3 times CUYBIMR - 1 time CRUYBIM - 2 times CMRUYBI - 3 times A similar pattern was used for the letters B and I - but for M and R and U - the pattern was repeated in the opposite order - like this: MRUYBCI - 3 times MIRUYBC - 2 times MCIRUYB - 1 time MBCIRUY - 3 times MYBCIRU - 2 times MUYBCIR - 1 time And as for the final letter Y - it got an ascending pattern: YBCIMRU - 1 time YUBCIMR - 2 times YRUBCIM - 3 times YMRUBCI - 4 times YIMRUBC - 5 times YCIMRUB - 6 times I did this type of structuring as a way to create movements like a composer would for a symphony. It may seem a bit confusing right now but will make more sense when you dive into the piece. And I didn't know it at the time but writing U was like an inkblot or word association exercise of sorts. By forcing myself to use predetermined letters to begin each line - I chose words I normally wouldn't use - which ended up being a unique way to trick my subconscious into revealing what was really on my mind at that time. Also - at some point - I started to notice that the poems were unintentionally yielding distinct physical images do to the somewhat controlled but also random staggering of the words falling down the page. I began to play with these images until they fit the page in a way that pleased the eye (Feng shui-wise) and the project took on a whole new life as a form of word art or shape poetry. Pull the page away from your face and let your eyes drift for a moment and see if any images stick out from the white landscape behind the words. Written over the course of a two week period - U is comparable to a musical theme album in that its effect is most strongly felt when read through in one sitting."