Some of the poems in this volume may be found mediocre, others, less so. Some are more recent; some still less so, if you favor that sort of thing-stanza poetry that rhymes and is oblivious of political currents. I happily publish them all. Assembled without regard for composition date, they can be viewed, for better and worse, as mature poems. The same indifference may account for their unevenness. This being my third collection, these pieces can, in some respects, be considered leftovers. They needed to be published to bring to closure the sensibility that formed them. It's not the sort of sensibility you can carry into older age. If this sounds like abandonment, it isn't. I mean to continue tweaking the muse, but from a different angle. Youth is the best time, and the concerns of youth are the most poetical. That season and its concerns are represented by the poems in this volume. May we grow as we go.