The Examined Life: From Close Up to Abstract

This Collection of poems is taken from those written throughout my years as a poet that are related to the theme of what it means to be human. It starts out with poems about what the human experience is often like on a personal level and then moves outward to human life as it relates to the rest of nature, to dreams, and death. A part deals with human life in society and another with the more abstract concepts of humanity that I have termed philosophical. Poems are a combination of free verse and structured formats often modified. The structural type of poems represented are Sonnet, Sestina, Pantoum, Rondeau, and most often Villanelle. My goal is always that they be just long enough to convey a single memorable and moving image, feeling, or thought. Sometimes that is done with six lines and sometime with thiry six. Some have lines that are ten words and others that are only one.

I started writing poetry as a way to express my opinions on stage and in writing about the time I moved to Green Bay. Latter with the help of a good friend well educated in writing as a part of his job and his education pursuit I developed an appreciation for what poetry could tell and teach me. I saw another side of writing.