Author's Note

Inspiration

Author's Note arose from a warning I used to give when I read poetry at the Ritz Acoustic Club open mic night, along the lines of "I'm reading tonight under strict Poetry Society guidelines, which means that at least one of the poems isn't permitted to rhyme." The thing is, there is still a sharp divide between the tiny few of us who read and write poetry and the vast majority out there who don't - or, alternatively, between those of us who are prepared to acknowledge that poetry need not rhyme and those of us who would prefer that it did. I can pretty much guarantee that the first question I will be asked when I tell a non-poetry reader that I've had a collection published is "Does it rhyme?" The good thing is that whenever I've read something like, say, Exquisite Torture to a non-poetry audience, the fact that it doesn't rhyme has never been an issue. My greatest hope is that this collection might act as a kind of gateway drug to the world of poetry.

This poem was not published anywhere else prior to inclusion in this collection, nor was it placed in any competitions.