Nearly everyone has a go at poetic writing of some kind, whether free expression, metred or rhymed, and these poems, written over many years, embrace all three.

They are deeply felt responses to life situations. "My Dreaming Dream" is about a much repeated glimpse in early childhood of the life that would be mine with no one to call my own. I was to live without the love of mother, father, sister, brother, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, husband, child. But this did not mean emotional deprivation to a heart given to God since the age of thirteen. Indeed, faith itself became THE romance of my life as its purpose gradually unfolded after death ended a two-year marriage.

These poems are responses to nature, to situations and to people.

Though inwardly attuned to the ups and downs of life, I struggled, years ago, with what it dealt out. Not surprisingly, God is the focus and goal. Human relationships either lead away from or towards him. I hope all who read these pages will embrace with love their purpose in life, loved as they are to the point of the Crib in the stables and the Cross on the hill.

May "laughter and the love of friends" (Hillaire Belloc) fill their lives, as they have mine.

At the beginning of Part 1, take note of the lines quoted.