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Acknowledgments

        For whatever poetic merit my jottings hold, I credit the critique group, the Word Wranglers. For the idea of turning my personal, and sometimes brusque, words into poetic notation, I credit a fellow software engineer, Chuck Robey. (*++Thanks, Chuck:-) For helping me maintain my computer systems--first a single server, now some small N (although growing), due thanks are noted to fellow engineers, Ken Marsh, Eric Hodel, networking wiz Jonathan Horne, and many others-- especially those belonging to the "-questions@freebsd.org" group.

        I joined the critique at my local library group several months after Chuck's suggestion. I had written some poetry before hand, although of little value. My jottings were meant for my eyes only; the stuff was frank, directly, and severely didactic. After more than 70 months of often brutal critiquing, I have learned at least a bit about what poetry is all about. ...Members of the writing group come and go the way that friends and other good things come and go, so it's hard to make a fair list. Among the must-mentions are those who have contributed for years. This is by no means a complete list!

Janice Clark, Penny Gerking, John Glover, Linda McBroom, Leslie Quintus, Frieda Risvold, and Melanie Cohen. ¹

An essential thank-you to fellow EE turned artist, Steve Conroy, for his ink drawing of Bodhidharma, the Indian sage who traveled to the Middle Kingdom in the fifth century bringing the foundations of Buddhism. (The genius of the Chinese synthesized the Ch`an school of Buddhism.)

        I would be negligent if I did not acknowledge the mentors I found in books -- from people like Jiri Mucha to Marcus Aurelius to Schopenhauer, Seneca, and Nietzsche. And friends and teachers of yore. Mrs. Ann Ackerman, my beloved English, Journalism, and Literature teach in high school is of special note. She was tough and demanding, but without question she encouraged us to learn, to love learning and wisdom. I would also be negligent if I failed to acknowledge the experiences accumulated across this expanse called life.

        Finally, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to sign the Guestbook, and to those who have emailed me, directly or through the web application, and offered their thoughts and shared their stories.