by Richard Vargas (Author), Michele McDannold (Editor), Mark Bond (Photographer)
from the author: I am at an age when some poets get lazy and decide it's time for the "New and Selected" collection of their work. Those of us who are smiled upon by the big publishing houses (don't look at me) most likely get gentle nudges to just do it and generate some quick book sales. It's doesn't take a lot of sweat and tears to put together about twenty-percent unpublished poems that are then padded with poems previously published in their books from years gone by. What they consider to be their "hits," along with a few misses. In my case, it's merely an opportunity to present a sampling of my writing from the beginning to the present for those who have not read all my books. Has anyone read all of them? Buy that reader a beer.