Before we begin, I want you, the reader, to know that the book of selected poems from fifty years of a poet’s life is not what you would hear at a poetry reading, or what you might hear in conversation with the poet at a small impromptu and convivial gathering at a friend’s house. With a book of poems, so much begins with you, the reader. The reader must give voice to the words prisoned on the page. To speak the poem is the kiss that wakens it from silent sleep.