Most of the poetry in this book I did in a writing group at Folk Time, a program that helps people recover from mental illness. I write for fun but also as a kind of therapy. How it all happens I don't really know. But I deal with things that trouble, intrigue, confuse, and please most of us: Friends, family, parents, pets, love, loneliness, sex, school, and books. My favorite poets are James Joyce, W.H. Auden, Emily of course, and Ginsberg. Joyce wrote better novels, but I like his poems. Sylvia Plath I can't comprehend except in small doses.