Dedication Before I fell in love with a girl, I feel in love with nature. To nature giving life and beauty, I dedicate these poems. No single human led me into nature or opened the paths of beauty and wonder. Partially, I was blessed that my parents settled near woods. I do not remember any particular youthful exuberance or revelation, but somewhere in those woods nature imprinted me, and I have followed partly painful, greatly joyful. As a teen the woods began to sing to me, and I stood in adolescent wonder and awe. As a young adult, G M Hopkins jumpstarted my poetry of praising nature's beauty. Hopkins' rhythms and metaphors gave me a mark to write at, but never reach.