PREFACE

Below are all the poems that I have written and published from Oct. 1970 to date. About 55 The poems presented here have been written continuously from October 1970 to the present. Over time, they have developed into a large body of work spanning more than fifty years.

This work was not created within an academic or literary framework. My formal education is in political science, accounting, and law, and my professional life has been spent in self-employment across multiple fields. Poetry has developed alongside that life as a consistent personal practice.

From the beginning, I have maintained careful custody of the work. The original poems are written in cursive, typically within minutes, and preserved as visual records of the moment in which they appeared. These handwritten originals remain an important part of the archive.

The process itself is direct. A thought or perception arises, and the poem is written immediately. Editing is minimal, usually limited to clarity and legibility. The poems are then placed into a chronological record.

Over time, this has resulted in a continuous archive rather than a curated collection. Each poem is dated, and in more recent years time-stamped, creating a long sequence of observations and reflections across decades.

The work has been self-published in multiple volumes, allowing the archive to remain consistent with its original form. As the writing continues, earlier material is occasionally revisited and lightly revised, but rarely expanded.

Poetry, for me, has never been a matter of struggle or construction. It is a process of recognition and expression. The poems are written when they arrive, and not forced when they do not.

While I have explored different forms, most of the work avoids strict structure and rhyme. This reflects both personal preference and the nature of the process itself.

The content of the poems reflects lived experience—observations of life, thought, and the passage of time. In that sense, the archive functions in part as a record of a life, expressed through poetry.

This work continues to grow as long as new poems appear.

Dr John WorldPeace JD