Up the Road from Tassinong

You hold in your hands a poetical grab-bag that contains everything from the products of youthful raging hormones to the uncensored irreverence of advancing age, a total of 125 pieces that span 46 years. Among these you will find a post-9/11 verse for The Star Spangled Banner, a Riley-esque homage to a history-minded Hoosier town poet, the aching tragedy of a life inexplicably cut short, a series of snapshots of a rambunctious child from crib to commencement, tributes to one of the best writers who ever lived, and several unforgiving self-portraits. Tassinong was the oldest village in northern Indiana, founded as a French mission and trading post in 1673, according to the historical marker that lists an ancestor as one of those who incorporated it. It is located in the front yard of a farmhouse at the head of Baums Bridge Road near the outlet to Indiana 49 about eight miles south of Valparaiso, Indiana, where I was born. If you indulge me, you will discover how much this book owes to a handul of very special people from a girl with forbearance beyond her years to a woman with a dragonfly tattoo. To them and to all the others I apologize for taking too much time to do this.,