THE MUSE
You owe me. Pay up. According to my accounts, you have...

CASUAL FRIEND
Send lies to the people listed below....

THE AWARDS COMMITTEE
This is to notify you that--but what's the use?...

THE WISE
The world could fall to pieces with no notice....

UNCLE AL
A chicken is a touchy creature....

THE OTHERS
Here where we live the lines are down and the surprises build into snowbanks...

DANNY
Dusty Clinton Township kids making paper roosters and snowball...

SAMUEL RENSBERGER
I am your grandfather's grandfather and through my wakeless sleep I dream...

OLD NEIGHBOR
East across low muddy fields and behind the screening trees you can see...

THE WORM COUNCIL
We call your attention to worms. Though sweeping ice age disaster...

THE HERON
I flew in down by the round deep pond behind your house...

WITNESS
I saw the largest moon ever rise huge bright yellow, sailing where it cared to...

First, a collection letter. Later, foot-washing, cows, cashmere and oranges, the beginning of thefts, hiding, secrecy, more letters. These "Other Works" are not Account of My Days. That is one common feature. They were published as chapbooks. Another commonality. To me, what they signify as a group is friendship. Many friends helped and advised me in the process of writing the poems and making the books. I listened closely to some of their advice and, from the evidence of what was produced, not too closely to the rest of it. I am grateful for all.

A couple of facts about these collections. The following notice appears in the front papers of Standing Where Something Did:

"Atlee Mullett's Experience" and "Uria Byler's Elegy for Palmer Lehman" are manipulated found poems from the Amish newspaper The Budget, Sugarcreek, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. "Herbal" was constructed, in part, from entries in A Modern Herbal (Dover, 1971).

Also, The Sad Mailbox is a reprint of Letters, with some new material. Rather than repeat the earlier pieces, I limited this realization of The Sad Mailbox to the five additional letters.

These "others" preceded and overlapped with the beginning stages of Account of My Days. In some ways, everything on this website is part of one project. I do think, though, that each of the chapbooks has its own character and that, as a group, they form their own distinct zone within that project.