Poems come to me from many dimensions?personal, family, a friend, my community, or a world happening near or far from southern Indiana. Words grip me emotionally?as an empathy that I feel with someone else or out of my own soul. I may ponder the topic for a few minutes, or a few days, but I must write. It's like a ?tune I must play? but in poetic verse. I grab pen and paper or rush to the computer. My poetry falls in three areas. Some are ?protests? of societal problems throughout the world that I cannot be comfortable with: poverty, war, unruly political institutions, lack of resources for education and health, pollution of the earth's resources and a vast media /consumerism enterprise that sucks up our freedoms (to name a few). Secondly, I look at myself. Through topics of nature, introspection, love, and family I see changes I must make before I can help others. Thirdly, I see trends in the youth?how they band together in ?online communities?, attack travesties of justice around the globe, form ?lifestyle? businesses, study alternative medicine and politics, want sustainability and the right use of energy. They look not just at the ?green? of the dollar but how the earth can become more balanced. I feel poetry, like music and the arts, leads us to what we ?share? and ?have in common.?