To You, The Lonely

About the Book

To You, The Lonely is a book of poems written over many years on many places that are threads of the same fabric of loneliness and depression, my steadfast companions as I made my way though life buttressed by alcohol and the hope that someday I would find a time of peace and stability. They follow no standard pattern or meter. Each is a product of a particular experience that gave it birth and form. And each was written for only one reason – to bring me solace. Most of the poems I have ever written were destroyed. These survivors convey the true reflections of my heart, its yearnings, its sorrows and its brief moments of love. One poem aptly describes some of the background of the world that shaped my writing:

“Most school was not in rooms of academe, But in the streets of cities.”

It was in the streets of cities, in the factories and docks, in bars and cheap hotels where I learnt firsthand the commonality of loneliness which pervades many of these poems. It was in these places where empathy with others and compassion were born, the inspiration for other poems in this book. These poems are sincere and have a message and melody that I believe can be understood and felt by whoever struggles alone in a world not made for human comfort.

About the Author

Born in NewYork City, I grew up in the difficult years of the 30's in a world of poverty and despair. Poetry was my only means of survival. I wrote poetry for my high school newspaper and, after my discharge from the army, I wrote poetry for magazines. Starting at 13, depression, not understood or diagnosed at that time, began its chronic darkening of my mind. I quit shool early. At 16 I left home. With alcohol and poetry by my side, I made my way across the years, working at all kinds of jobs in many places. I'm 77 now, marred to a lovely Filipino lady and graced by her children and grandchildren.