The poems contained in this volume are the fruit of a lifetime spent reading and writing poetry. Taken as a whole, these poems are a window into the heart and mind of the man who wrote them. They are offered to the reader as a bouquet of flowers, the kind of flowers one might find growing amid the ashes and cinders on the side of an old railroad track and tied up with string. If there is a unifying theme to be found in these poems, it is faith. It is not simply a belief in a supreme being, though that too can be found here, but faith in ourselves. It is a belief that if, during the dark times, we can keep faith with the divine fire, the life force that burns within us, we will emerge triumphant. The author hopes that his readers will find that faith written into his poems and, more importantly, in themselves.