Thomas Jerome Baker

Poems & Poetry: Our Story Thomas Jerome Baker

Poems and poetry are important because they give us a more pleasant lens to view the world we live in. Whether love, people, places or faces; beauty or the beautiful; poetry enhances our lives, enriches it, and makes our experience of life itself more enjoyable. As a teacher, I write as one who learns and teaches at the same time. Poems and poetry give me this possibility, which is an extraordinary privilege. For my family, in Chile and in the USA, I can not write without thinking of you, for you are always with me. You are the beginning and the end of my world. For you, dear Reader, I share what makes me who I am, namely, a person who must write, not only in prose, but in poetry as well. I also look at poems that inspire me, share them with you, and finish with the spoken word, for a spoken poem is one that demands to be heard, always. It can not remain silent, unspoken. ?We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty.? - Maya Angelou With our roots deep in Arkansas, Maya and I share a Southern heritage. That is where the similarity between us begins, and ends. As Maya points out (to me), both beauty and poetry are rarely viewed with a developmental lens, but rather, as a "finished" product. I am, however, along with my poetry, a work in progress, and I present my current poetical thought from this perspective, that is to say, my best work is yet to come... This book is dedicated to my family, USA & Chilean, and their families, and their families yet to be. On countless occasions I?ve said to them: ?One day I will write our story.? This time it is I who again make the promise, ?One day, I will write our story?. Like all writers, I have no clue if the promise will ever be kept, yet I must admit, I enjoy writing for you. More importantly, I have the hope that you will find something in my writing with which you can identify. In this way, you my brother, Charlie, and you, my sisters, Linda, Kathy and Bernice, will become heirs to a shared memory of days gone by, days present, and days yet to come. More importantly, the memory will live beyond us, beyond our days, and beyond our time. And that is well as it should be. Thus, this is the reason I write for you. Again, it has been my pleasure to write the treasured and shared memory, poetically, personally, for you.