These poems are borne of the joy and pain of a life lived to the fullest.

Diane Mintz writes of hunger and need, loving and living and overcoming. She celebrates intimate moments,

the rough patches, the smallest revelations of unsung beauty. These poems abound with tender and com-

passionate images of the human condition.

_________________

I want to write a poem as elegant as old lace,

as simple and airy as a child's rhyme,

as soft and loved as a stuffed animal,

as welcoming as an old slipper, as easy to slip on.

A poem in which I can open my most tender secrets

to the trusted and compassionate reader who takes in

the words knowingly, securing them inside her secret place

where she will turn to them often for solace....

_________________