Dancing with Fear, Rejection, Doubt, and Hope

Poetry, like most anything worth
paying attention to in life, is the product of hard work, dedication and
consideration. Any poet worth his or her salt knows that the hardest part is
not finding the topic, or developing a style or voice, but rather digging out
the truth about oneself and one's experiences, then looking at it straight on.
Here, Peter, has shown what can happen if one opens up the doors to one's life
and allows oneself to see the truth, the good, bad or ugly. The poems of course
will speak for themselves. They will
show you the joy, sadness, frustration and irony of this man's life as he
worked to make sense or sometimes show the nonsense of some of his experiences
with everything from romantic love, family relations, human ignorance to Halloween
and silly childhood memories. Herein is fun, imagination, depth and folly,
ingredients that are hard enough for many of us to cultivate and keep alive in
our hearts and minds. For this
41-year-old individual, who has to live with cerebral palsy and epilepsy, and
people's reactions to his speech impediments and bent body, the triumph of
will, courage and understanding displayed within is, well, mindboggling.style="mso-spacerun: yes"> This work, his first folio, the result of 26
years of studying and writing poetry, shows a breadth of style, although
certainly similarities and relationships between the poems are there for the
more discerning student of poetry to "dig out." I think you will
enjoy this work as much as I did helping with its construction. You can pick
out one poem at a time, or read several, an aspect of any collection I
particularly appreciate.

Debra Stevens,

English Instructor,

Diablo Valley College