practicing an architecture of words...on the page, on the tongue, on the ear...even the feel of the flow of ink from a pen. wrt influences--can i claim as my professor, melville; my advisor, basho; my dear friend, gabriel marquez?  or do so, without offending faulkner, or mantel?  if you must know about my background, you will find traces of it in the pages that follow... --aa

is survival--of the better part of my allotment of three score and ten--while inflicting on others as little pain and providing as much good as i could, given the hand i've been dealt--an achievement?