Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} When I was a little girl my mother read to me, poetry of all description. I loved the sound of her voice falling melodically as the words spilled from lips and page. The first book I remember owning was A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson.  I still have it and love the poems now as then. Some of favorite poets are Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Frost, Tennyson, Emily Dickenson, Shakespeare, Dylan Thomas, Kahlil Gibran and so many other as well as many singer-songwriters whose lyrics are poetry and music combined. For many years I wrote metrical, rhyming poetry only, as it was my first experience and first love.  In the past eight years or so I’ve gone the way of less structured poetry balanced with the former. I do still love the musical nature of higher language and the classical sound of older poetry.