There's a centenarian and a soon-to-be centenarian, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated reporter who was an applicant for the NASA Journalist in Space Project, a former NFL running back for the New York Jets on teams with Joe Namath, a world traveler who's been to the Arctic and Antarctica, a Hungarian refugee whose family escaped the Holocaust and, later, Soviet rule, a former female U.S. Marine who's a Poet Laureate, a philosopher who had talk show host Dick Cavett's father as a teacher and got a ventriloquism lesson from Johnny Carson, a poet who met President Bill Clinton, acted with future Love Boat captain Gavin MacLeod and slept on a resort mattress once graced by Marilyn Monroe and Joltin' Joe DiMaggio, and a co-founder of Doctors Without Borders U.S.A. who was in the first class of women - and, first women's basketball player - at Princeton University.
And that's just some of the 13 poets whose life experiences and keen observations are transformed into a refreshing collection of surprising, often breathtaking, poetry.
Edited by Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist and author John A. Valenti 3rd and former Nassau County Poet Laureate Evelyn Kandel, this collection includes their work and the work of a group of inspiring amateur poets: Hattie Abbey, Hank Bjorklund, Victoria Bjorklund, Lila Edelkind, John Lange, George Pafitis, Gladys Thompson Roth, Sheila Saferstein, George Strausman, Susan Aster Wallman and Judith Zilberstein. This amazing collection of poets met in a class taught by Kandel, a former U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant who appeared on a 1952 U.S. Postage Stamp featuring "Women in Our Armed Services." Quite simply, their work inspires, covering a wide array of subjects -- love, war, life, death, age, affliction, homelessness, gun violence, genocide, philosophical debate and a range of lighter, off-the-cuff, everyday fun and amusement.