Ron was first published as an undergrad at Central Michigan University. He is a native of southwest Michigan where he still lives and writes in the small community of Stevensville. Author Statement: Poetry is a collaborative exercise. The reader or listener helps bring meaning to each piece. They have their own context and frames of reference. The goal of a poet is to evoke the feeling of a reality; to replicate the sense or essence of an experience. Words alone are as dumb as a box of rocks until the poet begins to place them in a carefully crafted effort to create art.