AUTHOR NOTES

GLASS RAIN—the poetry by Margaret Roxby

“OFTEN NOW” is a pantoum written in 1991 in response to poetry meeting suggesting the form included this week for Valentine’s Day. She wrote to her Round Robin poetry friends, “I seldom write a poem ‘on demand,’ so to speak, but thought this would be intriguing. I wanted to something light and with short line to represent the tom-tom…but, it’s not my thing. So, this is what I came up with. Not light, not short lines…just something. I think line 14 should perhaps rhyme with the last line, but it doesn’t. That’s not all wrong with this effort.”

REFRACTIONS—the poetry of Robert Roxby

“NO NEED OF VALENTINES” is included this week for Valentine’s Day. The valentine described is unknown. It might be a remembered early sweetheart, his daughter or simply a product of the author’s imagination. The poem first appeared in the author’s collection, Reflections of a Lifetime.

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS—the poetry of Kathleen Roxby

“GEOLOGIC SWING, A JAZZ LOVE SONG,” is included this week for Valentine’s Day. Geology is the author’s favorite science. She was fascinated by rocks from a very early age when her father unearthed a fossil rock in their backyard. She later saw another almost exactly the same in a museum listing the age of the specimen. She was stunned to realize her childhood find ranked in age with dinosaurs and older creatures. Her treasure was lost when her rock garden was dismantled after a black widow spider made its home there.