Barriers

About the Book

285 Opposites Again

The shadow,
having lengthened and widened
almost covers the wall.
Above,
a defiant flare of last light
subsides in a black of night.

It is of small interest to observe
that shadow and light
are contained within the sun.
Are good and evil,
life and death,
similarly joined,
marking other walls,
waxing and waning,
endlessly moved by a grander reality?

The extemporaneously penned verses on the pages of Barriers have been subjected to many revisions by author M. Z. Reed. The labor of editing, rereading, and sometimes deleting whole sections of words has brought out a clear and accurate portrayal of the meaning, imagery, meter, and rhymes as Reed intended. It's as though he has taken dictation for some interior muse.

The true reward for Reed comes to fruition when he runs across a line or image that he considers particularly appropriate. That feeling of surprise and elation can be summed up in one word: treasure. And that is exactly what Reed shares through the poems in Barriers.

About the Author

Born in 1923, M. Z. Reed has worked as a machine designer, designing and building packaging machines and high-temperature kilns, and he has run factories in the United States, Haiti, and Mexico. He retired in 2004.