Growth

About the Book

We all go through different stages in life. New experiences – good, bad, indifferent – make us who we are as we age. We start out young and impressionable. We move toward a more enlightened station in life as we move into young adulthood. We then progress, if we continue to learn, to realizations and impressions shaped through a variety of interactions and relationships – both direct and indirect. With Growth, the reader follows the evolution of a person through phases of his life. From a teenager/young man who lost his father when he was 12 to a middle-aged man with some wear and tear. He didn’t fully know how to show his feelings. To this day as an older man, the author still doesn’t always know how to show his feelings. But poetry is an outlet, a sort of safety valve. While the first volume leans on idealism, the next two provide more depth, intellect, and imagination with a bent toward hope. The author wouldn’t necessarily call many of them good, but they are raw and unpolished. The level of sophistication from Immaturity increases in style and substance in what follows through further Maturing and Continued Maturation. The seasoning of time provides greater insight and straightforwardness with an inclination toward irritability. Growth represents phases of a person’s life that he hopes others may relate.

About the Author

A.A. Winston, also known as Russ Haddad, has had a full range of life experiences, starting with the death of his father when he was 12 years old. He was not one to show his feelings, thinking that stoicism was manly. But he always had a love for writing. He turned toward poetry accidentally, dipping his toes in the genre during high school. The author realized that it was becoming his emotional outlet. Poetry became his form of coping through life’s ups and downs. He took a long hiatus from writing poetry as he embarked on a variety of professional pursuits from radio to journalism to community development and personal changes from divorce to remarriage. A.A. rediscovered his enjoyment of putting words to paper to express himself and decided to publish is works to share feelings in hopes others relate.