A Single Rose Can be My Garden comes in threeparts along with two short essays (Right Little Madam and Golden Nuggets).Part 1, A Penny for Your Thoughts, describes Chris's champion show beagle,Penny. The poems reveal an animal at one and the same time full ofmischief, silliness, and fun, as well as one capable of amazing perception,having a sort of 6th sense, and being loving, loyal, and sensitive to anextraordinary degree. This is evinced by the poem, Dog's Will, wherePenny is shown to become a one woman dog - although two persondog would be almost equally accurate. Part 2, Gently Down theStream is a celebration of modern life as the author experiencedit in some cases, while in other cases, only imagined/dreamt of itbeing so. These inspired poems, demonstrate the amazing abilityof the author to put himself into another person's shoes, whichmight also be described as having an instinctive feel for all aspectsof life, even those not personally experienced. An example ofsuch a poem is the poem, Babies, as well as, regrettable asit may be, Romantic Love. (at least after a night that, although NOT HIS FAULT, made his life much differentthan the norm, which is all he ever wanted it to be).The expanded version of the title - A Single Rose Can be My Garden,A Single Friend My World - captures this idea very well!!!!!Part 3, Everything Under the Sun, is a pulling together ofdiverse threads on a variety of subjects, having perennialinterest and relevance, which the author feels he has a goodfeel for/knowledge of, and can thus offer sage advice on/be a voice of reason/or be a fountain of wisdom (not youth! LOL!)Of all the poems, the author is most passionate in his abhorrenceof war, which he was raised by a German mother who had gone throughliving hell during the terrible bombing campaigns of civiliansduring WWII. To relate my feelings on war, let me quote froma well known book, by a Swiss author, called "The Good Soldier Schweik". Schweik, in a desperate attempt to reachthe enemy across No Man's Land, shouts: For God's sakedon't shoot! Don't you realize there are PEOPLE over here!If that isn't saying something and saying it well...!
