A.M. Arndt is an Oregon educator and writer of, mostly, free verse and prose poetry. This poet has been recognized by the Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Contest and has been published in Into the Void, Capsule Stories, Lucky Jefferson's Discover Beaverton, Antithesis Journal, Poetry|Palisatrium, and As You Were: The Military Review. Interested readers can find The Younger Years: Behind Closed Doors and My Roaring Twenties: Masks Off for sale on Amazon.com. Each book represents, roughly, a decade of the author's life. 

Dear Reader,

I have often wondered if I will ever be better than I am on paper. Certainly, there is something to be said for the vibrant, moody living being that is me, but the longer I live, the more strongly I feel that the best way I can share the magic of a full life is through writing. Several decades have and will pass, but while my memories have dulled with age, my writing still lives, timeless on the page. Consider it my own Dorian Gray; it's probably just as vain. 

I do not want, at the end of life, to look back on all of the things I want to say before I go and have no idea where to start. I would like to have said most of them, if not all. I would like my words, whatever they might mean to any one person, to stay. Afterall, poetry has been my language since childhood. Poetry has rocked me to sleep, cradled me in sadness, lifted me in joy, held my hand, slapped me hard, and kissed me senseless. When I die, I will go out with a poem. 

-A.M. Arndt