Herbert Spohn

Do You Know Me? Do I Know You? Herbert Spohn

I have been writing for most of my life. Writing has been an integral part of my professional career as a psychologist, therapist, and research scientist. In the last twenty years I have written both short stories and novellas, many of which appeared in a recently published book: Broken Glass and Other Stories. Off and on, throughout most of my life, I have also written poetry. In my poems, however, I speak in a voice quite different from the voice which is heard in my prose. Poetry opens the gate to the expression of feeling states, perceptions, moods, of the unconscious and, paradoxically enough, of the inexpressible. The poems in this book are organized in terms of ten themes each of which reflects the content that its set of poems has in common. For example, the theme "Love, Loss, and Longing" comprises poems that celebrate the vicissitudes of romantic love. In the book each set of poems belonging to a given theme is preceded by a sentence or two defining that theme. Finally, I am neither a professional nor an academic poet whose output is aimed at promoting a career. My poems give form and meaning to a content of life experience that is less well rendered in prose.