Chasing The Shade: Poetry Born of Confliction (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798176760118)

Frank, Relevant, and Relatable Rhymes,
Depicting The Condition of Our Condition
In the Raw and Artless Tenor of The Times.

I believe enlightenment is best acquired when independent thinkers engage and explore alternative points of view, form opinions and convictions empirically, and tender perspectives without reservation. They're merely what we believe to be true at a given point in time, subject to change as we evolve, and nothing anyone should get their panties in a knot over. That's what healthy human growth looks like.

My poems are profoundly personal expressions, as are all forms of art, and ask only to be perceived by receptive minds. I harbor no illusions about the impact of my work or my significance. Nor do I apologize for its tenor, nor agonize over how others judge it, or me for it. For to do otherwise would inhibit free expression. And a reticent, self-conscious poet is doomed to an uncreative and unproductive melancholy.

On one hand, I write vulnerable and tender poetry, born of love, passion, empathy, and sentimentality. On the other, I'm compelled to write damning and pontifical prose and poetry, born of disgust, anger, angst, and sorrow.

But in the final analysis, poeting Ridge has this daft and naive belief that if he can instill an iota of awareness in the innocent, impart an ounce of enlightenment in the ignorant, or awaken a scintilla of clarity of conscience in the culpable, then his love, passion, sentimentality, empathy, disgust, anger, angst, and sorrow mattered.