Reflections on a Life of Writing: Poems, Prose and Songs over a lifetime. (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781468105506)

C. Steven Roaf spent his life writing for self-entertainment and the pure joy of creative writing. In his earliest years he found intellectual stimulation in great literature and often submitted to the muse of the written word. Through poetry, prose and songs his fascination with verse and the English language became his avocation. Mr. Roaf retired from the Air Force after 20 years and more than 15 years in the private sector. He has a MBA and BA degree and has an authored a previous book about traditional values using the life of his grandfather as a template titled A Tribute To a Common Man. Mr. Roaf currently lives in Virginia where he continues to enjoy reading and tending his garden. Introduction My great Uncle Ed was a poet of some small renown. I decided to create a small compilation of my own writings, lest they be lost in time. I inherited some of Uncle Ed's poetic nature, if not talent, and found writing to be very therapeutic. But, I also like to experiment with words and structure, as the English language brought me stimulation of my intellectual processes. It was the seeking of this knowledge that I would attempt to emulate great writers as well as musical styles, especially Country and Folk music. In my attempt to apply technical poetic structure of internal rhyme, alliteration, cadence and the sort, I was sometimes more comfortable with a free style form which I called "prosetry". It is a word I made up to categorize those writings when the rhyming is not precise but there is a certain "feel" or rhythm that goes beyond pure prose but does not quite meet the structure of poetry. I shall like to add also, that where many writers of there own compositions are creating from an autobiographical viewpoint, such is not always the case. I shall attempt to offer some insight into the individual compositions in this book, however I caution the reader not to believe that every line of any work actually happened. Some events happened only within the confines of my own mind, or how I wished it to be. Poetic license is after all, the choice of the author. It can also be said that some person or event was probably in my mind at the conception point of each line. I shall leave the reader to guess. In many cases there was a muse involved that inspired the creation, while in other cases, I would mimic those writers I admired. In any case, these compositions are my original work, emanating from the recesses of my own intellectual capacity.