SPAN lang=EN-US> P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>Preface P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>Before I Lose LightSPAN lang=EN-US> is a collection of poems that leapt out of me in moments of inspiration, curiosity, a sense of play, a longing, and in times demanding my emotional strength.  Found in these expressions contained within is a chord of honesty that I have tried very hard, despite the vulnerability such honesty entails, to not edit out.  Please note that the first poem in this collection called “Vessels” was part of an anthology, That Not Forgotten, published by Hidden Brook Press in 2012.  This poem, not only dear to my heart and a personal story, was what both led to and initiated this collection of poetry.   ?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /> P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>I love to travel and have been lucky enough to have pursued much of it throughout my life.  Many of these travels did inspire poems and ideas, as well as, a greater sense of appreciation and yearning for that place of ‘home’.  Once finished university and free to choose where to settle while devoting myself to my writing, I deliberately and carefully chose Kingston because of my love for the city and the eclectic writers and friends that make this city a nurturing place for my writing and, as well simply, a fun place to live.  Kingston and the apartment I live in both serve and served not only as a place of home, but emerged unintentionally as a strong theme throughout this collection. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>Many of these poems also express coming to terms with the feelings I experience while facing the complex task of writing a novel that I have titled “Hazelnut”.  As you read through, when hearing me refer to a vast array of emotions around a thing called Hazelnut, you should know this is my novel in process.  This novel has been the biggest source of inspiration I have ever yet known.  The very act of creating it and trusting it enough to pursue has come from an immense treasure chest of inspiration.  Even in the process of trying to write it, I am still learning about it -- figuring out what this ‘thing’ is, what it has to teach me about the world, about people and relationships, about myself. It is, and has been a wonderful and incredibly huge discovery.  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>Because a number of poems in this collection center around or come from this novel writing experience, I feel I need to elaborate just a bit on it here. From the beginning, Hazelnut has fascinated me.  In fact even before as the normalcy of my life before it and then the presence of this ‘new thing’ after has been an interesting phenomenon  for me to grapple with—where do novels come from and can you ever be ready for their arrival?  Hazelnut also has, as with any novel, been a struggle to write.  It is a layered and dense story that often feels a lot bigger than my own mind and intelligence can manage.  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>I must add that beyond these feelings that are specific to the nature of Hazelnut as a story, writing this novel has taken me to the core of experiences and feelings that most writers also go through.  While there is pleasure and catharsis and imaginative journeys and discoveries and magic in the process of creating, there are also inherent challenges and struggles that writers endure—from loneliness to the feeling of impossibility and exhaustion, and to then even the worst, self-doubt.  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>Within this collection, most of the poems on these matters came in a cathartic form, in which the poems or verses or tidbits or whatever term one would might choose, the very use of any words to express such tough feelings became a vehicle for not only expression of but a homage to these feelings.  While these feelings one has in this effort cannot (and perhaps should not) be cured nor avoided altogether, what arises with and through them can be articulated and spoken for and in this, that writing pain I was feeling can and could be better understood by my ‘self’ and then confronted.  P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>As a bit of an epilogue to the sometimes trying emotions grappled with throughout much of this collection, the last few poems contained here within were poems written while on a trip with my sister, Alex, to Ireland.  This was a very special trip for both of us not only because of our love for each other’s company, but also the wonderful people and beautiful places in Ireland that we came upon.  Ireland with its bounty of writers and the poetic voice that seems natural to its people and countryside, there, I felt a real sense of play. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>This - to even just one hardworking writer out there, let it be my humble wish that just one of these poems befriend or accompany you or push you forward in those moments of struggle… as my Mother says, ‘There is probably a writer in all of us’.  So please take it to heart and take up that pencil and paper, and then get to it and trust and believe in yourself. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>My thank you to you- the reader- who has read this far. P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>Sincerely, P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt">SPAN lang=EN-US>S.E. Richardson