It is a strange confession for a poet to make, that he doesn't particularly appreciate poetry very much; at least, not of the sort that is commonly churned out nowadays. Poetry has never been a matter of taking prosaic sentences and chaotically breaking them into uneven lines. Nor is it a matter of slapping together incongruous images in a vain effort to sound clever.
  Rather, both the sound and the image of the poem have to be carefully crafted so that they work in harmony. That perfect combination has to be painstakingly assembled into a phrase that not only holds a wonderful image, but clothes it in an expressive musical language.To me, the sonic element has always been the diagnostic proof of poetry. A poem should roll off the tongue and echo in the ears long before it is even understood.

  On Neshaminy's Banks is first and foremost a tribute to a pair of English poets who have most influenced me--Gerard Manley Hopkins and Christina Rossetti, the most intensely religious poets of the Victorian Age.
 

 The first half of the collection is taken up with nature poetry, especially celebrating the sublime beauty of the Bucks County woodlands and suburbs where I grew up.
 As I began taking interest again in my faith, it was only natural that
 

  The book design recalls the classic decorative style of the Victorian age: from the "engraved" initial capitals and the interior photographs, to the gold titling and decoration on the cover. ONB is printed on natural parchment and bound fully in cloth, each signature hand-sewn through the center.

• Photographs of On Neshaminy's Banks

• Table of Contents