This book is for David Stemple and Barbara Buchtel Tacy, now lost, but not yet gone; and for three wonderful black dogs (Mandy, a black lab who was Jane’s dog during her high school and college years, Tilly (who belongs to Jane’s friend Terri Windling and semi-adopted as a muse by Jane), and Peter’s standard poodle, the ineffable Gracie) who did for us what dogs can uniquely do; helping us cope, and reminding us to celebrate even the saddest moments our lucky lives.

Three pets; two marriages, full of living and love; and one late in life reunion of old friends who first met through poetry, sixty-three years ago, and are doing so all over again in a marriage of hearts, poetry, and minds.