Guardians of the Quill, Vol. 2

INTRODUCTION This is a collection of international poets that have an outward lens, which is to say, they are compassionate and giving their time to others. Kindhearted, gentle spirits and keepers of all that is good about poetry. This thought was articulated by me to Susan Joyner-Stumpf, my friend and publisher, as we were discussing doing an all-star anthology. I wanted this to be a unique experience, probably due to being stubborn and fool of bluster. I tend to get bored and therefore I think out of the box. Susan and I arrived at an initial list of 25 poets for Volume I of Guardians of the Quill. Poets that were great poetry Ambassadors from around the world, most are acclaimed and multi- published in the poetry world. We also wanted a diversity of cultures and styles, so the inaugural list of 25 were chosen. It took on a medieval flavor! We would be Knights on a crusade to save this thing we love so passionately, poetry. Instead of this being like the other anthologies, I wanted this to be interactive and contrasting our unique approaches to writing. We accomplished this through posting a weekly visual prompt, giving each poet the ability to post their poem each week so their fellow Knights might celebrate their creative process. It is utterly amazing how artistic souls can see so much in a piece and it resulted in a swatch of poetry that was inspired by the same muse (the picture) but was unique based on each poet's style and own lens. We are each influenced by our own unique life made up of our experiences, our family, culture, race, and this I believe is what you will see in this book. This is Volume II, a collection of many poets from the first volume and adding several more. Poets from around the globe that are amazing poets and guardians in this glass castle, which I call the poetry community. It must be transparent, and poetry must be alive and vibrant, teaching, inspiring, making the reader feel. God, I love it, so!! I hope you do too. It is with my immense pleasure that I introduce, "Guardians of the Quill Volume II." A special thank you to our publisher and fellow Guardian, Susan Joyner-Stumpf for her amazing support to the poetry world. She does so much for others, and we are grateful. Also, a big thanks to Kerry Marzock for her work on this book. With a team like Wildfire Publications, it is fun to create and play in this world of poetry. Robert R. Bradley, Jr., LCSW, LSATP