The Sky Is Smiling

I was released from an in-patient mental health ward in early March 2006. A trophy pictured in the preface of this book displays the date July 23, 2006, as the initial USA competition poetry award. That date marks the deadline of the period required for a poem to be created, entered, and judged. All that was left for application after my 20 years of post grad training, was creative writing. My hidden hope was to offer in a real way, an apology via deed to all those who encountered me when I was unwell. There is something strange regarding that period's legal progress, since society so easily ignores this as "dealing with madness." My elderly mother watched as my life appeared to unravel, but always offered support. In 2009, as she lay upon her deathbed in hospital, she held the first volume for which she was my sounding board. She smiled and said, "Well, at least you have a little hope appearing now." These works you hold are the collated works of this period of hurtful outpour, and are continuous from early 2006 until late 2014. Kevin Munro lives two hours south of Sydney, Australia. He has a master's degree from the University of Western Sydney and 20 years' teaching experience. Now retired, he previously wrote a trilogy of books as he cared for his dying mother. The first was a collection of poetry, Netted Rainbows. His second was a collection of short stories, The Chronicles of a Stink Chicken: Episodes. The final book was Conversations with a Black Cockatoo: The Poems of 2009-2013. He wrote of his mother's illness, death, and the grieving of a son for a much-loved parent. Publisher's website: http: //sbpra.com/KevinMunro