Poems and stories. A person of advanced years will have developed a certain perspective on the events that have brought him or her to that point. One tends to shred away unimportant things and to dwell on what it was that has moulded one's character. As such, a senior's thoughts become the most personal of spaces. It takes, perhaps, reckless courage to expose those distilled memories for others to examine. Only a small number of survivors into elderhood will bother with, or be brave enough to, open up one's soul in as much of a raw fashion as does Ben in these poems and recollections.