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"The Definitive Collection, April 1995 - May 2004, Volume One" was first published on 21 April 2010, the 15th anniversary of Gary's first poem. Its size is approx. 20.5 cm (8.2") wide by 14.8 cm (5.83") long, (also known as A5), and 12 mm (1/2") thick.

This volume contains 48 poem titles spread over 198 pages. 

What appears below is the introduction from the book:

Welcome to the first volume of “The Definitive Collection.” Thank you for choosing this book.

This book is the first in a multi-book project. It is the final project on my journey of creating poetry books. This journey began in 2003 with my first book, “A nod and a smile.” At the time of publishing it, I had no idea that such a journey would be undertaken. I had compiled the book, and had the layout designed by a company. It was published under my own name, and as far as I was concerned, that was it.

Little did I know, what would follow. Little did I know, how many poems that I would subsequently write. Little did I know, how many people would find value in my first book.

So it was, that almost five years later, I would continue my journey of creating poetry books. Over the next two years, I would publish twelve small books, including a slightly revised, reformatted, and smaller sized version of my first book, “A nod and a smile.” I have now called them, my small poetry book collection.

To finish off, I planned to review my entire collection of poetry, currently over 2700 poems. I wanted to select what I considered the best of the best, of work not already published (see below for exceptions to this volume), and place them in “The Definitive Collection.”

At first, I decided that the optimum book would be around 200 pages, both from a cost of production, a manageable content size, and potentially an interest perspective. The last point was made along the lines of “the bigger the book, the easier for the reader to lose interest.”

It was therefore decided to split the collection into blocks of 500, with an expectation that each block would produce enough content for one book (ed. the total number of books is subject to change). Even though the majority of my previous works emanated from the first 500 poems, there was still enough content to produce this volume.
The poems in this book are presented in the order in which they were written (with some exceptions). The aim of this book is to touch the reader in such a way, that the person will want to pause and ponder each poem after reading it.

Is such an aim achievable? Now that is a question that only you, the reader, can realistically answer. What I hope is, that for my part, I have given you enough encouragement and inspiration, to at least think about each poem.

The rest is up to you.

In this volume, there are some exceptions to the above. The first exception is that four poems, already published, also appear in this book.

The decisions to include these poems were varied, although the main inspiration was in response to people searching, and returning, for these particular poems on the Internet.

The first of the four poems republished in this volume is “As strangers go friends.” It is included as it is, my first-ever poem, and is also frequently searched for, on the Internet.

Two other poems, regularly searched for on the Internet, are “Integrity” and “The Present.” The fourth poem to be included is “Our Relationships.” This poem is one of my favourites. I relate to it, I connect to it, and I am proud of it, even to this day.

The other exception to this volume is the placement of the poem “The Present.” Like my first book “A nod and a smile,” it is the last poem in this volume, and therefore, is not in the order in which it was written.

Well, that is enough from me. I hope that you find what follows of value, of interest, and worth pausing and pondering.

I now invite you to read Volume One of “The Definitive Collection.”

Gary Dodd
March 2010

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