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"The Definitive Collection : September 2008 - April 2010 : Volume Twelve" was first published on 23 August 2010. 

Its size is approx. 14.8 cm (5 13/16") wide by 21.0 cm (8 5/16") long, (also known as A5), and 10 mm (3/8") thick.

This volume contains 41 poem titles spread over 185 pages. 

What appears below is the introduction from the book:

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

This book is part of 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 am reviewing my entire collection of poetry, currently over 2700 poems. From mostly unpublished work, I have selected poems worthy of inclusion in this final project.

When first starting this project, 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.”

Initially, I decided to split the collection of poems into blocks of 500, with an expectation that each block would produce enough content for one book. The majority of my previous works have emanated from the first 500 poems, and yet, it was still possible to find enough content for the first volume.

The culling process for subsequent books quickly revealed, that the original idea of one book for each block of 500 poems, should be abandoned. It also became clear that several more books would be needed. In fact, the culling process resulted in 12 volumes being created. One additional volume will be provided, containing a Poem Title Index and a Subject Index.

As a general rule, poems over six pages in length were excluded. As with anything, there are some exceptions to this rule, and you will find a couple of longer poems in this volume.

The poems are presented in the order in which they were written, with one exception. In this book, there is one poem that is not in time order. It was a late inclusion, and is considerably longer than the others. I will let you discover it. There is also one poem from a previous title that slipped through the culling process, and it remains in this book.

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.

We have arrived at the final volume of poetry in “The Definitive Collection.” While there is a sense of relief at finally reaching the end, after a journey that has spanned 15 years of my life, there is also a sense of sadness, that the journey has actually ended.

It started out slowly, with a small number of poems written over the first seven years. Then, for the next eight years, it consumed me. It has kept me alive, kept me sane, kept me stimulated, and even kept me entertained.

In 15 years, I wrote 2742 poems, more than 580,000 words. What you will find in this collection is a large number of my works. A journey in the life of one. If anything, it is just one small example of what any of us can do. I will leave you with one question, “what is your contribution in life going to be?”

That is enough from me. It is hoped that you will find what follows of value, of interest, and worth pausing and pondering.

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

Gary Dodd
July 2010

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