I'm Here Because I Lost My Way Author:Neil Shepard Poetry. "In Neil Shepard's moving and delicate new collection, nature's quietly shimmering veil resonates with those few moments of true human grace any of us are allowed. These poems are filled with the same passion and deft humor we've come to expect from all of Neil Shepard's marvelous work"-David St. John. The poems in I'M HERE BECAUSE I LOS... more »T MY WAY treat life and death alike with an unflinchingly critical, but nonetheless poignant, approach: "...what number// fall down man-holes, what number/ crack skulls on black ice-/ where blood in Rorshach// puddles is anyone's guess./ What number ends this/ numbness? One" ("The News"). Neil Shepard's first collection, SCAVENGING THE COUNTRY FOR A HEARTBEAT, won the 1992 First Series Award for Poetry, sponsored by Mid-List Press. He teaches in the department of Writing and Literature at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont."In Neil Shepard's moving and delicate new collection, nature's quietly shimmering veil resonates with those few moments of true human grace any of us are allowed. These poems are filled with the same passion and deft humor we've come to expect from all of Neil Shepard's marvelous work." David St. John "Neil Shepard writes essential, elegant poems. As much about recovery as loss of any kind, this work is rich with evocations and layers, a stunning interplay of language and scenes." Naomi Shihab Nye"« less