Introduction to the Tenth Anniversary Edition of Apples of Gold:

�And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you�� � Pink Floyd

Has it really been an entire decade?

So much has changed, yet so much has not.  As I was revisiting these works for this Tenth Anniversary Edition�some for the first time in ten years�I was pleasantly surprised at the relevance that most of them still have today.  Although they were written during another life, I could still feel the same emotion reading them that I remembered experiencing while writing them.  Things in my life are very different now than they were back then, but I earnestly believe that these works ring just as true today. 

When I first thought about revisiting this book, I wondered if it would even appeal to me�never mind anyone else�given that virtually my entire twenties had passed since the time it was first published.  So I was very pleased to see that it has held up through not only the passage of time, but the changes in  my emotional maturity. In adding a writer�s commentary to each of the poems and lyrics in this book�a sort of a VH1 Behind The Poems if you will�I managed to amaze myself with some of the details that I was able to recall ten years later.  Some of the commentaries are short, and some are quite long winded, but I think that each one fits the work to which it relates.  Some pieces in this book still mean a great deal to me, even today, and those I�ve spent a bit more time on.  I am hoping to give you the reader, some small insight into what brought a particular work out, what inspired it, and perhaps allow you to better understand the context in which the work was written.

I�ve had a few relationships come and go in the decade since this book was published, yet none of the works here seem trite, or immature.  There are quite a few in fact that are just as applicable today as they were when I was younger, and much more na�ve.  I suppose that the feeling of love doesn�t change all that much with time, only our outlook on it and reactions to it.  In a way it saddens me that love seems to hold more possibility and more wonderment when we are young.  Something happens on that journey to full adulthood that causes us to lose our impetuousness and zeal towards love.  What seems to hold so much promise suddenly fades into routine, or sadly, sometimes fades altogether.

I�ve also added a section entitled Essays for this new edition.  All of them were written well after the poems and lyrics, but I think they fit into the entire structure of the book, so I�ve included them on that basis.  I�ve not added commentary to the essays because I would like them to stand on their own.  I believe that an essay, as opposed to a poem, should be able to be self explanatory without any further input from the writer.  A good poem should do this as well, but sometimes knowing and understanding what a writer�s thought process was going into a particular poem can actually enhance the enjoyment and appreciation of the work. I�ve  included my essay on the events of September 11, 2001�entitled Front Row Seat to the End of the Innocence�partly because I�ve gotten so many requests for it over the last few months, and partly because I think it fits into the new edition of this book.  It is the last work in this collection and somehow I think that�s appropriate. 

I�ve also included a small scene entitled Monday Morning; a piece that I�ve always wanted to include in one my screenplays but hadn�t been able to find a spot for.  I think it works well as a standalone work, and I hope that you think so as well.  It is written in my own adaptation of standard screenplay format, and should be easy to follow, even if you�re not accustomed to reading scripts. 

I do not write as much poetry these days, preferring to concentrate on fiction and screenplays.  I do still have quite a fondness for the art form though, and I try to read as much as I can.  In some ways poetry is becoming�or has become, some would say�a lost art.  Every year there are less and less collections published and even getting one looked at by a publisher is more difficult now than it�s been in a long time.  There are still wonderful magazines and journals that accept and publish individual submissions, and there is the Internet of course; there are many wonderful resources online for writers and readers of poetry alike.

In some way, I suppose this is my celebration of the art form that allowed me to express myself when I had no other venue.  This is my tribute to poetry and all that it has meant to me over the last 15 years.  It has gotten me through difficult times; it has been my best friend, my confessor, my confidant, and has allowed me to remain sane during times when I doubted my own sanity.  Poetry has given me so much, I could only hope to give back just a little, and if this collection can help people to appreciate or rediscover this beautiful art, then I have accomplished all that I could hope. 

It has been both exhilarating and eye opening to be able to re-enter the world that I lived in ten years ago.  If you are a previous reader of Apples of Gold, then I welcome you back with open arms and hope you enjoy some of the new material included here, as well as the commentaries that may give you an entirely new perspective on some of the works.  If you are a new reader, then I welcome you just as warmly, hope you enjoy what you find in here, and hope to see you again soon.  Thanks so much for allowing me to revisit these works, and letting me talk about them a little bit.  How appropriate it is that I write these last words on Thanksgiving Day, for I have so much to be thankful for.  Ten years seems so long, but goes so quickly.  All we can hope to do is learn something along the way.   

Ric Perrott

New York City

November 22, 2001

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