I do not intend the verses below to aspire to, or imitate great or even good poetry. If the reader approaches verse from a literary perspective, I suggest they not bother proceeding further. As the sub-title says, these are the margin notes to my life. I have recorded my thoughts and feelings at various times and from an early age have expressed them in crude verse and rhyme. The quality will be uneven. I have included things here that evoke something in me. Re-reading these makes me re-examine my thoughts, feelings and attitudes and give me a sense of change, if not progress. There is no definite chronology here. The verses are not in rigid order from youth to now.</p>Some of the thoughts, attitudes and feelings may not apply now to my thinking. Notes, after all, exist as mere reminders of a special place in a story. We grow and learn as a story develops. In the same way, the male-centric nature of some of this reflects both the times when entitled males were generally ignorant of gender bias and the reality that I intend the male in much of this to be the writer.</p>My reactions to reading these records will likely escape the reader. Those might become the subject of another verse or two some night when I immerse myself in these and feel melancholy. For now, they remind me of people, places and circumstance that are important.</p>I hope that you find these interesting and perhaps, if good at all, they will raise a smile, a thought or a tear. </p><p><br></p>