2019 FAPA President's Book Award Winner - Poetry (Gold), Cover Design Adult (Gold) Pat Stanford’s poetry is a collection of the many topics and events that naturally occur in a person’s life. There is a road travelled that is not necessarily a straight and easy one, which weaves through the seasons of life. Her reflections are shared with you, the reader. A connection to be made? Or perhaps just a reflection of your own life made easier to visualize. Some are raw emotions, and some are written tongue-in-cheek; some are about the turbulence of youth written with a youthful perspective, and some show a more mature person. Some will make an immediate connection, and some may need to be read again. The author meditates on love, friendship, nature, religion, personal identity, poetry in general, and some seriously fun things. While there are no erotic love poems, there are a few that might make you think this poet has had nothing but unhappy relationships, but that is not the case. Many of the poems are observations of other people at a park or the mall, and how they seem to relate to each other. Same holds true for the friendship poems – half seem to be from someone who lost their best friend, and that is just the observation of how friendships can go. Nature is observed in its many seasons from stormy summer weather to winter snow.