Poetry. To be a poet is to be off the beaten track, out of the mainstream. Perhaps this is changing to some extent, but we are still a long way off from finding poets, on any consistent basis, anywhere near the best-seller lists. Although some of the poets in this collection are further off the "track" than others, the title seems both appropriate and ironic as it is indeed one of our goals, not to make poetry more accessible, but to make its diversity of individual styles easier to find against the crowded horizon.

The poets in this book—Paul Bergner, Walt Curtis, John Dooley, Flora Durham, Heidi Egusquiza-Chapman, David Elsey, Karynn Fish, Leanne Grabel, Brian Christopher Hamilton, Carl Hanni, Adriana Laurent, Dennis H. Lemler, Merrit Chelsey Minnis, Bill Shively, Douglas Spangle, Charles F. Thielman, and Sydney J. Thompson—represent a wide cross section of the wealth of talented poets in the state of Oregon. They come from varied backgrounds and have their own unique styles. Some are more well known than others, but each has a distinct, powerful voice and rather than make an attempt to summarize what any of them are individually trying to convey, we will let the poets and poems speak for themselves.