William Shakespeare

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Though not a fan of poetry, despite doing a bit of poetry myself, I did read some of the poems here. Yes I admit I did not read all of them (there are 328 pages you would have had to pay me much bucks to read all of it before the next decade). But in the few that I read (more than 40 pgs.) I got a feel for the kinds of poems that are here. These are not your typical poems. Just as the summary describes these are "epic", "simple man" poem. Some will make you smile, some frown, some just scratch your head. If you enjoy off the beat poems this will be for you. Even if you aren't a fan of poetry you might at least flip through it. It is different. I give it a C.

Do not look for our editor's name among those of the renowned poets present or past. He is an enigma in the world of literature, and there are some who would say that statement does not treat him severely enough. Others would disagree.

An unlikely candidate for any intellectual acclaim, Leeds dropped out of school in the eleventh grade and went to sea.

It was on his first trip to the South Pacific, during World War II, that he found himself sharing four-hour shifts in the engine room with two engineers who recited a strange kind of poetry, much of it from memory, during the entire three months' trip. It was this poetry that made an indelible mark on his mind and became the genesis of this volume.

Discharged from the American Army Air Cadet Program in 1945, Leeds was faced with the options of returning to school or getting a job. Instead he chose to spend seven yeas traveling around the world.

His travels took him to Africa, China, Europe, and the Middle East. He spent brief stints smuggling diamonds in Africa and running guns to the natives of Madagascar, adventures that provided him additional periods of isolation, only his time in detention barracks, jails, and later in South Africa's infamous condemned prison, Roelandstraat Goal. Once again, when not in solitary confinement, he found himself exposed to poetry readings by men whose social credibility and scholarly credentials would have been suspect to the literary elite.

Considered a nuisance to the South African prison system, he was placed aboard a tramp steamer heading for China. Stranded in Shanghai, he volunteered to fight with the Chinese National Army. Arriving at the battlefront, he was promptly arrested as a Communist spy and placed before a firing squad.

We can assume he escaped because in early 1948 he reappeared in Palestine where he flew with the Israeli Air Force and later trained and commanded Israel's Air Force and later trained and commanded Israel's First Air-borne Brigade. Among his wartime citations are medals for Service Above and Beyond the Call of Duty and for the Display of Heroism and Courage Without Hesitation.

Returning to America in December of 1948, Leeds did something totally anomalous to his nature. He returned to school and he found a job.

Leeds attended Knox College, the University of Illinois, and earned his Bachelor's Degree fro Wayne State University in Detroit. He completed his MBA with honors and was president of the student division of the American Academy of Management. He taught graduate studies at Wayne State University and undergraduate courses at Harper Community College in Palatine, Illinois.

He has continued his love affair with flying. For his seventy-second birthday he went to Russia and flew every major fighter plane in the Russian Airforce. In addition to performing all of the conventional aerobatic maneuvers in a MiG 21 and Su 27, Leeds took a MiG 25 to the edge of outer space; flew a MiG 23 at two and-a-half times the speed of sound and became one of the few American pilots to ever perform the Pugachev Cobra maneuver in a MiG 29.

In addition to writing magazine articles and short stories, he is the author of two books: Christmas Tails and All the Comforts of Home and co-author of Build a Better You - Starting Now, a twenty-six volume motivational series.

So, what does all this have to do with this book?

Well, beginning with his first sailing to the South Pacific, Leeds began writing down and memorizing many of the poems he heard his companions recite. Despite his highschool experience, he became an inveterate lover of this unique type of folksy, narrative poetry.

Not content with his own experience he became a hopeless poetic evangelist. His desire was not diminished when Orson Welles read and recorded his eighty-stanza Christmas narrative poem, Christmas Tails.

Leeds readily admits that he is by nature partial to poems of the "simple man". Robert Service and Rudyard Kipling are his favorite poets. These are the types of poets represented in this special anthology.

Many of these poems have not been published in almost a hundred years and will not be found in any contemporary works. A few represent the works of a new generation of "Epic" poets. So fasten your seat belt, turn up the stage lights of your mind, and ENJOY!

Order Doctor Leeds' Selection Of Popular Epic Recitations from Amazon Today!

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