I wake, and it is true. Putin is invading Ukraine, pushing his vision of a greater Russia. The freeing of a people from their liberty. The press is also awake, and I am listening. The voices of reporters are tense but measured, as they bring me the horror of what they see and hear. The visual and verbal accounts of atrocity pervade my home. They change me. I could switch off and live my normal life, but I don't. My tears flow. My pen flows. Forty-two days of war, forty-two poems, dancing through the duration of a first phase in Putin's new war. These poems are for me, but they are also for you. Written lest we forget, lest we deny, lest we ignore. Stay with me and feel the rhythm of pain. We owe this to the people of Ukraine. They defend our notion of what is right.

100% of royalties from this book will be donated directly to Hope and Homes for Children, an international charity working in Ukraine since 1998 to ensure each child can enjoy the safety and belonging of a loving family home, never an orphanage. To learn more about their response during the invasion of Ukraine, please visit www.hopeandhomes.org/ukraine-report