"The Definitive Collection : Index : Volume Thirteen" was first published on 17 September 2010. The date celebrates the 7th anniversary of the publishing of Gary Dodd's first book, "A nod and a smile."

Its size is approx. 14.8 cm (5 13/16") wide by 21.0 cm (8 5/16") long, (also known as A5), and 14 mm (9/16") thick.

This volume contains a Poem Title Index, a Subject Index, and one last poem spread over 258 pages.

What appears below is a slightly modified version of the introduction from this book.

Welcome to the thirteenth volume of “The Definitive Collection.” Thank you for choosing this book.

This book is the final volume in this multi-book project. It is expected to be the final project on my journey of creating poetry books. This journey began in 2003 with my first book, “A nod and a smile.” At the time of publishing it, I had no idea that such a journey would be undertaken. I had compiled the book, and had the layout designed by a company. It was published under my own name, and as far as I was concerned, that was it.

Little did I know, what would follow. Little did I know, how many poems that I would subsequently write. Little did I know, how many people would find value in my first book.

So it was, that almost five years later, I would continue my journey of creating poetry books. Over the next two years, I would publish twelve small books, including a slightly revised, reformatted, and smaller sized version of my first book, “A nod and a smile.” I have now called them, my small poetry book collection.

To finish off, I have reviewed my entire collection of poetry, currently over 2700 poems. In most cases, from work not already published, I have selected poems considered worthy of inclusion in this collection, and placed them in the previous 12 volumes. A small number of previously published poems have also been included in this collection.

In this volume, you will find a Poem Title Index and a Subject Index. In terms of the time spent creating a book in this collection, this volume has been by far the longest and the hardest to compile. This volume is also the longest book in the collection.

The Poem Title Index is a comprehensive list of poems included in this collection, shown in alphabetical order.

In an effort to assist the reader in searching for the title of a poem, certain poem titles have been repeated in the Index. Where the poem starts with a common word, it has been repeated, this time, without the common word.

As a consequence, you will frequently see poem titles starting with a lowercase letter. This is an example of a poem title where the leading common word, was dropped.

The Subject Title Index is over 200 pages long, with more than 2000 words or combination of words. It has around 8000 page references.

In an effort to reduce the length of this Index, several variations of the same word were group together. This occurs where it was considered that it would not adversely affect a reader’s search for the subject in question.

To finish off, there is one final poem.

“The Definitive Collection” started out as an idea in my head. At that time, it was believed that the collection would consist of only five volumes. The first volume was on track, for such a number.

Of course, that did lead me to a false sense of perspective, as the majority of my previous books, emanated from the first 500 poems.

As time went by, and I continue to read and review my collection, I quickly discovered that the original idea of five books, should be abandoned.

So it is, that before you is the 13th volume of “The Definitive Collection.” It is true that there is only one poem in this volume. Then again, I believe that the content of this book is as valuable, as any of the previous volumes.

For the statistically minded, there are 577(*1) poems in “The Definitive Collection,” spanning over 15 years of my life. The 13 volumes, including this index, bring the total number of pages in this collection to more than 2600.

Taking into account my previous books, I have now published almost 900 poems, and over 4000 pages of poetry.

That is enough from me. It is hoped that you will find that the contents of this volume, assists you in locating the poem or subject, that you want to explore.

I now invite you to refer to, as often as you like, Volume Thirteen of “The Definitive Collection.”

Gary Dodd
August 2010

(Please note:

*1: After this volume was sent to the printer, it was discovered that an error had been made in the total number of poems in the collection.  Volume Thirteen indicates that there are 580 poems in the collection. A translation error revealed that there is in fact, only 577 poems in this collection.  The error will be corrected, if and when, the first reprint is undertaken.

Any misunderstandings caused by this error are sincerely regretted.)