PREFACE TO "A THING BORN of DARKNESS"To say we live in dark times is a mega understatement. Yet how do we make sense of this time where a pandemic dominates our lives, health, education and work everywhere in the world? Scientists point constructively to the data received and the trends that are indicated week on week. But is this the only way? Journalists try to get inside the personal human stories to reveal the extent of suffering and misery it has caused and to prompt politicians and lawmakers to make balanced judgements based on the medical facts.These poems about Coronavirus offer another slant, the poet's view on the impact upon people from a health and freedom perspective. Robin Perry tries to bring together the medical with other social, environmental and spiritual perspectives and includes comparisons with the impact of other conditions like cholera. He tries to encourage a view that while the pandemic is dire yet we are not defeated by it. There is still hope where there is faith instead of fear, healing can and will replace sickness and where so many feel anger and frustration there can be peace, calm and inner order.Most of the poems follow a free verse style though "The Thug of Despair" does contain some rhyming couplets used to tighten the construction. Also, there is a small batch of haikus with their typical syllable format based around one idea. However, most poems are free-flowing, unfortunately like Coronavirus. The front cover illustration is drawn from the last poem, "Coronavirus Vision" and arose from a dream picture of three oncoming columns converting into positives the type and amount of negative, opposing forces around us at the moment. The dragonfly photo on the back cover is a photo I took this summer and inspired my poem, "Dragonfly." I hope that people reading these poems will derive some hopeful insights from the words and above all will enjoy the poems themselves.