Since ancient Greece, when Socrates likely advised us to "know thyself," humans have been obsessed with the notion of self in many ways-as a soul, as an essence, as either conscious or subconscious, or as a singular self versus a collection of selves. At the very least we are creatures of duality however one categorizes it. It may be a duality of primitive versus civilized, the duality of individuality or tribalism, the duality of conscious versus unconscious (with subconscious thrown in for good measure). The list of supposition seems endless, which helped bring me to The Beast Inside. This book was inspired in more ways than one by Winslow McCaw's early 20th century sketch, a piece I encountered as an ekphrastic writing exercise. That final poem in this work led me back to his drawing over and over again. From there, it isn't a great leap to explain how I wanted to organize the writings in this volume. While the notion of self and the number possible is interesting, as a writer, I'm a big believer in the "rule of threes," namely that humans love seeing things organized around that particular prime number. After all, we tend to see one as an accident and two as coincidence. Once we have a third category (or whatever descriptor is chosen), it appears to establish a pattern. And if there's one thing we love, it's patterns. With that in mind, allow me to decipher the three "selves" I conceived for these pages. I've named them in order of appearance: reminiscent, formal, and dream-state. How did I decide on those names-or "selves?" Like most rule of three scenarios, it was pretty simple (or "basic" might be the better term). The "reminiscent" self recalls events, people, moments whether personal or historical. The "formal" self follows directions. In my case, this section collects some of the poetic formats I've been getting involved with over recent years, which has been an interesting and fun exercise in discipline. Finally, the "dream-state" self conjures images, be they dreams, imaginings, or tangents off of reality. So, there you have it. I hope that, in reading this book, you might meet some of your own "selves." Certainly, you'll encounter mine.
