285 Opposites Again The shadow, having lengthened and widened almost covers the wall. Above, a defiant flare of last light subsides in a black of night. It is of small interest to observe that shadow and light are contained within the sun. Are good and evil, life and death, similarly joined, marking other walls, waxing and waning, endlessly moved by a grander reality? The extemporaneously penned verses on the pages of Barriers have been subjected to many revisions by author M. Z. Reed. The labor of editing, rereading, and sometimes deleting whole sections of words has brought out a clear and accurate portrayal of the meaning, imagery, meter, and rhymes as Reed intended. It's as though he has taken dictation for some interior muse. The true reward for Reed comes to fruition when he runs across a line or image that he considers particularly appropriate. That feeling of surprise and elation can be summed up in one word: treasure. And that is exactly what Reed shares through the poems in Barriers.