When my first book of poetry, "Driving Toward the Moon," was published in 2005 I had no thoughts of a second volume. For the first book, I had the luxury of selecting what I considered my best poems from a bounty of material written over the past 25 years. Then nearing my 70th birthday, it seemed unlikely that I would have another 25 years of writing ahead of me. Yet three years later, I had enough poems which I felt were worthy of a second book, "The Earth Behind My Thumb," published in 2008. "Here I am, back again. This time, the road had more obstacles and distractions along the way, but I hope the resulting small collection will succeed in evoking the pleasures and pains of common memories." Barbara Berkenfield grew up amid the noise and soot of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during its heyday as a city of belching steel mills and clanging street cars .Elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Wellesley College, she graduated Summa Cum Laude with a BA in History of Art. In New York City, she found both her niche as a research consultant at the Wildenstein Gallery and her husband John Berkenfield. John's career eventually took them abroad with two young sons. They loved the vibrant energy of Paris, and came to cherish the beauties and traditions of France. After seven years, the return to their home in New York suburbia provided severe culture shock, which was eventually alleviated by their move to Santa Fe in 1989. Today Barbara is a free-lance writer, a sales associate at Gallery 822 on Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and a docent at El Rancho de las Golondrinas. Like the poems of her first two books, these poems of the past three years have been polished, and sometimes written, on their treasured road trips in the Southwest.