About Shadows Speak In Riddles Poem by Sami Gjoka

This book is dedicated to my children, Kleit and Arbin Whittman.

Among those I want to thank, for having an early impact in my childhood, for shaping me into a poet I came to be and who often are the shadows beneath my lines, are an old couple who adopted me from my real parents, or better said, I chose to become their child; gravitated to their home by their love and their affection.
They sowed the seeds of many songs that sprung and grew in the deep valleys of my being, covered often with the mist of my nostalgia for them and many other dear ones I lost, sailing through the winds of fate.

A special place in this book has been taken by my mother, who since early in my life has pushed open before me, the gates of a different and vivid world, filled with dragons and scary monsters, where I still wander among crowds, fighting evil, through much pain and sacrifices, hoping that one day they would rise victorious above their plight and misery.
Sometimes, I wish I had a magic wand to go back in time, and together with other kids of our neighborhood, sit again around her by the fireplace in the long and cold winter nights and listen to her ancient tales of epic deeds, those deeds that I witnessed later being played over and over again, and that slowly became the indispensable ingredients of my writings.

This book is a carving of my sorrow, pain, and regrets for my father and my elder brother who left the planet earth much too soon and whose presence have been with me all the time I kept on writing.
Hope that time of parting has arrived, and we shall be able to move on in peace by now, each in our respective worlds, accepting that we are just molecules of energy, designed by other forces to come together and part forever.
If we ever meet again at some other kind of life, I hope we might be able to remember that we have been related by blood and birth at some distant past; If not, at least in this book, we will remain together like the invisible troubled souls who dwell inside the flesh.

And at last, I like to thank all my friends and all my fans, some of who I only met, online.
And I pray that this book is worth reading!