For years in AA, I was haunted by the thought of all the alcoholics who lived and died before there was an AA to come tothe absolute hopelessness of their condition. Whenever I would speak at meetings, I'd want to talk about it, but I never did, because I was afraid I'd break down into uncontrollable weeping.

When I got serious about writing poetry, one of my first inspirations was that poetry might be a way to say some of the things I had been wanting to say for so long. In the writing of this poem, a strange thing happened. I sat down to write about all the people who died before there was an AA, but almost all of the examples are my contemporaries, people I knew or knew of who died before they got the program. The guy who died of pneumonia in a furnished room was a man named Dennis Mc. (no relation) who bought me breakfast the first Sunday morning of my sobriety. The one who died under the Southeast Expressway with his hands tied behind him was an ex-boxer named Tony Veranis whose brother was in the fourth grade with me. I didn't know the man who took his family with him; he was from the Westwood Group and he had a slipit may have been his first night of drinking. Ernest Hemingway, Dylan Thomas, and John Berryman also find their way in.
Jack Mc.

When I finished this poem, I thought, "This may be the poem I was born to write." I've written a lot of poems since, but I've never had that feeling again.

I have often read this poem at meetings, and when I do, I usually bring copies, because people usually ask for them. A few years ago, through those copies, the poem started showing up on the Internet. I just did a Google search on the first line and found that it shows up in thirteen places, including websites in Arabia and Jerusalem. It's very gratifying that that many people want to publish it. Of course I've never made a nickel from it, and I wouldn't want to.

Feel free to read the poem to any audience any time. But if you should give out a printed copy or an email, please make sure my name is on it. If the poem survives, I'm not humble enough yet to want it to be as "by Anonymous."