The Perky Poets Society is the creative offspring of Gilbert Franke, a retired Lutheran minister now living in Bellville, Austin County, Texas.* When spending time away from his ministerial duties, Gil, as he is known to friends and family, has been a life-long author and publisher of poetic works. Shortly after moving to Bellville, he surmised that there must be at least a few other poets, real or would-be, residing in Bellville and the surrounding areas, even if most were of the closet variety. Gil’s instinct was spot on . . . We gather once a month at “The Perk,” . . . the inspiration for our name, where we read and exchange our favorite poems, including our own. We are indebted to . . . The Perk who are kind enough to reserve a table for us for our meetings. This being our first Chapbook, a general variety of themes and styles are featured in the book in order to acquaint the reader with the full poetic range of our author-contributors. None of the poems have been previously published, but some of our poets whose works you will read on these pages have had other poems featured in other poetry publications. Each of the poets featured in this Chapbook has reserved the copyright to and ownership of his or her poems. Those poems are printed in this Chapbook with their permission. John Grube, Editor Bellville, Texas November 2018 *Bellville is the County Seat of Austin County, one of the original counties of the old Republic of Texas before it entered statehood. We are situated midway between San Felipe de Austin, the Colonial capital of Texas, and Washington-on-the-Brazos, the site of the signing of the Texas Declaration of Independence (from Mexico) making Texas an independent Republic and one of the earliest Capitols of the new Republic. We are indeed situated at the very cradle of Texas history.