God Only Knows

“These words of the poems of Claus Ranswill are true and rough shining gems which emit realistic human emotions. Anyone who has gone through some of life’s harsh trials and is familiar with dark emotions of fear, despair, and anxiety can readily identify with the precious words of Claus’ poems. Sometimes his words are crude, raw, and uninhibited but they are amazingly genuine, universal, and honest. We cannot help admire this homespun poet for his remarkable delineation of his day to day emotional struggles. We value such honest poems which go head on and depict the true nature of human existence.”-- Hiroshi Michael Noizumi, Pastor

Why and how this book came to be: The following poems, lyrics, and words were written from 2000 to 2003. Some have been placed in books, booklets, songs and now this book. I would first like to thank God for giving me this gift for writing that I didn't know I had until 2000 when I was attending our local community college, College of the Desert. I think these are some of my best poems, I tried to pick 100 of the best ones to put into this book. They are in no particular order.

Some of these poems were written because of assignments from college professors at COD, college of the desert. Some came about due to stress, love, anxiety, and thoughts of life. Some came about from suggestions. I would also like to thank my beautiful wife Debbie for standing by me through thick and thin, rich and poor, highs and lows. She has been the inspiration for many of these poems. I would also like to thank my children, family, and in laws for their love, affection, and encouragement.I would also like to thank all my teachers and professors in my college classes, they were encouraging and very helpful with my growth in writing. Some of the main professors were Mr. Ted Grofer, Mr. Terry Nicholson, Mr. Jack Tapleshay, and Ms. Ruth Nolan and Ms. Amy Dibello just to name a few. All the professors were great and all the education I have received has helped me become who I am today. It is much easier to sit and watch television than to go through a folder full of files of poems and lyrics and trying to decide which ones deserve to be in this book, and which ones will have to wait until the next book to be seen and read. Some of my poems feel like songs, some are just cathartic, and others range from love, depression, anger, nature, and life in general. Some don't rhyme and some are kind of strange, but all are from the heart and gifted to me from God. To all readers, thank you for buying, reading, enjoying, and sharing. My only wish is for everyone to enjoy at least one of them and share it with another. Remember you don’t have to love all of my poems, but if you love at least one, that would be great. Just like rock n roll or county music, not all songs from a band are good, but some are really great. Thanks for reading and please let everyone know about this book.