Dr. Richard Marks has accomplished much over his four decades practicing orthopedic surgery. He has dramatically improved quality of life for thousands of his patients, and has popularized and fine-tuned an innovative minimally invasive spinal surgery technique. While rightfully proud of those achievements, the greatest gift for him personally was not the life altering treatments he was able to give others - fashioned in the brain and delivered by the hand; but one that had been bestowed upon him. Rather than in the brain, this gift was fashioned in the heart. Delivery was also by the hand, but unlike surgery, where hand delivery was via fine motor control, this was via script - the ability to express his innermost thoughts and feelings in the form of poetry. It is in that manner in which he allows us an intimate look into the lives of both him and his beloved, Marlene. At times he focuses on the brighter sides of life, while at others he makes it clear that nobody goes through life unscathed, and that calm, placid waters can without warning become angry, turbulent seas. Yet one guiding light has unfailingly kept him afloat until able to reach safe harbor, awaiting inevitable passage of the storms and sunshine piercing the spent and dispersing storm clouds. That brilliant light is in the person of Marlene.