In the garden are beauty and thought, poetry and reflection, expressions of modern living and inner life, situations of personal happenings appropriate to everyone, words based on modern rhythmic poetry, paths, and applications to shared understandings. Sy Hakim's diverse and extensive background, education, and service serves as his poetic and artistic base--his garden. Born, raised, and educated in New York City, he has taught and been a counselor in East Harlem during its more tempestuous days, encouraging underprivileged young men. He served in the US Army during the Korean conflict as an educated neuropsychiatric technician; the exposures and insights are memorable. He has also lived and taught in Europe as it was being rebuilt after WWII (1960-1993). While in Europe, he traveled extensively, seeking the culture he had read about as a student. Memorable experiences included driving out from Prague, Czechoslovakia, as the Russian tanks drove in to secure communist rule. Czech friends telephoned shortly after midnight to tell them to escape before it was too late! As with all, life experiences and impressions are continually absorbed, thought, rethought, and thought over in the garden of the mind. Sy has continued to exhibit art internationally as well as being published in journals, books, and most recently, contemporary zines. Everyone's mind is their own unique garden, an expression of their experiences, but all gardens are fertile and compatible and are able to share in the knowledge, the understanding, and the beauty of their being. Sempre avanti!