Oak Tree Alchemy, the title of this poetry collection brought to you by twelve members of The Poetry Society's North Yorkshire group, has a more literal than literary derivation. The poets meet, read and discuss their work once a month at The Oak Tree Inn, Helperby, a village between Boroughbridge and Easingwold. Their readings and discussions inspire them to write more and better poetry, with all its transformative powers. And they are confident that you will find some gold in the following pages. The Poetry Society's local groups throughout the UK and elsewhere in Europe are known as Stanzas, and there are almost 100 of them. The North Yorkshire Stanza was formed three years ago and its members range from new writers to published and prize-winning poets. Some members travel up to 50 miles to its meetings, sometimes staying overnight. A major contribution to the Stanza's popularity must be the luxurious private meeting facility provided by The Oak Tree. The book's title justly reflects this and we are grateful for their continuing support. Nor would we, and hopefully you, be enjoying our first venture into print were it not for the encouragement and skills of my co-editor, Ian Gouge, who first proposed this project and has several poetry books to his own name. Brian Clark