The Preface by Louis Dienes (1925 - 2016) says: "'Black & White' is a poem I wrote in the spring of 1957 at the suggestion of Dorothy Koppelman, director of the Terrain Gallery in New York City....The Terrain was at the forefront...pointing to a criterion for beauty in all the arts with its motto: 'In reality opposites are one; art shows this'--a statement by Eli Siegel, poet, critic, educator, and founder of Aesthetic Realism....[The poem] expresses the wonder I felt learning about the opposites--including black and white....The message of my book is: 'beauty can be seen in what you may find around you.' That is the victory in the last line of the poem: the victory of respect over contempt...."