This Chip of a Book Our hope is that when this chip of a book is launched on the world tide of alcoholism, defeated drinkers will seize upon it, to follow its suggestions. Many, we are sure, will rise to their feet and march on. They will approach still other sick ones and fellowships of Alcoholics Anonymous may spring up in each city and hamlet, havens for those who must find a way out. (Alcoholics Anonymous, page 153)

Humility and intelligence
coexist just fine
if humility stands first.
So Bill W said
ten years after he wrote
the chip of a book
that named Alcoholics Anonymous
and launched recovery
not just for drunks
but for us all.
Intelligence Bill had in spades,
too smart for his own good for years,
yet a scant four years before the launch
he sat, drunk, before the dawn,
about to be launched himself
to existence’s fourth dimension.