I self-published a second booklet of my poems! “Small Stone Hearts” contains 26 of my more introspective poems, 8 of which have been previously posted on this blog. You can buy it now from Amazon. Other booksellers should also have the ability to order it. I hope you enjoy reading!
I wanted a way to share a few of my poems in a more traditional way so I decided to undertake this small experiment in self-publishing, coming up with this chapbook length book featuring 17 of my poems (12 of which have been previously posted on this blog). If you’re interested, you can buy it from Amazon now. Other booksellers should also have the ability to order it – if not immediately then in the near future.
Bruised Skies: Poems in Response to A World Gone Mad
The 17 poems in this short collection express dismay and anxiety over the state of life in this second decade of the 21stcentury, from the rise of fascism to the way we treat the earth and each other as we go about our everyday routines. Yet, at the same time, they call us to resistance and change while offering a glimpse of hope for the resurrection of compassion and connection.
This summer I took a poetry workshop at the Kalamazoo Institute of Arts. It was a lot of fun and I’ve enjoyed having a new outlet for writing. I’m going to take the workshop again in the fall, but in the meantime I’ve been pondering a couple of questions as a newbie amateur poet.
What to do with my poems when they’re “done”? In a sense I’m writing for myself but I also have an urge to share them. Maybe I just want to be told they’re good — even if they aren’t. Egos are fragile 🙂 I did some research into the idea of submitting to literary journals but after submitting a few poems it seems like a lot of work for not much gain. And do I really feel a need to be officially published? I’m not sure I do. I’m thinking for now I’ll just post a poem on this blog when I feel like it. Maybe people will see them or maybe they won’t.
Is a poem really ever done? It seems like it’s finished when I run out of ideas to improve it, but then if I take it to a workshop group I can always get more ideas 🙂 I’m going to post poems that I feel happy with at the time I post them but I’m not sure that will mean they are finished poems. Perhaps, like humans, poems can always be improved upon.
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