Many moons ago I published my second book – Weird Tales: Otherworld Poetry. I self-published via the Amazon publisher Booksurge. Its a small book and it has barely sold more than 30 copies I reckon but then it is a poetry book! You see, everyone writes poetry and many of us also think our poems are the bees knees – me included! I have learned since 2006, when it was published, that poetry doesn’t sell very well. I think its because the poems that we write are personal. They have real meaning to us but perhaps not to others. Poems are our way to resolve pain, say what we truly feel and get our emotions on paper.
There are words
I could use to tell you
Exactly how I feel
But they have no meaning
For they are just words
Awkward sounds juxtaposed
Lacking translation
Losing their meaning.
(Just Words – p.28)
I find myself writing poetry when there is no other way to express myself. It can be love or pain (sometimes both at once), fear or rage at an injustice. Sometimes, they can express pure hatred.
I watched her face with interest
As she twisted the knife one last time
I don’t think you believed it even then
Pride was your wound
Infidelity her knife
She took you like a lamb to the slaughter
(Infidelity p.11)
I also used to write song lyrics (in fact, I wrote songs and even recorded one or two as a teenager – those are best left gathering dust methinks). Weird Tales was made up of lyrics and poems written from age 16 to 46. It was a collection of what I thought were my best efforts over a 30-year period.
I must be getting better at writing poetry because I published my second collection in 2012 via Lulu as Poems for the Little Room. It too has hardly been a best seller but then at Lulu’s prices I would be surprised if it was! This one is a full color effort with some photos by me and Gabriela thrown in for the sitting personage of your ‘little room’.
It’s funny but knowing that these collections barely sell I am a glutton for punishment because I feel like a third collection is on the horizon. Am I insane? Maybe but I do love to write…..
Buy Weird Tales: Otherworld poetry
(Don’t buy the Kindle version as it has formatting issues imo)
Buy – Poems for the Little Room:
Paperback
PDF or eBook (Great value at $4 or $0.99)
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