My New Poetry Book

The end of June must mean:

     My new poetry book's out!

     Not that it's anything as simple as a collection of poems. I mean, what'd be the fun in that? Instead, it's a 6,700 word story told from beginning to middle to end over the course of 63 poems written in a variety of forms and meters. Because that's what we do for fun 'round these parts!

     I never intended for it to be a story, actually. In fact, I wrote the "two strikes" separately as part of Zoetic Press's Write Like You're Alive program, a challenge to do something creative every day for a month. So in July of 2018, I wrote 31 poems under the title "Abecedarian," and four years later during August of 2022, I did 31 more poems called "The Lure of the Mechanical."

     A little thought, though, showed me that the first person narrator in both groups was the same guy, haplessly flailing after similar things in different ways and not making it in either case. So I adjusted a few things, made the second group of poems more a consequence of what happens in the first group, wrote "An Outroduction" to tie everything up, and began sending it out as a collection.

     It gathered a couple rejections before getting picked up earlier this year by Island of Wak Wak Press. They're publishing it as Book VII in their series of Coffee Table Chapbooks.

     I don't know if this means you hafta be drinking coffee to read the book. I hope not 'cause I don't like coffee...

     Anyway, the book's out and available on actual paper only at this point. So if you've got room on a shelf somewhere for what Margery Sharp in the Miss Bianca books always referred to as "a slim volume of verse," this one might just by the tale of love, loss, and lunkheadedness you're looking for.

                                                                                     Mike

MONDAY MORNING EDIT: And now that we've fixed the giant error in the second stanza of the final poem, please feel free to actually purchase the item...

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