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Poetry

The WordStorm Cover Reveal

At long last, I am releasing a collection of poetry and here is the cover:

This was immediately the cover that pulled me in and held me. Allen Ginsberg’s approach to poetry was ‘first thought best thought’ and -in the case of this cover- that really applies.

There’s something about that lightning and the purple and blue that speak to me. I love that WordStorm is huge. I like the use of different fonts add interest.

And the fact that there’s lightning in the Word and the Storm? I was stunned.

A friend said the cover “shows intensity and passion.”

The lightning is also a nod to a poetic term called a ‘turn’ where, at the end of a poem, there’s often a line or two that take your breathe away or makes you sigh in recognition. I think of turns as itty bitty enlightenments which lightning represents well.

And the fact that I can write a paragraph or so about the potential different interpretations? No doubt, this is the cover that’s perfect for this poetry.

What’s A WordStorm?

I don’t really know, but it has all sorts of implications. It comes from my poem called Starvation:

I’m hungry for a wordstorm casserole, fresh from the oven of my imagination, accompanied by cornbread dreams, steamed dictionaries, hot flashes of insight, and hot fudge recitations.

That sounds like one tasty meal to this word-loving lady!

The Back Cover

The back cover is as understated as the front cover is boisterous. The excerpt is the last stanza of my poem How To Express Yourself More Clearly.

Cover Design

The cover and interior were designed by the talented professional Danielle Smith-Boldt.

You know how when you meet someone you just hit it off? Working iwth Danielle was like that.

She even has a love of poet E. E. Cummings,which brings nothing but music (treble, bass, coda) to this mudluscious, puddle wonderful poet’s pitter-patter h.e.a.r.t.

Check out Danielle’s other work! Hire Danielle either directly from her website or, like me, on Reedsy.

Poems

The poems in The WordStorm cover several decades. There are a couple of poems from high school, a lot from my time living in Athens, Georgia, and several from my earliest years living here in Mount Pleasant, Michigan.

The “hits” from the Athens years are definitely here. When I think of Athens, these poems come to mind: 2Kewl, I AM Becoming One, Be/Learn/Know, Damariscotta, Luna’s Lending Library, On Shooting Trees, Sexrain, and -as mentioned above- Starvation.

There are poems that explore my inner world, look at the outside world of nature, and also those that examine the world and society around me. Heck, the book is more than 100 pages long!

Get The Book

Buy an autographed copy from me via PayPal or Stripe.

Head over to my Amazon author page and buy an ebook or physical copy.

You can also find me on

  • Library Thing Author Page | Personal Profile | Library
  • Good Reads Book | Personal Profile

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Writing the Sly Silence Within

Working on a mindfulness certification, the one practice that pulls me forward is following the word.

That is, following the words that appear in my head as I’m meditating. I follow, realize I’m following, and return to breathing. I do the same thing when writing.

This practice developed by reading Julia Cameron and Natalie Goldberg years ago. Cameron talks about morning pages – three pages off the top of your head written by hand first thing in the morning, no interruption, no stopping to correct errors. Goldberg combined Zen meditation training with “stream of consciousness” writing and often wrote through a small notebook each month.

Both techniques help me find that sly silence within.

Being a Star Trek fan, I think that sly silence is the most interesting place ever. And you don’t have to get on a starship or airplane or cruise ship or any vehicle other than your own to get there. You just have to be quiet, really quiet, like this poem about writing a poem.

How to you reach that sly silence within?

This Voraciousness

(A journal excerpt)

Woman taking a bit bite from a round piece of chocolate cake that is decorated to look like planet earth; woman eating earth.

This voraciousness is about the insatiable quest for knowledge, the need to know more to learn more to experience more.

Though not to experience – experience chews up time. Learn and move on to the next thing, learn more, read more, more, more.

This voraciousness is a stumbling block, a thing that keeps me moving forward in a circle, spiral, up, down, merry go round.

This voraciousness is a pattern that holds me back, gobbling up this and that. Not stopping, not focusing, not attaining.

This voraciousness is not progression, it is hunger, it is obsession, it is distraction. This voraciousness is fun and entertaining, too.

Hunger for whatever it happens to be. This week a couple of books, next week a new online class. Or learn to prepare a food I’ve never made, wear a piece of clothing in a new way. This voraciousness is never satisfied.

But wait.

Satisfaction is here if fleeting, a little more than the blink of an eye. This voraciousness keeps moving, fangs bared, eyes keen to find the next prey.

This voraciousness wants something new shortly after something old. This voraciousness forgets about what was just accomplished, dismisses achievement.

This voraciousness says there is always something more out there waiting to be learned, so rush headlong with no hesitation. This voraciousness fires the starting gun and off I go.

This voraciousness does not like quiet and yet, I am voracious about solitude and silence. At work I clamor for the end of the day, seek brief respite wherever and whenever I can. Work is a war zone of mines yet to be exploded and such disparate energies that this voraciousness screams silently unable to satisfy hunger.

In the calm of a slow Sunday morning, this voraciousness wants busy-ness. Voracious fidgets, drinks too much tea, commences internet scrolling, video watching, anything to keep distracted from the ever present now.

This voraciousness has big plans and no idea how to keep going once started. Voraciousness only wants the next thing and the next and the next.

Voraciousness knows these words fall where they should. She stands aside for a moment or two, talks with Ambition and Conscientiousness, then leaps into action.

Voraciousness loves a good sleep, craves a lover, husband, family, mighty home, but doesn’t know what that really means. Voraciousness doesn’t compromise or take turns.

This voraciousness extends to all things “spiritual” too, though at this point, everything is spiritual, fodder for dissection. Voraciousness and Analyze are compadres and seek to solve a mystery where there is none.

Definition

  • having a huge appetite: ravenous.
  • excessively eager: insatiable.

Etymology

  • 1630s, formed as an adjectival form of voracity.
  • 1520s, from Middle French voracité (14c.) or directly from Latin voracitatem (nominative voracitas) “greediness, ravenousness,” from vorax (genitive voracis) “greedy, ravenous, consuming,” from vorare “to devour,” from PIE *gwor-a-, from root *gwora– “food, devouring.”

Best of 2018

Here is a roundup of the various posts over 2018: statistics, counts, and a few other considerations.

Which posts were most popular?

Which are my favorites?

And what movies should you consider watching over the Christmas holidays?

Most Statistically Popular Posts of 2018

These posts got the most traffic, meaning, these are the posts that were most visited, and most read. I don’t think they’re necessarily the “best” posts, though.

5 Questions You Should Ask A Life Coach
Embracing Adventure
Midlife Is The New Black Dress

My Favorite Posts (Don’t Miss These!)

The Shiny Squirrels of Autumn
Despair and the Bright Shining Light of Just Maybe
In Praise Of the Multi-Faceted Self and a Life Well Lived

If you like poetry...

Feeling My Age
Be / Learn / Know

They’re Not Conspiracy Theories 

Illusion, the Q Phenomenon, and We the Good People of Earth
Remember the Loosh and the Love!

Movie Suggestions

Above Majestic, PGS Intuition, and InnSaei

Oldies & Goodies

A couple other posts that give you a real sense of who I am and how I write. Let’s start with Shine Your Light – from December 2017.

Shine Your Light

I have to include this. I think it’s one of the best pieces I’ve ever written on spirituality. 

The Sacred Waterfall

That’s enough, right? There will be one more post for 2018 – my traditional Deep Peace year-end closing. And then, we vault into 2019 and whatever adventures await.

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