My upcoming poetry book series has grown from three books to four! And you might wonder, “Why?” Here’s the reason!
It started with this conversation:
“A poet? I questioned.
“Yes, you’re a poet!” Lin responded enthusiastically.
While lounging in our hot tub one beautiful New Mexico evening last year, Lin, my husband, asked me what word I’d use to describe myself as a writer. I mulled it over in my mind—did he mean genre? Author? Writer? I don’t even remember what I said, but his answer floored me—“Poet!”
I thought, “Four of my seven published books feature my poetry. I’ve written a lot of poems, but I’m not Shakespeare or Milton. I don’t rhyme and have meter in my poetry. Could I be a poet?”
Yet when something’s so familiar and deep-seated in me came to light, I needed someone else to identify who I really was—a poet!
That statement changed my life as a writer, and it’s the reason I went searching through all my dated journals for my poems. After this refreshing discovery, I ran to our storage shed and knew exactly where my journals were. I made a beeline to the box, and there they were! After dusting them off, I marveled at my work I hadn’t seen in years, in decades.
Where Did This Poetry Series Originally Start?
A couple years ago, I organized some of my poetry on my laptop into a folder and thought about doing a poetry book or two. So, when this idea of a series came up, I used that collection to start with. Then I methodically searched for any original poetry on my laptop and kept coming up with more and more. What a thrill!
Interestingly, a sketch book has sat on the bookshelf besides my computer desk for the last twelve years I’ve lived with Lin. Leafing through it in my search for my poetry, I found more poems. I wrote in this sketch book during the summer, traveling with my ex-husband in our RV around the USA. At the time, I dealt with the breathtaking scenery, losing my dad in 1996, our relationship, and life issues I faced. This sketch book dates from August 1, 1999 to August 29, 2004.
Off to the Storage Shed
Lin’s comment sent me to our storage shed. In my amazing find there, I found journals dating back to 1992. At the time, I had read Natalie’s Goldberg’s book, Writing Down the Bone, and I did free write, not poetry.
In this collection of journals, I found an oversized black journal, dated from April 2, 1993 to December 6, 1995. I remembered one blue oversized journal I used when I wrote with my students, but there were two! What a find! Those journals date from December 7, 1995 to August 28, 1998. And these journals hold lots of poems! Because I need to dictate these poems into my Scrivener writing app, I will put these poems in a separate collection of poetry, hopefully coming out next year.
Then I found folders of the poetry classes I took at Continuing Ed at UNM. In them, I found more of my original poetry. Each find made me chuckle, and I realized I had to expand the series of three books to four!
So, I kept searching and searching through any journal I had. A couple days ago, I found a couple poems in a journal I used for taking notes on books I’ve read, dated more currently in 2019.
Next Came A Four Poetry Book Series
After this poetry scavenger hunt, I have divided my collected poetry into four books, yet I have another one or more from poetry I wrote with my students (from the blue journals). I researched suggested size of poetry books, and I found:
“An average book of poetry would be around 70 to 100.”
https://www.ingramspark.com/blog/what-to-consider-when-publishing-poetry
So, with a laugh after finding all this poetry I wrote, I realized I have written a lot of poetry. So, I guess I am a poet! Lin was right after all!
Finally,
I have named my upcoming poetry series, “Watch a Poet Grow.” Let me know what you think.
Also, the title of the first book right now is Let’s Play with Poetry & Words. What do you think? Let me know your thoughts.
Here’s my poem that inspired the title. Originally the title was “Let’s Play with Words.” I added poetry to use as the title of the book, but I’m not sure about it.
Let’s Play with Poetry & Words
December 8, 1995
Catch a word
And drag it by the leg—
Hold on tight
Don’t let go!
Hold on!
Don’t let it bite you—
You might die from its
Poisonous bite or
Worse
YOU MIGHT WANT TO WRITE MORE!
This ends National Poetry Month for me! I hope you’ve enjoyed my musings about poetry and my poems.
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