My Poetry Book #2: Not Even Titled Yet!

Larada Horner-Miller

1 year ago

My poetry book #2 isn’t even titled yet! Book #1 is done! Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, book #1 in this series, came out in November and received a Gold medal at the Global Book Awards. And now it’s time to work on the next book in this four-book poetry series.

I had a title—I Dwell in Possibilities. I fashioned that poem after Emily Dickinson’s poem, I Dwell in Possibility. So my title would be I Dwell in Possibilities: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. There are several books that duplicate her poem’s title, but mine is a little different. What do you think?

Here’s Emily’s poem:

I dwell in Possibility – (466)

By Emily Dickinson


I dwell in Possibility –
A fairer House than Prose –
More numerous of Windows –
Superior – for Doors –

Of Chambers as the Cedars –
Impregnable of eye –
And for an everlasting Roof
The Gambrels of the Sky –

Of Visitors – the fairest –
For Occupation – This –
The spreading wide my narrow Hands
To gather Paradise –

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52197/i-dwell-in-possibility-466

Here’s mine:

I Dwell in Possibilities!

July 26, 2002

I dwell in possibilities. . .

It's a rich life
	full to the brim.
I face it in every question
	that comes.
I move from abundance.
I have all I need.
I have all I want.
	What a sweet refuge!

Life can come and go,
	but my worry is set at ease
		because of my attitude.

No one can crash through my armor,
	because I am safe and warm.

It's a life of plenty,
	of abundance.
I have no worries left.

My God supplies it all!

I wrote this poem twenty-three years ago, and today I realize there’s not a lot of similarity to Dickinson’s poem in structure. At the time I thought there was, but I love the idea of possibilities. That’s where I’ve lived my adult life—in possibilities!

To update you, I hope to release my poetry book #2 in the next few months before summer. Hopefully I plan to release the third book in the fall. Does that seem ambitious? Maybe, but I have the outline for a new memoir that’s crowding out this series, so I want to get it done, so I can focus on this new surprise book.

Here’s a list of my future books:

A four-book poetry book series – Book 1 – Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry
A haiku poetry book series with the series title—Haikuing My Way through Life
I Said Yes: How to Write a Biography—based on what I learned in writing the Marshall Flippo biography
An Eye Witness to Life —a women’s fiction that I wrote during the November 2016 NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). So I wrote 51,796 words. The goal of this November writing month is 50,000 words. The Flippo biography caused this book to be put on the shelf!
And one more Tumbleweed book—more poems & stories about growing up in the Branson, Colorado area! There are so many!
My new memoir book—a surprise for my readers! It documents a new chapter in my life!

Finally,

As you can see—at seventy-one years old, the creative juices still flow through my veins. Currently, I plan to focus on my poetry book #2. I still have to dictate some poems out of a couple journals. I have to decide where to divide book #2, #3 and #4, so there’s lots of work to do.

But tomorrow I focus on book #2 and its title!