Does a video make poetry come alive? Poetry is meant to be read out loud. Does a video of a poem make it come more accessible? Here’s what I’ve done.
2025 Videos
As I prepared for April, National Poetry Month in 2025, I recorded twenty-five videos of me reading poems from my different poetry books and one from my favorite poet, Mary Oliver. Originally, I planned to post one each day of April, but I got sick and wasn’t able to do all thirty days, but I ended up posting only twenty-five days.
As a poet, I loved reading my poetry and creating the short individual videos. I have posted them all on my YouTubechannel, so they are available all year.
2026 Videos
So, this year, I had planned to get a jump on National Poetry Month, but I spent March in the states and forgot about it. I let the first few days of April slip by—I returned to Panamá on April 1st and it took me several days to get adjusted to being here again. Sadly, I didn’t start sharing my poetry videos until April 9, but I doubled up and got all of the missed days shared.
Also, I recorded the missing five days’ of poetry that I hadn’t recorded last year. These are the five poems I recorded this year:
So, now I have thirty poems recorded from nine of my books (one book hasn’t been published yet) and I added a Mary Oliver excerpt that has become my motto.
This year, I have posted my videos on the following social media sites. Check ‘em out!
Instagram – I thought Facebook automatically posted here, but it doesn’t, so I’ve remedied that. Starting tomorrow my poetry videos will be there, too!
You Haven’t Seen All of the Videos
Because you are on my email list, I have not inundated you with daily emails of my poetry video for the day. Last week, I shared three videos of poems in my blog, so you saw them.
This week, here’s three more:
Canyon—A Sleepy Time for Me from This Tumbleweed Landed
Time Measured Out from Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry
Age Crept Up on Me! From book #5 in the poetry series, Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry. This book has not been published or given a title yet. You are getting sneak preview!
Finally,
During April for National Poetry Month, I love putting my poetry out there for everyone to see and hear. Do you watch videos of poems read by the poet? Does a video make a difference to you in accessing poetry? Do videos attract your attention? Which poetry video from this week do you like the best? Which one from last week?
Believe me when I say that poetry is for everyone. See the topics above—all over the place, and just maybe a topic of interest to you!
Yes, tell me which poem & video you like the best! I have so many!
Let’s celebrate poetry because it’s National Poetry Month. I’ve written poetry since 1986–forty years! Lin just told me he’s been avoiding poetry for over eighty years. Which camp do you fall into?
Disclaimer for Lin
Even though he doesn’t care for poetry, Lin has read all of my poetry books. In fact, he inspired my five-book poetry series.
If You Don’t Like Poetry
In school, so many English teachers assaulted curious minds with bad experiences with poetry.
I remember not reading much in school but when we did, the teacher’s interpretation was the only correct one—no room for me or anyone else to interpret the many nuances any poem offers.
Later, at the university when I got my English degree, professors opened up possibilities after they offered prescribed interpretations. But I had the opportunity to see myself in the poem. That’s when the magic happens, but so many students/readers never had that. They got shamed or totally discouraged and become anti-poetry.
Maybe rhyme seemed silly. Maybe you couldn’t figure out iambic pentameter. If that’s all you saw, you missed a whole different world of possibilities: free verse.
If You Do Like Poetry
Bless You! Someone in your life opened a door to all the possibilities out there. The good news is “According to data from the American Booksellers Association, poetry book sales saw a 7% increase in 2023 compared to 2022.”
When I read poetry, I have to suspend my logical mind and let the images, the tone, the nuances speak to my heart. Then I feel wrapped up in the words and know something I have never known before—because of that poem.
And writing poetry has become my go-to genre for many years. Here’s a haiku I wrote about the wonderful mixture I am:
Who am I really? Manure and paper clips. Earth and words mingle!
So, no rhyme but fitting a form: 3 lines: 1st line – 5 syllables, 2nd line – 7 syllables, 3rd line – 5 syllables.
When I taught my poetry unit to my students, they wrote haikus and blew me away with their images and thoughts. Yes, a three-line haiku is poetry. Having to be selective about word choice forces the poet to work through words and language to arrive at the correct count per line and for it to make sense. What a challenge!
Is a Horse Poetry?
Today I shocked Lin, my husband, that I wasn’t writing my whole blog about the amazing Horse Parade we attended —100s of horse—to celebrate the 115th Anniversary of Boquete, Panama. Another observer told me, “No, at least a thousand horses.” Can I write a poem about a horse, horses? Can a horse be poetry?
Here’s a haiku I just wrote about that experience:
Horses everywhere! Bridles, saddles, quirts and bits! A black horse prancing so!
So does it work? Does this haiku give you images about horses or a horse?
Lastly,
Poetry has always been meant to be read out loud. Because this National Poetry Month, I have and will be sharing videos of me reading some of my poetry. Hearing the poet read her own work has its own magical power too!
Here’s some samples:
From my newest book which is book #2 in a five-book poetry series, Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, listen to “Spirit Coyote” about an experience I had:
From the first book in the five-book poetry series, Was It A Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry, I play with thoughts about words in “Playing With Words.” Listen here:
From my multi-awarding winning book, A Time To Grow: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir, listen to “What Words Capture My Loss?:
My Time Measured Out! Launch snuck up on me. I have been trying to get this book published for months, and I realized this weekend I had to move on it. I have two different release dates for the e-book and the paperback, but it’s set. So this afternoon I set up my launch plan.
Why The Delay?
Because of our move to Panama, I have been working on finishing this book for months! My editor finished her work in the end of July—right when we had scheduled a three-day estate sale from July 25-27. So, I put it on the back burner. This book haunted me since then because I wanted to get it out before we moved to Panama, but I had too many demands on my time with the move.
Then when we arrived here, the demands increased: buy furniture and get set up in our new home. Quickly, I returned to United States for five weeks. Naively, I thought I could work on it when I was there, but I was busy, busy, busy!
So, here we are—mid-December and finally I have it ready. The launch goes into Christmas, so I wonder about that, but this would make a great stocking stuffer for those who love e-books!
My ARC Team
Remember back in September, I offered an “Advanced Copy” to my ARC (Advance Reader Copy) team. As a part of their agreement for receiving it free, I will remind them this week to go and leave a review for this book on Amazon and/or Goodreads which helps boost the way Amazon promotes a book.
Pre-Order E-book
Time Measured Out!: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry e-book has a release date: December 18! I decided to try a Pre-Order from Amazon. I’ve never done one before, and I’ve wondered about it, so I decided to try it. If you choose to pre-order my e-book, you need to know the price is $4.99. If you pre-order the paperback, it’s $15. Just wanted to be upfront with you.
SPECIAL OFFER FOR MY BLOG READERS: If you pre-order this book which is book #2 in the five-book poetry series, I will email you a FREE e-book copy of book #1, Was It A Dream? Just email me at larada@laradasbooks.comwith your receipt when you receive my new book! Two books for the price of one! What a deal!
Paperback Release
It will be released December 21 because I delayed the finishing step because Amazon has a focus time for new books: 30 days after publication, so I wanted to be wise about that. I plan to continue promoting this book through mid-January!
My Launch Plan
A couple days ago, I researched the sites I have used during the launch time of my last couple books, and because I had waited too long, many of the sites were sold out, so I had to delay the special prices. I put together a list of the sites I used to launch my first book in this five-book series that help get it to be #1 in three Amazon categories:
#1 – Contemporary Poetry
#1 – Poetry About Specific Places
#1 – Women’s Poetry
The list of promotional sites I used for this book launch I’ve used for the last couple books and it’s worked well for me.
It’s so strange to work so hard on a book then to give it away FREE for five days. The reasoning: the book ranks high in at least three categories, and you can claim that success!
On December 22 , I will have a Zoom Launch Party at 7:00 PM MST. Come and hear some of the poems read and get the inside scoop of what this five-book series is about.
A Free Copy?
FREE is appealing to lots of us! If you’re interested in a FREE copy of Time Measured Out!, it will be on the following book promotional sites and many others:
Would this be your first book of mine? Come on, and go to one of the sites listed above, download the book, read it and leave a review! That would be a great Christmas present to me!
Merry Christmas—Feliz Navidad—and be sure and download my new book!
Goals get us there! I’m facing the third quarter of the year and the sales of my books has plummeted because I’ve focused on moving and recovering from the dog attack.
I know the power of setting goals. When I was the computer coordinator for Washington middle school back when the internet was new and we as the staff pulled the cable throughout the building to get connected, the computer committee had our beginning meeting of the year.
I said, “Let’s brainstorm what we want for our school. The rules for brainstorming apply: anything goes.”
So my futuristic committee listed things completely out of our budget. I watched amazed—yes, I caught the fever and threw my two cents in too!
After the meeting, I formulated the ideas and presented them to the principal. Then she and I presented them to our legislator (who just happened to have been the principal at Washington middle school before he got into politics).
Outlandish goals, futuristic goals, realistic goals? We received funds from the state for everything on our list! That lesson has stayed with me for decades. I’ve often said, “Goals pull us along. Goals get us there!”
So, as I face the third quarter of the year, September is the lead and planning phase as I move into October, November & December,
So, the goals I established today appear too ambitious, too much, outlandish, but I’m going to sure them anyway.
1st Goal: Work on my second poetry book in a series of five and published it
Just today, I got the final draft back from my editor, so now I have to read through it for corrections. She said there weren’t many. Then I import it into the publishing program I use, Vellum. Next, I need to email readers on my email list to be on my ARC (Advanced Reader Copy ) Team to read it, write a blurb I enter in the print of my book and write a review in exchange for a free .pdf copy of the book. I have the description in the works. After the book is laid out, I can get the cover down because they need the page count to correct an accurate cover. I’ve used 100 Covers .
Hopefully, I will launch this book late October, early November. I will let you know! If you want to be a part of the ARC team for this new book, email me at larada@laradasbooks.com and I will send you a copy of the new book.
2nd Goal: Revise my autofiction book on being an incest survivor and healing
Because of all the flurry around the Epstein files, I talked to my therapist about being an “Advocate for Survivors.” In the midst of this conversation, as an incest survivor, I remembered I had written a book about this, almost ten years ago. Who cares? I have it!
In 2016 I joined NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) to commit to writing about 1600 words a day, ending up with 50,000 at the end of the month. The results of the presidential election that year really spurred me on—I was devastated by the results.
Because of that dedicated, concentrated time, I wrote a 50,000+ autofiction. So, what is an autofiction?
Jane Friedman, a leader in the publishing industry says: “Short for autobiographical fiction, autofiction uses elements of autobiography and fiction to examine decisive aspects of the writer’s life. The writer then melds these realities with fictional plot elements, characters and events in a way that often reads like memoir or autobiography. With the lines of fact and fabrication blurred, readers are engaged in wondering what’s real, what isn’t, and how they can figure out which is which.”
Because of this, when I finish book #2 of the poetry series, Time Measured Out, I will focus on revising the autofiction and get it to my editor who has already heard about it. Then I will return to my poetry series.
3rd Goal: Continue with the Click Ad program for my Christmas book
In April 2024, I bought Steve Pieper’s Click Ad program to create profitable ads on Facebook doing click testing and had worked my way through most of the lessons, ready to promote my Christmas book. I bought it because my book coach did a webinar with Steve. Also, his reviews and results blew me away!
Christmas is coming, so this would be a great time to go back to whatever lesson I’m on and finish it. I may have to redo a couple of the ad copy. I’m excited because many authors have had good results with Steve’s program.
4th Goal: Energize my back-list sales
I have nine books (soon ten), three cookbooks and three audiobooks just sitting there for ready to buy, but I have to have a plan to promote them. I have multiple competitors in each area, so I have to work at this.
Here’s my action plan to be implemented in September and beyond:
BOOK TITLE
PROMOTION
DATE
RESULTS
This Tumbleweed Landed
October
When Will Papa Get Home?
October
Let Me Tell You a Story
October
Is My True Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey
October
A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter’s Grief Memoir
November
Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?
November
Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo
November
Is My True Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey
November
Hair on Fire: A Heartwarming & Humorous Christmas Memoir
December
Was It a Dream?: Navigating Life’s Journey Through Poetry
December
Is My True Universal?: A Woman’s Poetic Odyssey
December
We will see how the plan goes. You can see it’s real sketchy now!
5th Goal: Do an audiobook for my 1st book in my poetry series
I love recording audiobooks—reading my own words out loud is magical. So when I finished Was It a Dream? and published it, the recovery from the dog attack consumed me. I couldn’t stand up at the mic in my make-shift recording studio (my walk-in closet) that long—too physically taxing. Also, I was on heavy pain medication and publishing an audiobook has many intricate steps. I have used Derek Doepker’s program, Audiobooks Made Easy. This program spells out exactly what you have to do and Derek is great support if you have any problems.
As I sit here and lay out this plan, I step back! In the midst of all this, I have a move to Boquete, Panama and am starting a new life there, so I’m writing these goals out to remind myself—I am an author no matter where I live. I have the last quarter of 2025 to get my book sales going.
Also, because of the recovery of the dog attack, I lost a year of promoting my books, so I am way behind!
Will I accomplish all these goals?
Maybe yes, maybe no, but seeing them in black and white make them concrete! Easily, I can carry any no fulfilled to first quarter of 2026 and add to the list.
All this talk of promotion made me think, “Have you bought one, two or all of my books?” Let’s start here with promoting them. Go to my Author’s Page on Amazon where you can get them all!
Keep scrolling and you can see links to my audiobooks. I only sell my cookbooks directly until August 30 through my Etsy Shop, Larada’s Reading Loft.
