Written Life - Sneak Peek #2

My poetry collection, Written Life,  comes out on March 31st, which is a little less than three weeks away. Note that my Release Party is scheduled for April 11th. It will be held at Cafe De Arts in downtown Waukesha from 2:30 - 4:00 PM. It should be a lot of fun. I've grown to kind of like these public appearances because it gives me a chance to talk and laugh with my readers.

About the book's cover. This week I submitted cover ideas to the publisher. This cover was a bit more difficult to pin down what I really wanted. Because my subjects are so broad ranging, I didn't really have one central theme to build a cover around. For this reason, my emphasis was on a simplistic cover with a cool font. I ran some ideas past a few friends and think I have a good start. (I even had a little fun with theoretical sasquatch, narwahl and unicorn covers.) Hopefully by next week at this time I'll have cover art to show.

So, last week I covered the first three themes in the collection, namely, Home, Place and Pets. This week I'd like to focus on the next three, so here goes.

• On Life

These pieces focus on a variety of questions a person struggles with in their mid-life years. Many of the poems jump between the past, present and future tense as I try and figure out what it all means. They take a look at the big picture and remind the reader that none of this thing we call life is a guarantee, so take it, grab it and make it beautiful.

• On Family

Growing up in a big family, it seemed I was never lacking for a good poem based on my experience growing up. These poems cover the broad spectrum of family, both immediate, and extended. It's brothers, sisters, fathers, sons, mothers and daughters. The joy and fun is mixed in with the tragedy and sorrow. It even includes a couple of cars that were part of the family.

• On Love

We've all felt it, fell into it, fell out of it, loved it, hated it, dreaded it, and looked forward to it. This short collection of poems covers everything from the love of a mother to the love of a long marriage. It talks about galactic love and love as big as a Great Lake. 

So that's the next installment of a sneak peek. Next week I'll finish up with the last four themes and talk a bit more about the whole poetry compilation process.

Blogging off...