Why Poetry?

I am a wife, mother, avid reader, a dreamer, and a writer. Of course, there are other things about me too like my love of cooking, animals, shoes, purses, and the fact that I obviously have a nail polish hoarding disorder :)

Currently, I have self-published one short collection of poetry called Bits & Pieces: A Collection of Poems, and am just about half-way through writing my first novel. I realized when I published Bits & Pieces that the market was not too great for short collections of poetry--especially by a completely unknown author--and that's okay.

The fact is that it took a lot (and I do want to stress A LOT) to publish my deepest, most raw emotions. In fact, 99% of the poems in the collection were written over 10 years ago and some are even older than that. Up until the day I published them no one else had ever read them. So, I had asked a friend of mine if she would read some of them so that I could say they were no longer "just mine".

I obsessed over the format and cover and the fact that there was a chance, albeit a small one, that someone, other than myself and my friend, might actually read them. How did I actually publish it then? Well, I almost didn't! Like I said inner most thoughts/emotions just thrown out there with the possibility for "the world" to see = stress, debating, stomach in knots, etc.

The price was set at $3. Yes, $3 for a short collection of poetry. I think by doing that I meant to discourage people from buying it, unless they happened to be die-hard poetry junkies if there even is such a thing. Then again there is the thought that these are, in a way, parts of me. Stories are parts of the writer too, but poetry comes from a place of happiness, depression, or pain. FYI, the poems in Bits & Pieces are 99% morose . . .

All in all, I knew that poetry was not a big seller and had/have no desire to publicize it, etc. It was just to get over the absolute fear of publishing a book. A book of such personal things would be the hardest to publish, so anything after that would be a walk in the park. Besides, writing should be done out of love not for money :) 

Maybe I will post a few of the poems on here. I may even post a "teaser" to my novel.

Thanks for stopping by and reading my ramblings :)