Friends,
I gotta tell you how much I’m digging this collection of verses I’ve put together. Every time I thumb through it (three or four times so far), I’m just so pleased with the run of it. It’s a greatest hits collection; I honestly didn’t put one piece in it that didn’t feel like it had to be there. All of them, while they might not be perfect pieces–some of them are quite broken in fact–they are such good pieces for me. A lot of that is due to things that I know and which you can never know, so I realize there’s no way you’re ever going to appreciate these as much as I do; still, there’s enough strong stuff to make me think that most people could read the whole thing and be pleased that they did so, warts and all.
Some of you have bought it, but not nearly as many as I would like. I certainly would appreciate it if you did, and, like I’ve said elsewhere, it isn’t about your reading it; I’d be happier if you bought it and didn’t read it than if you didn’t buy it at all.
And here is the Table of Contents of these 50 sets of verse that I’m so proud to have written. I hope it inspires your interest. Much love, many thanks.
Paul
With Slippers on His Feet and a Cup of Herbal Tea
Lumberjack
Pusher
Reasons to Slam
In Memory of Bambino’s Clubhouse
Ziggle Zaggle
Correspondence with Charlotte, North Carolina
Drinkslinger’s Lament
Indeed
He
Child’s Play
Concert of the Night
She Never Made it as a Teacher
Just that much or Something Similar
Nonexistent Beaches (Abridged)
Thoughts Inspired by Lorca
We were born inside a song
Façade
Muted, Yet Splashing
Scattering
…and it always goes back to the scattering
A Matter of Character
Tomorrow, Dad
Depression
Liar
Misery’s Company
Sometimes We All Get So Fearful (A song for a friend)
Downstairs in the Fridge
Things for Which the Poet Was Looking
Heaven
On this date in history
A House I Didn’t See
Sweet Dreams
Keeping Up with the Beckners
Poetry Slam at the Empty Glass
Without the Need of Feet
High as Brown Bread
The Fit of Skin in the Present Day
Sick Bath
Off Of and Behind Us (For a Friend in Time of Trouble, but It’s Really for All of Us)
Feed it to the Birds
There sits the bottle
If we could just be like amoebas
A Weapon of Words
Punctuation Questions
Empty Streets
Carpet Dope
Thoughts of my Mother
Inheritance
A Thought In The Quest For Patience
