As some of you know, I started a blog dedicated to my collection of poetry, The Spring Ghazals. In case you’re not familiar with this, The Spring Ghazals is made up of poems I wrote between May 2008 & February 2010. The poems are concerned with love & loss & memory & time, & in a fragmented & lyric sense of the word, describe a narrative arc.
I decided recently, however, that the dedicated blog wasn’t really spreading the word about the book in the way I’d hoped. As a result, I decided to close the shutters on that blog & try to spread the word here in hopes that the wider readership would result in more people being interested in & ultimately purchasing the book. Speaking of which: The Spring Ghazals is available at Lulu, as well as on Amazon & Amazon UK.
As a “kick-off” to this new series, which will appear at irregular but frequent intervals (at least weekly) during the month of December, & then will probably move to its own weekly day in January, I thought I’d post a virtual reading of one of the poems, complete with video slideshow. This poem, “Fondue,” comes from “The Kitchen Poems” section of the book, seven poems all based on some type of food.
Future posts will include discussion topics about the book & self-publishing; some background about the composition of the poems; (more) virtual readings; a series called Music Theory for Poets; any noteworthy book news—& more. Hope you enjoy it!
Good. Very, very good, my friend. I loved this. Performance poetry is your milieu, and the slide show is icing on the cake.
ReplyDeleteNothing short of brilliant , John. If this doesn't shift a few books I'll eat my hat!
ReplyDeleteI am so used to hearing you sing. it was a new departure to hear you reading. Thanks. I too hope to be doing a bit of blog consolidation over the Christmas holidays.
ReplyDeleteHi Jacqueline, TFE & Alan
ReplyDeleteJacqueline: Thanks--yes, reading my own work has always been a strong point--glad you liked the slideshow too!
TFE: Thanks! But I'd watch making any predictions about this book selling.
Alan: Thanks for stopping by! Blog consolidation is a good thing, I think.
Thanks for this, John. Really love it! I'd like to make a suggestion, though. Could you print the poem for those of us who aren't auditory learners? (or maybe this is the enticement to buy the book...hmmm).
ReplyDeleteHi Karen: Thanks for the suggestion. However, you have hit on the main reason why I didn't post the actual text.
ReplyDelete