where to go where to go
How do you begin a project that you feel is daunting?
This isn’t a rhetorical question or a prompt to help me begin writing. It’s a question to you, the person reading this.
How do you narrow down your ideas? How do you choose a template? How do you make final decisions? And before all of that, how and where do you begin?
I want to publish a book of tiny poems.
I have the poems, but I can’t quite envision the final product.
I know that I want to include black and white pictures, but how many should I include? Should there be one picture for every poem? If so, do the pictures need to be related to the poems? And how many poems do I want to include?
What kind of font do I want to use?
What kind of feel do I want the book to have?
Do I want it to be a digital book? A print-to-order book? A handmade zine with limited printings?
Hmmm …
How would you go about, or how have you gone about preparing and bringing a book to press?
once again
in your voice
everything my neighbors say
open windows
piled high on a desk
the days of a life
the sky all to itself
where to go where to go
blooming in the garden
pink hollyhocks
an eerie light fills the room
just before it rains
two lost shuttlecocks
learning life’s lessons
Hello! I've been trying to step away from my computer some, sorry for not being here as often.
Your poems nearly always bring a very clear image to my mind. I see what you saw, or a version of it. Shuttle cocks on my local school's roof for instance. A window of mine open, letting in voice from across the street. Your work gives me blasts of images. I also love your photographs. Somehow you encapsulate both feeling and image in very few words. Love your work!
You might ask @ericvancewalton, a fellow poet of poems of fewer words than most, how he makes these decisions. He just posted the first chapter of the latest book he is working on.
I often find your weekly poems to be of a vague theme, related to your condition that week. I do try to place the poems together with the accompanying photographs, if only tenuously. Perhaps keep it simple (for you) and group them in your book as you grouped them here? The mood you were in during a particular week might help the reader. Dunno! Good luck!
No need to apologize or explain. At this time of year, I imagine you have plenty of things to do in your garden and around your house, so staying offline and away from screens shouldn’t be too hard. (Right?)
Asking Eric for tips and insights is a good idea.
In talking about wanting to publish these poems in book form, I’ve found myself uncovering preferences that I have and making intuitive decisions.
The biggest question I have for myself now is what I want the final book(s) to look like, and by that I mean how I want to print them. Do I want to outsource the task? Do I want to make limited editions of handmade books? Do I want to order a small batch of hard-cover books and keep them at my house until people want them? Do I want to use a print to order service? Etc.
I’ve decided that I only want to share 20 poems (or so) at a time. I want the reader to read them all and have the feeling of I want more.
Back when I had poetry books, I often found that I never read all the poems, or that it would take me years to finally read them all because I would open the book at random places and start. While I like find something new in a book each time I open it, I want to make short collections of my favorite poems coupled with strong black and white images that you can sit with and finish in ten minutes, or spend an hour slowly looking through and enjoying.
Great poem! Tell me more about the shuttlecocks at the end. Interesting!
Publishing a book is one thing I have never done, but I imagine it's got to be a daunting project. I think an image with each poem reflecting it's feel or meaning would be a great idea. But I wouldn't have the foggiest idea where one start...
Even without wings, shuttlecocks have a tendency to fly away. 😉
These two landed on a school roof, where I saw them from an upper window.
I like to imagine them sitting outside of the classroom, hearing the teacher’s voice through the open windows, and learning the daily lessons.
I also imagine the kids who lost two shuttlecocks and not one, learning a thing or two about life in the process of fooling around, going home empty handed, getting in trouble, etc.
I like all of your poems.
Number one I love.
Number 2 made me laugh.
I don't have any advice because I have never create a book, nor researched the possibilities.
I do like photos or drawings/illustrations. They don't have to be all encomposing of the poem, but related. I think one opposite each page of the poems.
The feel it seems would come from you, as in how you would like them presented. The feeling you are trying to convey.
But.... what do I know ?!
I appreciate you sharing your ideas.
In talking with people about what I want to do, I’ve uncovered some preferences that I didn’t realize I had. Now I have a pretty concrete idea of what I want to do.
I think making the final layout of everything will be much like doing other design and art, a process of play.
I’ll move everything around until it takes a shape that makes the THIS IS IT! Impression on me. 😊
Like little glimpses into your life, creating beautiful images, as you do xx
Thank you. They’re my daily snapshots.
You've received an upvote from the Blockchain Poets account. Thank you for submitting your poem to our community!
Much appreciated!😊
There aren't enough hours in the day to process it all! I love my stacks. :)
You know, I kind of viewed this poem in a negative way, as if the documents were a waste of time. It was half-inspired by what was in front of and around me, and half-inspired by an old Japanese movie.
Your comment pointed out a positive side that I hadn’t realized was there. When I look at my desk at home, I do love the stacks that I have there, and would actually like them to be bigger. 🤣
If there were more blank pages, more examples of art and design that I like, more stories, etc. and if I had more time to sit with them and go through them and replenish them, it would be great!
The poem could be interpreted both ways. I think that's what makes it cool. We each bring our experiences and the poem works because it has a universal theme.
Thanks for pointing that out.
Very cool all, one better than the other, this literally happened 30 minutes ago in my window.
Thanks for sharing and good luck with your book ♥
Timing is funny, isn’t it.
I know Amazon has some very helpful tools that allow people to self-publish. That may be the easiest option for a first time author.
I’ve heard that from a lot of people.
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STOPI love your work the economy of words and space and the brilliant images
Thank you, as always.