A Notebook of Poems

I own a lot of notebooks. Many of them are still blank, and most were gifts, since that’s what one apparently buys an aspiring writer (or did, before laptops became as ubiquitous as they now are). One such notebook, I long ago decided to use to collect my poems, ideally in their "finished" form. I thought then that once the notebook was filled, there just may be something worth publishing. 

Recently, I rediscovered both that notebook and other pieces written thousands of miles away from it. I polished many of those pieces, reworked some of those that had already been written into the notebook, and added them all to this collection. The notebook is now only about half-full, but the world has changed, and various options exist for the publication of work that might otherwise never have been seen by readers’ eyes.

Rereading these pieces, and reworking some of them, I was honestly taken aback. The completion of my Creative Writing degree had required two poetry workshops which fairly beat any faith in my poems out of me. Encountering them now, including those pieces written for those workshops, my belief in the acceptable quality of my work has been restored. Do I believe these will join the enduring ranks of words written by true poets? No. But I do believe they have some minimal value—the ability to evoke emotion in others, to convey experiences, and, hopefully, simply to be worth the effort of reading.

So, I have decided, though I make no promises as to the longevity of this decision, to compile a collection of my poems. My current plan is to self-publish this collection, which means I will simultaneously be traveling down both generally possible paths to publication.