Background Behind Chapbook

 

The author copies of my chapbook Listening for Low Tide arrived yesterday. I am very pleased to see twenty-five of my poems brought together in this chapbook. 

These poems were written over a period of about thirty-four years. The earliest one, “Sitting Alone, Listening,” dates from 1987 or 1988. That poem was a breakthrough poem for me because it contained my natural writing voice. Both my wife and my friend Derick Burleson have said a lot of good things about this poem; that's partly why it's included.

What connects these poems is an emphasis on listening. I am acutely aware of sound, and that awareness makes itself known in these poems.

I probably have spent hundreds of dollars entering chapbook contests. Over a period of years, I took out poems, added other ones, rearranged the poems, and changed the title several times, only to have editors say things like your poems emphasize a single theme, or your poems are too prosy and too subtle.

After seeing my wife format the winning chapbook and the finalist for our first chapbook contest, and after seeing how well they looked, I decided to let her set up my chapbook. She had been encouraging me to publish with our press, Choeofpleirn Press. We started with a trial chapbook a few months ago. That chapbook then went through another revision, and I solicited blurbs before we published Listening for Low Tide. Although we could have used a picture from Canva, I decided to use one of my own pictures. The cover picture may seem out of place with the idea of a low tide, but the picture matches what appears in the title poem.

Thirteen of the twenty-five poems are appearing for the first time in this chapbook. One downside to including poems not having been published first in literary journals is that I now have fewer poems to send out, but that problem provides more incentive to write new poems and to revise some of the other poems that I have written.

A paper copy of my chapbook is available at Amazon. An ebook for less money is available directly through our press, Choeofpleirn Press.

With the exception of a revised "Kneeling in Prayer," the poems of mine included within this blog are not part of this chapbook. Some of the poems can be found at the following links: Apple Valley Review and Dragon Poet Review and Poetica Review. Those poems published at Dragon Poet Review have undergone a few revisions. "Stenciling Another Kill" in Poetica Review has been revised as well. Apple Valley Review nominated "Those Nights" for the Pushcart.