My book, Poems Mostly of the Sea, is now available for purchase on Amazon! The Kindle edition bundles free with the paperback, if you want it to. There may be some minor changes made as I get the second proof and pick a few nits, but the benefit of this form of publishing is that I will absolutely be able to make them, with only a few days for review.

Upcoming Book!

I've often been asked whether I have an archive of my work online. That's what this blog is supposed to be for, but one thing that's prevented me from posting often is the fact that almost all literary magazines require your submissions never to have been published before, even on a personal blog. Considering that most literary magazines pay nothing but exposure, and "exposure" can sometimes mean "we will spell your name wrong and delete the entire issue from our archives in six months", I have finally decided to start living in the future and use Amazon to publish the manuscript I've been sitting on for a couple of years. It's 2019, we're all supposed to be exposing ourselves!

One major benefit of self-publishing through Amazon is that I will have complete creative control over my work. I've selected the cover from my own photography, laid each poem out in order according to my specific vision, and, if I realize something could be worded better, I can just make that change right away rather than desperately hoping it sells enough for another edition.

Here are the first and last poems, since I no longer have to worry about hiding them away:

Prayer to Darkness

Darkness, bless me in my smallness.
I am on a rock, but I do not fear,
though the sky loom all depthless above me.
My world is a pebble and the sky a wave tossing it:
the sky is above and below and about me.
Darkness, protect and preserve me,
though the Aurora be a river across which lies Death,
though the Aurora will catch me in blessed solitude,
hold onto my eyes while the wolves gather 'round me.
I do not fear the ice beneath cracking,
me plunging to freefall in the cold and the darkness,

for the ocean will bless me
in solitude, take me to pre-birth:

I do not fear to be floating with no-one,

the world itself is floating with no-one,
with the moon as a twin that is dead in the still womb.

Darkness, blanket me tightly, come blanket me,

and call the Aurora to sing me my lullaby,
and both of you say to me

"sleep, little mote in the water.
Sleep, who are smaller than stars,
who are cast in the void.
And you may shine brightly, but shine
for an instant, and Darkness,
the first thing,
the last thing,
will drown you."

Prayer to Daylight

Daylight, expose me.

Show me plain and the snake
will not strike without warning.
The sky is a shield hammered flat,
the world has limits.
Daylight, the red stones
arise from the sand and are menhirs.
They do not shrink me,
for I am shown plain.
The day is my spotlight and I will not thirst,
for cacti have moisture,
for the road can be traveled by cars
which cannot help but see me.
Day, though you redden me, I do not fade
in the great standing stones.
You show plain the beetle-tracks, antelope-corpses,
the world is huge and I cannot traverse it.
The world goes on, I cannot see it all,
though myself, I am thrown in sharp focus.
Daylight, speak to me, say

"Stand in sharp focus.
Stand, though your legs begin aching,
your lips crack with dryness.
Your life will be long and as full
as the desert with sand.
You are casting a statuelike shadow."

Poems Mostly of the Sea will be available on Amazon in a few days, and I'll be able to make the Kindle edition free for promotional periods! If it were up to me, I'd make it permanently free, and only the hard edition would cost anything, but Bezos gotta get that dough.