The Spoons That Are My Ears!

Last August, for no good reason, I took a photo of my washing hanging on the line and, also for no good reason, posted the image on Facebook. Someone suggested it ought to be the cover of an anthology.

The following day, on a whim, I turned it into the cover of an anthology. Then I needed to create the anthology. First I decided that this anthology would contain poetry themed on domestic issues (humorous poetry mostly), then I solicited poems, then I selected the best, put them together, formatted the book and uploaded it to Amazon.

FLAPPING DOODLES, droll domestic poems.

Every year I try to publish one poetry anthology. The first one was WUXING LYRICAL in 2022, and then last year was ANIMAL, VEGETABLE, MINERAL. I wasn't sure what I would do for this year, but now I know. The book is here and available to be bought and read.

Many thanks, as always, to the contributors, namely Jim Matthews, Mala Mukherjee Suess, Adele Evershed, Rob Tannahill, Marie C Lecrivain, Richard Temple, Tim Anderson, Jason E. Rolfe, Andrew James Wilson, Mitali Chakravarty, Peter Banks, Danijela Trajković, Reba Das Patnaik, J.C. Macek III, Neil Sanzari, Paul Battenbough, James Goddard, Boris Glikman, David Rix, Michael Mwangi Macharia, Rebecca Lowe, Vicki Day, Roman Godzich.

I was thinking about creating another anthology next year, and I even had a schema prepared for it, and a title: THE CHAIN. But I now think it's unlikely ever to see the light of day. The fact of the matter is that I seem to be giving up the act of writing poetry and also having anything at all to do with poetry, apart from occasionally reading it. So no more editing or publishing poetry books!

Poetry doesn't really get read anymore. Another reason I am giving up writing poetry is that it takes time and energy away from the creation of my novels and short stories. I have found writing poetry to be a lot of work for very little reward, either in terms of exposure or finance.

Of course, one doesn't write poetry to earn money. One doesn't even write poetry for it to be read by many people. But I have to be a little more focused in my approach and put my energy into the projects that will prove most rewarding to me (in every sense) and those are invariably prose books.