Poetry Box to publish a chapbook (by me!)

The Poetry Box will be producing a chapbook by me, titled The Day of My First Driving Lesson. It's a collection of poems about my parents. Expected release date winter 20/21.

For interest's sake: The vast majority of the poems I've written have been stand-alones. I have only ever written a few sequences. The Musketeer sonnets, and of course the sonnet sequence that began (ended) with Lifeline, and now forms the core of my chapbook Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable.

But very shortly after my mother's passing, I had the good fortune to attend a workshop by the incomparable Penelope Scambly Schott, on writing series poems.

I don't know why it never occurred to me before. Of course I tried to write about my father's death, and then my mother's final illness and death. But how to? Where to even start? It was clearly too much for one poem-- especially since I did not want it to be all about grief. Of course there is a lot of grief expressed. But my parents deserve so much more than that.

A poem series was the perfect solution. I incorporated some older poems (including the title poem), reframing and rewriting in the process. I worked on it for pretty much the rest of 2019, and around the end of the year, put it into submission in a couple of places. The Poetry Box picked it up.

We haven't yet discussed production steps. I'm hoping the book could incorporate some of my parents' wedding photos-- poor quality images, alas-- or their wedding license...

Books Available
Country Well-Known as an Old Nightmare's Stable
High-Voltage Lines
Knocking from Inside