The Distance Between Two Paper Cups and a String

I never pictured myself writing a book of poetry, not even in my wildest dreams. Yet, I spent the last couple of months sifting through 100s of poems I have wrote over the years, figuring out how to put this all together in way that made sense to not only myself, but you all who have been here with me the entire time. I suppose the pandemic helped unleash my creative approach to the rest of my life. I have always loved writing, yet it was always one of those things that I would put on the backburner when I had more time, with the constant “I will get to it tomorrow” internal banter, which as we all know, time waits for no one. I finally made the concise effort to take control of my creativity and chase off the demons that blocked me from unleashing the most pure, raw version of myself that I deserved to be.

I asked myself too, why poetry? No one wants to read an autobiography with all the tiny details of my life, and anything of substance you would hear from me directly in person or possibly through the various podcasts I am involved with. I do love writing short stories than can become kick ass comic books, so I have that. I have never been much of a journal guy. My ex gave me a journal that I used occasionally, where I would talk about “us” but nothing more. I figured my brain, while focused, can fire off in some many directions with complete disregard to the rest of my creative endeavors, so maybe poetry could work best to get these feelings, both the light and dark off my chest. There are no rules in poetry. Just sweat equity and ink from your pen is all you need to pour onto paper every emotion you can. Poetry isn’t for everyone, I know that. I do know that it has helped heal me.

There is no way I wanted to break this book of poems into themes. It just didn’t make sense to me to put labels on these pieces of my soul. I apologize if one minute you are sad and the next you depressed, or you are smiling and angry. It’s not my intention to be so chaotic; and you will feel all of that here. I still do when I go back and read some of these. I chose to put this in no order because life has no rhyme or reason, so why should this art. We have all fallen in and out of love, buried a loved one, slowly watched a parent or child grow old, chased dreams, partied with friends, cursed and thanked God, felt alone, scared, happy, known someone at the end of rope, and so many aspects of our lives that sometimes are tough to put on paper. If there is something you can take from this collection of poems is that we are all in this together, so give a damn about this life and be good to one another. It’s all we have.

This book and these poems are far from perfect. Maybe during their creation what was in my head didn’t come out the way I intended, or you’ll see an extra space between words or a stray capital letter. Just know that is all from my heart and I am okay with this beautifully splendid and imperfect collection of memories and thoughts. This was never meant to be perfect.
Thank you for following this journey of mine. I know time is off the essence and money and resources are always tough to come by these days, so thank you from the bottom of my heart. This won’t be the only book of poems I write, it’s just the first one that has opened me up to you all in ways that finally makes me feel whole.
Never be afraid to chase the version of yourself that you deserve.

Please share with love.