Western Shapes, a Study in Verse is not an easy write, but it is a most rewarding one.  Almost everyone has written at least one poem, but not many have written many poems.  Usually, once the "wave" of poetry passes, it never rises again, but in some, like me, it is always with me.  Over the years, I have written poems for various reasons, and I finally put them into a book.  It contains around 130 poems of all types.  It was begun in the mid 1970s when I moved to Etna, New Hampshire, and began to live with a number of girls, including one child, and my erstwhile sister, Joan.  Amid that most-interesting environment, I pushed an overstuffed chair to a glass door, placed a bottle of sherry on the floor next to me, curled up with a pad, and in the magnificent New Hampshire winter sun flowing through the window, wrote most of these poems.  Then, I left for Philadelphia, got involved in life there, including my parents' divorce, financial interests, a career in publications and writing, and my own personal life.  I did not add to the book until the late 1990s when my daughters talked me into bringing my own work to light, writing new ones and, otherwise, embarking on a new career.  "Write and sell your own stuff," they insisted.  "You have spend years writing for other people, without recognition.  It is your turn now."  I never argue with common sense, particularly in the form of daughters, so I pulled out Western Shapes and added on.  The result is now behind the cover you see above.  I am now working on a new one called Luminator.  It is a collection of free-verse and includes a preponderance of Shakespearian sonnets, a form I love to write.

 

DUO control number:  402020

127 poems