Poetry Prompt #68 – Books

When I started this blog, I promised myself that it wouldn’t be an “about me” blog. I hope you’ll forgive me for breaking that promise. Here's my reason: the advance copies of my new book, What Matters, arrived on Wednesday, and I’m so excited that I wanted to share the good news.

I've written a lot of books, but this one is the most special of all. "Meeting" it in print has been both exciting and humbling. The design and production are amazing, thanks to my publisher (John Weber, of Welcome Rain, http://www.welcomerain.com/) and the incredibly gifted designer he hired to create the cover and interior (Laura Smyth, http://www.smythtype.com/).

This was a challenging book to write – it deals with my experiences before, during, and after breast cancer. It’s not, however, a collection of poems about being ill; rather, it’s a collection of poems about survival and the human spirit – what grief, illness, and loss can teach us, and the ways in which we remember how to live (what really matters). Reviewer Charles DeFanti summed up my purpose when he wrote, "We're all survivors of something or other, and these ... poems by Adele Kenny tell us that we're not alone." Click Here to Read the Review

What Matters

6” x 9”, 64 Pages, 47 Poems 

Hardcover with Dust Jacket

Brown Boards with Gold Lettering

Click Here to Read Sample Poems from What Matters

I hope you'll consider ordering a copy and taking advantage 

of Amazon's generous discount!

Click Here to Order

Now – this week’s prompt!

Of course, with my own new book happily in mind, I thought it would be interesting to think about books and to try and write a poem about books we’ve read, books that have touched our lives in special ways, books we read as children, books that we’ve borrowed or lent, places we’ve spent time reading books, books that remind us of people and places, the books we'd like to write, the books we want/need to read, or “book” as a symbol or a metaphor. 

Examples:

"Books" by Gerald Stern

"A Happy Birthday" by Ted Kooser

"There is no frigate like a book" by Emily Dickinson
"Picture-books in Winter" by Robert Louis Stevenson

"A Book Said Dream and I Do" by Barbara Ras

"Book Loaned to Tom Andrews" by Bobby C. Rogers

"After Reading Lao Tzu" by Amy Newlove Schroeder

"A Book of Music" by Jack Spicer

"Balance'"by Adam Zagajewski
"Book Lover" by Robert Service