An exciting announcement

Photo: earl53 from morguefile.com

I've been hard at work putting together my first-ever poetry collection. It includes select pieces from my undergrad days up through the present, both previously published poems and a number of brand new pieces. It's an eclectic mix of lyrical, narrative, spiritual, humorous, experimental, and fiction-in-verse. I'm excited to share it with you all.

The collection is called Muddy-Fingered Midnights. The title comes from a line in my poem "A Writer's Parable," published in 2011 in the British journal Rubber Lemon (page 4).

To give you a little taste, I thought I'd share this short "ars poetica" piece (poem about the nature of poetry or the writing process) composed for the collection.


Affliction

In the decade between
dawn and alarm sound,
a new story swells
like a sprained ankle.
It pains you to wakefulness.
Dough-rising, volume-doubling,
pressing ever outward,
it stretches the sorry sock
that deigns to contain it.
Huge and purple it emerges,
in every sense an enormity.
The only medicine for it
is bloodletting, bard-style:
pen, paper, patient play.

© Laurel W. Garver, 2013

The collection will be available in mid-March. I'll be doing a cover reveal next week! Stay tuned.

National Poetry Month is coming up in April, and I'd love to visit some blogs to talk poetry. Let me know in the comments if you're willing to host a guest post, interview and/or giveaway.

Categories: Muddy-Fingered Midnights, National Poetry Month, news, poetry