I have an interest in independently publishing collections of poetry. It has been a great adventure putting together my poetry chapbook, My Farm Whispers, and working with my daughter Evelyn Stewart who designed by. When it wasn’t picked up by a press that I had submitted it to I thought, heck, I’ve done all this work so I’ll publish it myself! I’ve been happy with the sales, and have copies on consignment in several independent bookstores in Nova Scotia. It’s allowed me to raise money to support the education of my young friends at Himalayan Hope in West Bengal, India. http://www.himalayanhope.org/
It’s been particularly rewarding to give copies to family members who share my memories of growing up on our farm.
I have lots of tales to tell you about My Farm Whispers and my friends in India, but today I want to tell you about my friend Janet Parker Vaughan’s writing practice and her poetry collections, Dawn Poems.
Janet shared her experience:
“I have in the past year or so published three small volumes of Dawn Poems.
A few years ago I started getting up early in the morning with the idea of dedicating the first hour of the day to writing a poem. I took the first image or line that came to me as a starting point. When I looked back, I found I had over three hundred poems, prayers and poetic statements, most of which I had forgotten I’d written. With the wonderful Sandra Barry’s evaluation and encouragement, I thematically arranged them into four volumes. I self-published them and over time have given them away to family and friends.
Our childhood farms forever haunt us. The outer landscape through which we moved and had our being became over time Inner Landscape, a place of infinite reflection. Weren’t we lucky!”
Yes, I feel lucky and very blessed to have had the experience of growing up on a farm with all its inspirations. Hope you’ll be inspired to put together your own collection of poems.
Thanks, Janet, for sharing this.
(Quote used with permission.)
