Numb. Skulled. weary from driving seven hundred fifty miles o’er course two days. not in the mood at the moment for strategies or tactics or best plans made, well thought, thought through. nonetheless not meandering mindlessly this is a moment for gratefulness.
despite weariness despite strain, contrary to disillusionment, despite broken heart, despite fracture, in spite of bruise, though in bitter dispute with liars,though sad witness to bloodshed.
I take a moment, this is a moment of Gratefulness.
Ok, I just had a book published by a publisher. I have celebrated with my friends and with family. What next?
I’m reminded of watching a television show one night where a new writer had finished his first book and spent an awfully excessive amount of time talking about it.
A veteran writer invited him to a poker game. At that game was James Patterson and Michael Connolly. They grilled him a little. Michael Connolly asked him,
“Do you know what I did after my first book was published?”
The young writer answered, “No, I do not.”
Connolly replied, “I shut up and started on my next book.”
So friends and fam, Thanks for all the Likes and Hugs and Loves and Congrats!
But now it is time for me to shut up and work on my next book! (already in progress)
I would like to thank: Michael Geffner / InspiredWordNYC for permitting to use one of the many photo headshots for the BIO page of my new book:
POETS SHOULD NOT WRITE ABOUT POLITICS.
Michael and Marvin Mendlinger always made me look good with their fabulous expertise. Additionally, Michael’s advice over the years helped propel me towards success!
POETS SHOULD NOT WRITE ABOUT POLITICS by Jerry T Johnson
The features will also be live-streamed to the great weather for MEDIA facebook page
Plus open mic. (3 minutes) – The host will be taking open mic signups during the event.
Hosted by Jerry T. Johnson
Admission: FREE
21+
POET BIOs
Laurel S. Peterson
Laurel S. Peterson is a Professor of English at Norwalk Community College. Her poetry has been published in many small literary journals. She has two poetry chapbooks, That’s the Way the Music Sounds and Talking to the Mirror, and a full-length collection, Do You Expect Your Art to Answer? She also co-edited a collection of essays on women’s justice titled (Re)Interpretations: The Shapes of Justice in Women’s Experience and wrote a mystery novel, Shadow Notes. Her second mystery novel, The Fallen, is scheduled to be released later this year, and a new poetry collection, Daughter of Sky, will be released in early 2022. She is on the editorial board of the literary magazine Inkwell, and served as the town of Norwalk, Connecticut’s, Poet Laureate from April 2016 – April 2019.
Francine Witte
Francine Witte’s poetry and fiction have appeared in Smokelong Quarterly, Wigleaf, Mid-American Review, Passages North, and many others. Her latest books are Dressed All Wrong for This (Blue Light Press,) The Way of the Wind (AdHoc fiction,) and (The Theory of Flesh.) Her chapbook, The Cake, The Smoke, The Moon (flash fiction) will be published by ELJ September, 2021. She lives in NYC.
