peace at last?

I woke up this morning to an email letting me know my latest collection of poetry is now available (it’s on Amazon and should be on Bookshop soon). Later in the day, news broke of a ceasefire deal in the Middle East. News reports this evening show Israel is still bombing Gaza but there were also scenes of people celebrating in the streets. I want to feel hopeful. There’s a lot of work ahead but if we could, at the very least, have peace for a few weeks…the healing process could begin.

I won’t say I’m proud of this slim volume; editing it certainly revealed to me my limitations as a poet. I used to say I only wrote poems when I was angry and I spent a lot of the past two years in a state of rage. But I now know that it’s possible to reach a point where you can’t even find words for your fury. The title of this collection is one of many poems I choked on…

I’m not sure how much poetry I’ll write in 2025. I have a couple of gigs this weekend, including an author panel on Sunday (register for the link here) but I also quit a couple of kid lit groups earlier this month. I’m hoping to turn back to writing for adults this year and submitted a grant application that would enable me to finish one of three unfinished novels. I’ve requested the foreign rights for Books 1-3 in the dragon series from Random House so it’s possible that those books will have a second life overseas. And it’s also possible that the publisher waited too long and missed the “middle grade moment” in foreign rights. Not going to worry about it now. I need more peace in my life, too.