Day fifty-two - I love...gentle reminders

Sometimes I forget I'm published.

My friends laugh at me.

My friend Celeste has the most fun with it. This is my friend Karen, she's published!

me: oh yah. I forgot.

Or, when I updated my resume last year and sent it to my mother and a few friends for review, the response was: This is great, but you forgot your publishing credits.

sigh.

It's not that I think it's unfabulous, I think it's quite fabulous, and a life-long dream come true. It's just not something I think about every day. and I don't walk around introducing myself to people "Hi, I'm Karen. I'm published."

It's a part of me. but not all of me.

The other day, my friend Pauly posted on Facebook the following: If you don't have at least 100 books in your house then I worry for your children's future.
me: I don't currently. Because most of my books are in storage. But I have hundreds waiting for me to come get them. They call to me. Kiki........
Pauly: You know that you don't count. You are an actual published writer.
me: ‎:). I forget that part.
Pauly: And one would think that might be a bit relevant.
me: I have to be reminded.
Pauly: It's kind of hard to forgOMG SOMETHING SHINY!!!

This is truly the beauty of our friendship. Pauly nicknamed me Kiki the Wonder Ferret several years ago.

and so, because I am published, I will share another piece from my poetry collection, Three Thousand Doors, published by Laughing Cactus Press. It's a piece my friend Justen recently commented on:

Waterfalls

the sky is dripping
a woolen blanket hoisted atop the canopy
in vain effort to hold back the rain,
wool and water do not mix,
heavy begets heavy

souls are dormant
waiting patiently as the water carves
new pathways into the soil,
canyons forged from deluge,
mysteries begin and end in quiet contemplation,
silence begets silence.

A new dream founders in the clouds
while the rain recoils
awaiting the new torrent

Day twenty-five - I love...my muse

She has been uber challenging and inspirational lately. 

knocking around in my head, sometimes jumping around in my thoughts and emotions like she is on a trampoline. making me write furiously; passionately.

so much so...I'm pretty confident I'm ready to start pulling together another collection.

of course the next steps are compiling said collection, finding the title, and figuring out my publication route.

but that's all secondary. the most important thing is that I am writing. and I'm proud of what I'm writing. and I am in a place where I am ready to share more of my work. (even though the first run into publishing gave me serious panic attacks)

I WANT to put another collection out into the world. I WANT to read reviews and receive feedback. I WANT to know that my writing is reaching out and touching the people who read it.

because really, to me, the whole wonderful point of being a published poet, are those moments when someone says to me, "You said what I couldn't say. It's like you're in my head, writing my thoughts, my heart, my feelings. thank you!"