Yesterday's Words: The surprise poetry book in memory of a lost parent

‘This book is all wrong.’ That’s the thought I had when going over a poetry book I planned to self-publish this year. It was all wrong. Something about the book was just “off.” It didn’t have the right poems. It didn’t stick to one theme.

My plan had been to publish a general poetry book, one without a theme. But then I realized that some of the poems in that book did indeed have one theme, and they outnumbered the ones that didn’t.

So instead of having two poetry books this year, I ended up with three, because I removed the theme poems and put them into a new poetry book which I will be self-publishing in August.

The book I was left with needed a new title. After some thought and some discussion with my cover designer, I decided on a new title and a new cover design. This was totally different than what I had originally envisioned for this poetry book, but fortunately, it worked. It all came together really well in the end.

The result was my new poetry book, Yesterday’s Words. I self-published this book earlier this year. I was fortunate to get it out in time for my father’s birthday, which was April 12^th.

And getting it out on the same day as his birthday was actually important to me.

It was 3 weeks ago this month that my father passed away. He died on Easter Sunday, just one week short of his 68^th birthday.

Before my father’s death, I was struggling with who to dedicate this new poetry book to. I actually considered quite a few people.

Then my father passed away. And I decided it would be dedicated to his memory. What’s interesting is that the last poem in this book, “If I Could Be You,” would have fitted his last days perfectly. My father struggled with depression during his last days and the poem addresses that issue. This is the same poem I read at his funeral. I felt it was only right to dedicate the book to his memory and that the book come out on his birthday.

And in some way, it seems appropriate. The first poetry book I self-pub this year is dedicated to my father’s memory and the last one is dedicated to my mother’s memory.

I am glad I was able to put this poetry book together. A lot of the poems are just about life. Snapshots of how life is like. The good things, the bad things. I once saw an angel so my poem about that is in the book. I once saw a red heart on a moon inside of a cloud and my poem about such a thing is in the book. But I also talk about friendship, how we communicate with each other and the struggles we go through. The things about life that can only be “life.”

Yesterday’s Words may have been a surprise poetry book for me but it is also one that will have a special place among my other poetry books.

Blurb:

Yesterday's words are like butterflies on the wind. The moments we capture with words kept within our hearts. The good moments, the bad moments, the sad moments and the moments that touch the soul. The little things that we see, hear and experience that make us think, Yes, life is like that. These snapshots from life have been captured into verse.

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