A Summary of My Second Book of Poetry

Here is a summary of my second book of poetry, The Sound of Rain, which is out of print. I plan on adding some of the poems published in my second book to this blog. I wrote this summary because my publisher, Cyberwit, requested it. By the way, Cyberwit is still in business, I think.

Dear Editor,

This book of poems comprises poetry written over the past year and a half (from 2020-2021). It is concerned with many different subjects, as any good book of poetry should be. Some of the poems have to do with my recent obsession that reincarnation may be possible given a materialistic philosophy (even though I am not a materialist). In these poems, however, I use the word “physicalist.” The two poems that address reincarnation from this vantage are “Reincarnation According To a Physicalist” and “A Physicalist Ponders Reincarnation.” They illustrate the working of the mind of a physicalist as he gropes with the concept of rebirth, and his possible immortality.

This book will have a broad appeal to many people, especially those interested in reincarnation. My last book sold 44 copies on the internet, and I expect this book would sell more. I have a blog and am active on Facebook and Quora. I also know a great many people personally who would be interested in buying copies of the book. 

The other poems deal with problems plaguing a mentally-ill person. I am bipolar, and I am well-acquainted with issues like anxiety, which I write about here. In my poem “Anxiety” I borrow an idea from Shakespeare—that of playing the fool in my own home where the door is shut upon me. But in this case I have internet access, meaning that I no longer have the option of being alone with my foolishness—not even that. I am subject to the constant temptation to get online and parade myself around for other fools to react to, other fools who are in the same situation as I, so that there is no rest from social inspection and reaction. The poem totally delves into this idea. This poem has been published in a small venue, but it deserves a larger audience. It is an idea that is totally relevant to this day and age in which we find ourselves washed ashore like marooned sailers. 

Another Idea I explore is the idea of life in the Ice Age. I explore what it must have been like for my ancestors and what that experience would be like if it were relived in a modern dystopia. I list the chores of an Ice-Age hunter-gatherer and include sex with the wife as a chore, because it must have been that in order to produce enough children to survive and increase the population.

In “An Incel” I probe the plight of a lonely boy marooned in his parents’ house. He thinks of those poorer than himself as well as those richer than himself and finds that he is worse off than both of them. All this is implied in the way of wishes and imagination—in the things he tells himself. 

In “Your Selflessness” the speaker explores the plight of a boy his partner knew in high school—someone no one could help, a boy who is identified as a “closet suicide.” The poem roves and expands rapidly through an understory of memories and possibilities that come flooding in. At one point the poem says, “Water, as a generalization, is as hard as iron,” letting the reader know that nothing is certain. 

I also have the essay on reincarnation, “Recurrent Reincarnation.” If you would like to omit the essay and publish the book with only the poems included, that would be fine with me.