Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Good Morning, Again

Hello, folks.  My life over the past couple of months has involved a lot of things going much differently than I anticipated.  Overall, the surprises have been for the good—a very fortunate thing, indeed.

So here’s another surprise: The Spring Ghazals blog is back, tho with quite a bit different format than in the past.  From here on out, I’ll be posting the actual poems from the book, two per week (I’m thinking Wednesday & Saturday as an ongoing schedule, tho this week’s poem will post on Friday).  That means there should be posts thru July, at which point I’ll assess what the blog’s ongoing function might be.  But from now until then, it’ll be all poetry, all the time.

This means a choice of course, for you as poetry reader, not to say, consumer.  You can read all the poems on the blog over the course of these next several months, gratis, or you can shell out actual money to have a book.  An interesting thought I’ve been entertaining recently is that books may not go obsolete as some have predicted, but instead become “premium” items.  Just as many recording artists now allow you to “pay what you want” (sometimes even without setting a minimum price) for downloadable music, but charge for CDs or, even more especially, vinyl, the future of publishing” may follow suit in some way, especially as the net allows poets & fiction writers to become independent artists, operating outside the traditional publishing models.  Time, as usual, will tell—even if it doesn’t tell us.

So, please swing on by from time to time to read the poems!  They will be posted in “book order,” with the first poem, “Ghazal 4/24” appearing on Friday January 21st, & then one poem each on subsequent Wednesdays & Friday until the manuscript is complete. 

& now for a words from our sponsors!




The Spring Ghazals can be purchased at any of the following online outlets:

Lulu
Amazon
Barnes & Noble (new—& a bargain at $11.40 US!)
Amazon UK (£7.94)

Both Amazon & Lulu have the book for $12 US.  

4 comments:

  1. Nice to read on the blog. But there's no substitute for the real thing that you can take down from the shelf ,and admire on the shelf!You can show them to people, lend them to people, take them with you in the car to browse whenever you get a chance. I like my Spring Ghazals in 3D reality thank you!
    Anybody who hasn't bought them yet needs their head testing!!
    Ps what might be nice is any background detail/info about the particular poems as you post them and we could ask questions?

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  2. Hi TFE: Thanks for the kind words & for boosting the book. I'm always happy to answer questions the best I can, & I'd welcome commenters to ask questions if they have them. I don't believe I'll be getting into the poems in terms of background as part of the posts, however. Part of this is my "New Critic's" soul liking to see the text stand by itself--but more importantly, I think I myself need to step back from what I perceive as the background to these poems & let them have their own life.

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  3. "welcome commenters asking questions"--"encourage commenters to ask questions" -- grammar fail.

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  4. I am certain I commented here the other day.

    I will be sure to check in periodically and I also second the ideas that TFE has presented.

    Although I have the book, it's nice to get a gently nudge as a reminder to go back and re-explore your lovely pieces, John.

    Kat

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