Poet's and Suicide Prevention Month- September

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This month I am bringing to you a very heavy subject. September is Suicide Prevention Month and once again it is about something that affects me personally. It's hard for me to share this, but not only have I known people who have committed suicide, I once tried to commit suicide myself. I am having a hard time writing this, and sharing this, but if this blog can help one person, it will be worth it. "Helping One Person" will be "worth it" are some words I have heard before, stated in a music video of one of my favorite bands: Disturbed. What does that have to do with poetry? Well, music in my opinion is poetry, especially song lyrics. Disturbed wrote the song "A Reason to Fight" especially for people battling Addiction and Depression. I saw them in concert, and I saw David Draiman (the lead singer) do a special presentation about it. I was in tears, I could relate, I know that I am not alone. If you would like, here is the video you can watch yourself:

Disturbed - A Reason To Fight [Official Live Video]

It's so sad how many musicians, (or poets as I like to think of them), committed suicide. It's so sad how many 'regular' people in general have committed this act. Life can be hard, it can be tough, especially for those of us who feel things so deeply. When I overdosed on Tylenol, I was trying to get help. That can be difficult to do on a Saturday when no one is working. Back then, I didn't know there were numbers I could call. The above video shares some numbers, but not one of the newer import one: 988, which is the Suicide and Crisis hotline. You don't have to be considering suicide to call, and you can simply be a friend or family member of a friend who is struggling. And if you're like me, and don't like calling people, you can text or chat through this lifeline. If you're on a device and would like a web address the link is:

 https://988lifeline.org/

Brandon Sanderson is my favorite Author. He's not so much a poet, more of a prolific Science Fiction and Fantasy Author. (There are definitely poems in his prose books though). I'm bringing him up here because he writes the Stormlight series, and a lot of this series has characters suffering from trauma and depression. It truly was Sanderson's purpose to write these books to reach real people who are suffering. People like me. I feel safe saying this because he launched a Mental Health Initiative creating a coin that says "You Will Feel Warm Again" and giving it away for free. It's actually called the "Next Step Coin" because the most important thing you can do is take the next step. When I learned about it, I got one. It has a picture of a man holding a spear on it on one side, who I am sure represents Kal from the Stormlight series. On the other side is the 988 number and a QR code which lists links to mental health resources. You can also buy the coin if you have the money and want to support the Mental Health Initiative. You can get this coin at:

https://www.dragonsteelbooks.com/products/next-step-coin

Unfortunately many famous poets, who are poets first and foremost and not musicians or prose writers, have committed suicide. Probably the most famous of these poets (and not my favorite) is Sylvia Plath who wrote "The Bell Jar". She was found dead with her head in the oven in February of 1963. She often wrote about death in her poems. There are many poems about death through the ages in poetry. It's such a mysterious subject, but sometimes poets get a little too close and act a bit too extreme as in the case above. And I am also talking about myself and when I took too much Tylenol (which would have been a very slow way to die if it had worked, we're talking days). There is also Sara Teasdale who committed suicide and who's poems talk about it. "I Shall Not Care" has the narrator talking to someone about how when she is dead, she will not care. I do like her poetry, but I'm not so sure if I won't care when I'm dead. That was a hope of mine when I tried to leave this world. That experience was painful in many different ways. Poets often write about their pain. Unfortunately, they also try any way they can to end that pain, (at least I did).  I'm not saying you have to be a poet or musician or writer to feel suicidal. I'm saying that suicide is something that is very prevalent in the poetic world. I am writing this because it is prevalent in the whole world, not just to poets. Please reach out if you or someone you know is struggling. I feel like it's not okay to feel this way sometimes, and you might feel that way too.

Lastly I am going to leave a link to another music video of one of my other favorite bands, Imagine Dragons, named "It's Okay" which states that "It's okay to not be okay". I need that reminder sometimes, and some of our favorite poets that have passed away needed this reminder too. Hopefully you find something that prevents you from adding yourself to that death by suicide group number. Before I post the link, I do want to mention that I had no idea about Disturbed's, Sanderson's, or Imagine Dragons' fight for mental health issues. I just got lucky, and like these people even more because of the fight we share. Here's the link:

Imagine Dragons - It's Ok (Official Lyric Video)

And Remember that You Are Not Alone and that It's Okay to Not Be Okay! Your arms may be heavy, but work them as hard as you can to reach out anyway.

What Are Acrostic Poems?

                                                        Photo by Aneta Pawlik on Unsplash

August is a month full of my family's birthdays. My Dad's and Daughter's Birthdays are 2 days apart. My sister in-law's is the day before my Dad's, And my brother in-law has the same day as my Dad's! I also have friends with August birthdays. 

But what am I talking about birthdays for when I should be talking about acrostic poems from the title of this blog? Well, acrostic poems happen to make great birthday presents. In fact, one was the greatest gift I ever got. It wasn't my birthday, just a random day, and a friend of mine in high-school said she had something for me after class. It was an acrostic poem of my name saying nice things about me. I write acrostic poems all the time, mainly because they are easy for me. So what is an acrostic poem?

                                                   Photo by Matthias Heyde on Unsplash

An acrostic poem is a poem that spells out a word going down. So when looked at, the first letter of each line of a poem spells out a word. Let's use Birthday as an example:

Bright

Inspiring

Ritual

That

Happens to

Dare the

Awesomeness of

Years

                                                        Photo by Angèle Kamp on Unsplash

For me, these types of poems are fairly easy to do, and do quickly. I actually once used this form of poetry to make money at a craft fair. I got some nice paper, and wrote out poems for people, charging a small amount (it was a dollar then, but over 15 years has passed and I would charge more now). I asked a person their name or a name of a person they wanted to make a gift for. Then I would ask about that person and what their likes were. Then I would write out that person's name and write a poem about them, and it's all thanks to my friend that gave me that poem in high school. I often think of a letter and see how many words I can come up with that letter. When I seriously want to write the words, I will write them down on a piece of paper. This can also help me when I have writer's block. It's fun for me. I hope it's fun for some of you too. At least I hope it's fun for you to read if you don't write!

Part of the reason I am telling you about acrostic poems is because "Season's of Sensation" will have many of them in it. It's not the whole book, but it is a big part of the book. Every month has an acrostic poem of it's name. I've got that part of the book done. That was an automatic 12 poems. I also wrote a sonnet for every season as well as 3 haiku's for each season. (As well as acrostics for each season too, automatically giving me another 4 poems). Then there is a lot of free verse in "Seasons of Sensation". I'm going to sign off now, I need to work more on my book than I need to write my blog!

 

How Poets, or You, Read at Open Mic

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I figured out a new way to sell my book...well a copy here and there I suppose. I started going to local poetry Open Mic Nights  and reading from my book, or I at least mentioning it. I also read poetry from this blog here. Some might question why I wasn't going to Open Mic nights before and doing this. The short answer, the ones I knew about were too far away at the time, and I didn't know about the closer ones. This year I have been able to travel a little farther and I learned about Open Mics in towns a little closer to me. I used to be in a lot of plays way back in the day in high-school. Reading poetry isn't exactly like being in a play, but it is a form of performing and I'm happy to be performing again in whatever form. Even with my disability I told you about a few blog posts ago (FND).

I've been writing poetry since I've been in elementary school, and I've been writing poetry with a goal to be published since high-school. My drama teacher ran the poetry club and gave of some of us students, or poetry club members, direction on how to read poetry out loud. So did my Speech coach when I read Edgar Alan Poe's poem, 'The Raven" for Serious Solo Interpretation. Some of the most important points are to: 

• memorize your poem or poems, 
• practice before you read in front of an audience, 
• project your voice (even when talking softly),
• pause at all commas and periods and line breaks, 
• if it's caps or an exclamation mark(s) do shout, 
• if their are different people talking, do use voices and stand in different ways, 
• at least pretend you're looking at the audience, 
• and (if you can,) gestures are good.

I say 'if you can' to the gestures part because I mentioned reading "The Raven" in Speech and gestures were not allowed. However, I recently went to a poet laureate reading, and that man made gestures and it really made his poems come alive. I took a page from his book and did the same thing when making my YouTube video for "Talking Walls" which has been well received. It's always a good idea to learn from other people, especially award winning people.

Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

You can actually look at the audience like I do when preforming, but honestly not many performers do. They might look at a spot on the back of the wall of the room, or in a small room situation, at people's foreheads just above the eyes. If you constantly have your eyes on your paper, it's harder for people to hear you.

Voices don't necessarily have to always be done, if you can't do them. (Unless you're in Speech like I was). Sometimes you can indicate a different speaker just by changing your stance. I forgot to do this at first when reading "Jack of the Future" at a poetry reading. But I kept going, (that's what you do even when you make a mistake when reading and performing), and did much better. I didn't do voices, just shifted. When I read it again, I'll try to do voices. This poem was very well received. It's currently on this blog, but I may have to take it off, because I might want to submit it for publication elsewhere. I just didn't like the title and it feels odd rewriting a nursery rhyme for publication...but it works.

So, when an author writes poetry, how they write it also indicates how it's meant to be read (according to the drama teacher I told you about). So everything in caps is shouted, that's probably where the whole "shouting' in text form came from. A bunch of exclamation marks is a bunch of emphasis! As are italic and bold lettering. It's part of why grammar might not matter in poetry, because the grammar is supposed to be spoken and we don't all walk around speaking perfect English. Especially when emotions are high, which poetry is often about. I wrote a previous blog post called "The Importance of the Pause" which in poetry is indicated by commas, periods, line breaks, a new paragraph, a dash or dashes, ..., and hopefully you get the idea. Do pause. It might seem like things are going slowly, but that's okay. Sometimes that can really make an impact on what you read. And sometimes you have to be prepared to do unscripted pauses for the audiences. They might clap or laugh or gasp in the middle of your poem. It's a talent some have to learn, and it is something I'm learning. And don't feel bad if you expect a reaction and it doesn't happen. It might be an awkward pause, but that's okay, just keep going. Also, while I was reading some of my poetry in the front of a crowd, I lost my place. I just paused and it didn't hurt the poem, it perhaps added a little extra to it.

I lost my place because I was looking at people. I was looking at people so they could feel like my poem was speaking to them. In order to get the people to feel like this, I also had to speak up so they could hear the poem. Sometimes there are microphones, but not always. And sometimes the microphones aren't working. Unfortunately, it's hard to teach voice projection by writing about it. Don't shout, but talk like you're trying to hold a conversation with someone in the back of the room. You can even do this in a loud whisper. As I said before don't look at your paper the entire time...but if you can't help it, so be it.

Photo by Miguel Henriques on Unsplash

I read this poem I really liked about myself that's 4 pages long in Word. That's really long for a poem. Looking at the people, I saw that they seemed bored and I got embarrassed. I stumbled over my words and stuttered. I went back to my seat starting to feel dejected, but someone tells me it was cool. Then a guy who reads after me, reads (very well and seemingly without any mistakes) about having a stuttering problem. He had written a poem to his speech therapist. He tells me I did a good job even though I stuttered through my poem and he did not through his. Even when you mess up, people can be very understanding and surprise you, so be brave. A lot about poetry is being brave. I did not have this poem, "Have Them Write Poet Upon My Grave" memorized, but I had practiced it...but not enough.

If you want to perform in front of someone, it's always a good idea to practice that performance. It just helps makes things run more smoothly. You're less likely to make mistakes (though not immune). If you're in a play there are lots of rehearsals! Just practicing once or twice, like I did with this 4 page poem, is not enough. Give it at least a few goes on a few different days. Sometimes when poets read, you can tell who has practiced, and who hasn't. Most people around where I live have. Practice helps you memorize poems.

Now I know I said to memorize your poems at the beginning of this blog post, but recently I have not been able to. I really tried with "Talking Walls". And that was just one poem, poets usually read 3-4 poems at Open Mic 🎤 around here. However, I went to a NAMI (National Alliance for Mental Illness) poetry "reading" in Seattle and all the poets had their poems memorized. It was so amazing, I really would like to be able to perform my poems like that. I'm getting older now, and my old tricks aren't working now. I usually read the 'lines', (or poem,) silently 10 times, 10 times out loud, 10 times out loud with gestures or acting it out...all in a row. Yes, for a total of 30 times reading the same thing. And then repeat the process with peeking until I really have it down. Until I can speak it without peeking. You may have a trick or two yourself on memorization. In Serious Interpretation, I read "The Raven" so many times for competition I had it memorized by the end. I don't have it memorized anymore, unfortunately, (just some bits and parts of it).

And finally, just go to poetry readings and see what those poets do. I discovered that the poets around here are wonderful. For the first time, I learned who the winners of a contest I entered were (when it wasn't myself). I did not win that poetry contest I told you about in a previous blog post this year that I said I would enter. However, I do not do feel bad at all. After going to various poetry readings in the area, I've learned the poets around here are extraordinary. I'm sure the two guys who won are too, and perhaps I'll get to see them during La Conner Washington's Poetry Festival in October. So whether you're just watching, or if you're reading yourself, go enjoy a poetry reading in your area; you might learn something!

What Kind of Poetry Do You Read or Write? (& Sale)

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It's so nice to appreciate something like poetry. I'm guessing that since you're here, you like poetry. What kind of poetry do you like? That question might be somewhat difficult to answer because there's so many types of poetry. 

I cannot count the times I have been asked what kind of poetry I write. My answer is usually all kinds which is often met with a bewildered look. I honestly don't know what people expect me to answer. I usually follow up with the answer of "a lot of free verse", and sometimes explain what that is. That's poetry that doesn't technically follow a form. It doesn't rhyme throughout.

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There are so many types of poetry, I went to college and got a degree, and am still learning about different kinds today. Last year I went to an intro to poetry class and learned about even more forms of poetry. For example, the list poem is a poem where you make a poem out of a list, and I didn't know about it. I write Sonnets sometimes. And Haikus. Is that what people want to know? Do you want to know which form of Sonnet I write? (There's more than just Shakespearean sonnets). I don't remember the name for it, I'm not 100% there is one, but I think there is: but I write using the Shakespearean form without the iambic pentameter. If you're not a poet or English major, do you even know what I'm talking about? Would you be able to say that's the type of poetry you like? Something in an ABAB rhyming format, in iambic pentameter, with a couplet with a CC Rhyming scheme at at the end? You might say Sonnet, but I'm guessing you'd say you like Shakespeare's poetry. That's more understandable. (And I would never be so bold as to compare my poetry to Shakespeare's poetry). Some poets stick themselves into one type of poem, and that's not me. I want to write, and actually read all kinds of forms!

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Maybe you want to know about the subject matter of my poetry. What subject matter of poetry do you like? Generally I write something that has nature woven into it, and except with the case of the Haiku's where that's actually a rule, it's unintentional on my part. I just love nature that much I guess. But really, for me, no subject matter is off limits in the case of writing OR reading poetry. Sometimes I'm not in the mood for the more violent, darker stuff, sometimes I am. I am a horror fan after all (Thanks Edgar Allen Poe)!

Or maybe you like "depressing" poetry, or maybe you like more cheerful stuff. So maybe you want to know if the kind of poetry a person likes or writes, is actually what kind of mood of poetry a person likes. In high-school, a friend and I were doing some sort of poetry thing (go ahead and comment, friend, if you read this). We were trying to make a poetry publication or something like that and trying to collect poetry from students. A couple of girls came to us and told us that they wrote depressing poetry like it was a bad thing or something. Me and my friend gave each other a look saying, "So? Poetry is supposed to be depressing". I'm not in High-school anymore, and most of my poetry is more hopeful now actually. I find nothing wrong with either mood: hopeful or depressing. Or anything in-between, hence the 3 parts in Un-Clenched Emotion, Enjoying, Despairing, and Philosophizing.

 (I'd like to take a break to plug my book here a bit.) The Kindle version of Un-Clenched Emotion is going to be on sale for .99 cents on Prime Days again. Actually, before and after. June 22nd-June 29th 2026 are my sale days. I haven't sold many copies for .99 cents yet, which is weird, because I've sold copies at the $2.99 price. Oh well, I suppose I'll keep doing it. Took over a year to get my first review. I couldn't give my book away for free at first, then gave away a few, then it made the for free best seller list. So one day, maybe more people without Kindle Unlimited will pick up my book for $0.99. (Or people with Kindle Unlimited will decide they want to keep it forever!) While I might not compare it to Shakespeare, I definitely think that's a good deal for a book with an average 4.4 star rating on Amazon and Goodreads! The link is https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZNVH4Y

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Back to the main subject. What do you answer when someone asks you what kind of poetry you like? Do you say an authors name? Do you say a form, a subject matter, or a mood? Or something else entirely? I mentioned 2 poets I like in this post. I like many more. I like all subjects, emotions, and moods. I can't say I like all forms, but I like learning about all of them, and sometimes I won't like one at first and then it will grow on me. What do you want to know when you ask a person what kind of poetry do they like to read or what kind of poetry do they write? 

And in follow up from previous blogs this year: I did work on Seasons of Sensation this month, plus I wrote a lot of reviews. I went to Poetry Open Mic Night again and read some poems. Next I'd like to make a video of "Relating to a Mystery". June is Pride Month. I feel that it only effects me indirectly. I just learned it's PTSD Awareness month which does affect me directly, since I've been diagnosed with it. Also, since me and my husband come from military families, it affects our families too. I did/am writing a poem about that in Seasons of Sensation. Have fun with whatever type of poetry you like in anyway you want to have fun with it!

YouTube Video of Poem "Talking Walls".

Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash

Well, here it is, the last day of May and I'm finally posting my monthly blog post for May. I feel kind of bad because I've seen that my blog has gotten a lot of traffic this month. But I don't feel that bad, because I have been working on this video all month. Making it was much harder than I thought it was going to be. I just couldn't get my poem, "Talking Walls" memorized. I did come close, as you'll see by the video of me "reading" my poem. I practiced all month. I even went to a Poetry Open Mic Night in my community and read it there, as well as reading them a couple of poems from my book. I finally decided, fine, I'll just read "Talking Walls" for my video. I went to a poetry reading featuring poet laureates last night, and they read their poetry. They didn't have it memorized (well, kind of...like mine). Anyway, here's the video I hope you've been waiting for:

Thanks for watching! And I do have a YouTube Channel with 6 videos of me reading my poems (well, 5 poems and one partial poem as a teaser for "Un-Clenched Emotion"). My Channel is @natashamckinley1387 ... And if you want to know what's special about the month of May and whether it affects me or not: May is Mental Health month, and as a former Peer Counselor, yes... it affects me, yes it does. It's okay to not be okay and there's no shame, and in fact some honor, in seeing a therapist. Poetry can definitely help with mental health. With that, I'll say farewell. Enjoy reading, writing, reciting, or listening to poetry!

April: My National Month and FND

April is my month. (Just Kidding) But seriously, not only is April National Poetry Month, it is also National Autism Month. I've talked about that before, since my daughter has Autism. I'm not going to write about that again, but feel free to browse through my blog and look at an older post about it. I don't drink much, but I know people who do and April is also Alcohol Awareness month 👀. I'm not going to say much about that, except that drinking to excess often is not the best of ideas. Now April brings another thing to our awareness that effects me personally: Functional Neurological Disorder, or FND.

https://unsplash.com/photos/a-no-standing-anytime-sign-in-front-of-a-body-of-water-bmDq1HYxyJg?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

I thought the above sign was kind of funny because of the "no standing anytime". One of the symptoms of FND can be paralysis. It can last for a short period to indefinite amount of time. You do not have to have this to have FND. Often, and as is the case with me, you lose the ability to control one side of your body. Like a stroke, only the scans will come back saying it wasn't a stroke. I lost control of my right leg overnight, was able to use a walker next morning and a few weeks later was better. Unfortunately, I go through bouts of being better and worse. Some days I have to use my Walker, some days not. Fortunately, I've never been as bad as that first time. 

https://unsplash.com/photos/a-close-up-of-a-bunch-of-glass-cubes-0iPebSCgKoA?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink

There is so much to this disorder, the symptoms are a mile long, and you only need a few of any of them to have this ailment. I also have functional seizures, what used to be called pseudo seizures. There was a call for a name change because these seizures are real, they're just non epileptic. That means your EEG, like mine, will come back normal, but you'll still have seizures that can last for hours or longer. That was something unheard of when I was working with disabled students. 

I have this disability now, worked with the disabled population, and never heard of it. So, FND definitely needs some awareness. People can have MS and Parkinson's like symptoms, but their tests (like mine) will show they don't have those. IBS and Fibermyalgia are both common in people with FND, both of which I have. Also bladder problems...which I have. And hands and feet getting stuck in funny positions, that I have too. There are symptoms I don't have, like functional blindness where you can't open your eyes, or mutism where you can't talk, but I've got most of the FND symptoms. 

Brain Fog and Confusion are big symptoms too, and as in the case with me, this can come and go. You can have really good days and really awful days. Most of the time I'm good, but I've forgotten my zip code and the year until I have been told what they are. I got tested for Dementia too, with a Neuro Psyche Eval, which I do not have.

Found on Unsplash

Oh yes, and to continue with FND symptoms, hands and feet can go numb. Mine often do. I'm going to have an EMG on Thursday on my right leg. Whether that shows something or not, I have the numbness/tingling in all my hands and feet, so at least some of it is FND. You can see on tests what other neurological disorders are. Disorders like MS and Parkinson's and Epilesy. As of today, there really isn't a way to test for FND except through elimination. I have heard there's a leg test, but you would have to have the weak leg symptom for this to work on you. I do have this, but not everyone with FND does. I hear they are developing something called an fMRI that can scan for FND. That's just in the research phase right now though, and don't quote me on it. My neurologist diagnosed me after seeing a video of some of my jerking muscle movements.

Orange Ribbon for FND Awareness Found At: https://www.vecteezy.com/photo/71736544-orange-ribbon-symbol-against-mottled-beige-background-for-awareness-concept

Today, as I'm writing this, it is April 13th, National FND Day. It's probably after that as you're reading this, as it's late. But the whole month of April is FND Month, and I wanted to bring #FNDawareness. As you can see, this disorder is very hard to explain and people need to know about it. The only treatment that I've heard about is CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, a intense type of mental counseling), Physical Therapy, and Occupational Therapy. One fortunate thing is that FND is not fatal, but it is a B*tch to live with. I got a lot of my information from FND Hope, plus various places around the web. My insurance, Kaiser, also sent me informational papers on Functional Neurological Disorder. My FND App has some excellent links on it. I don't feel like I really scratched the surface in telling you about this disorder. I do feel like it is a good time to move on. So...

 

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I know it's poetry month and I wrote about something else. I did however, find and polish 2 poems I wanted to enter in the contest I was talking about in March. And I started a third poem to enter that's 3/4 written, so I am celebrating poetry this month. My Dad was also telling me to try to memorize some of my poems, or to at least recite some out loud. By the end of this month, and maybe as next months post, I'd like to make a YouTube video of me reciting Talking Walls. I hope to make more videos in this coming year 📹. Thanks for reading!

Sale Over

The first week of Poetry Month 2026 and my 99 cent promotion of the Kindle ebook, Un-Clenched Emotion, is over. You can still buy it for 2.99 and that is still not too bad. Or you can read  my book for free with Kindle Unlimited, and I still get a few cents if you do that. Happy reading.

Kindle Sale For Poetry Month

First, this blog post does not count as my monthly blog post in my opinion because this is an advertisement. I'm putting my Amazon kindle poetry book, Un-Clenched Emotion, on sale for .99 cents from April 1st-7th 2026. Sale Starts on the first at 5am Pacific Standard Time (8am EST) and ends on the 8th at 5am in the morning. Get it at: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LZNVH4Y

April is Poetry Month. It deserves celebrating! Un-Clenched Emotion has a 4.5 star rating out of 52 reviews on Amazon. Same rating out of 51 reviews on Goodreads. It's an easy to understand poetry book, with a lot of nature themes. 

About Un-Clenched Emotion the AI Review once said:

Customers say

Customers find this poetry collection to be a fabulous collection of poems about honest emotions, with one review noting how the heart serves as a well-spring of feelings. Moreover, the book features identifiable themes, with one customer highlighting how it juxtaposes tangible experiences with elements of mystery. Additionally, customers describe the poems as amazingly beautiful.

AI Generated from the text of customer reviewsGenerated from the text of customer reviews

Select to learn more

This is my favorite review:

This Author truly understands nature!

Review by DAUNTLESS-SECRETS OF THE ANDES in the United States on October 22, 2023

“What a wonderful collection of poems! If you love creation like I do, you will enjoy how the author puts her feelings of appreciation and discovery into words that sound like home. These poems are not only beautiful, but most of them are quite uplifting (except for the middle collection called "Despairing") My favorite begins with the words, "The day I fell in love with night..." We even took her writings to share around a Search term:beach campfire and covered the first section titled, "Enjoying". It was a memorable experience and a great way to end the day. The last portion, called "Philosophizing" also had some exceptional entries, but the ones I'll always re-visit, are those that centered on understanding and appreciating the wonder of nature.”

And my response is- You took my book to the beach and read part of it by a campfire? Amazing! That's the kind of book I wanted to publish! 

              By Acton Crawford on Unsplash

As a reminder to my readers, Un-Clenched Emotion is always on Kindle Unlimited for free. If you download it an read it, I'll make a few cents. I'm not sure if my book sales will go up or not if you read it through Unlimited, but it would be cool if it did. Reviews will count towards Verified Sale star ratings through Kindle Unlimited. Un-Clenched Emotion was once a best seller in free poetry e-books (if you look through my blog, there's another post about it). Buy my book and enjoy reading it!

What About Poetry Contests?

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Have you ever witnessed people competing in a poetry contest? I have. Of course, you can't witness submitted poems to judges that are on paper. There are programs out there however, where poetry is preformed. I went to a NAMI (National Allience for Mental Illness) Convention in Seattle and saw different poets compete. They had their poems memorized, and while preforming, they had their rhythm down. I was glad I did not enter, for I don't have my poems memorized, I've written way too many. I have been surprised on occasion when other people have recited my poems back to me, (I do remember a line of what I've written here and there, and definitely the subject matter) Anyway, the NAMI poetry contest performance was very enjoyable. If you ever have the chance to go to something like that, I highly recommend it. I have done poetry readings that were not contests, and I've read my poems from paper there. If you ever get the chance to attend one: GO! I love participating or simply attending.

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Why do I bring this up? I'm bringing contests up because I don't often enter them, and only when there's no fee. If you read my blog, you will see I did enter a Goodreads Contest and won 7th place (out of hundreds) with my poem "Talking Walls", which I never preformed. I really should make a YouTube video of that one. While I don't usually enter a poetry contest with a reading fee, I plan to next month. Why? Because I've met the people putting it on. A woman from the foundation taught a free class at my local library. I went to see if she taught poetry the same way I used to. She actually did teach it the same way. It's going to cost $20 for each 3 poems entered. Not bad, and of course, there's cash prizes at the end. Wish me luck!

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I have actually judged poetry contests before, back in High School. My teacher and poetry club Facilitator invited me to do it. These were written poems that I got to read and judge along with another lady (older adult). We had to agree on the ones we liked. Then the best ones were published. While I am a writer of poetry, I don't think you need to be a Writer to judge poetry, just an Appreciater. We all judge poems automatically when we read or hear them anyway. Honestly, I don't usually enter contests, because I'd rather just have mine published and get paid for it. When you think about it though, every time you submit a poem for publication, you're entering a contest, fee or no fee.

For an update on my New Year's Resoluton: I did write a couple reviews in February, and a few this month too. No poetry however. I have 3 poems to write now and enter into the contest in April. I really want to get back to my books too, Seasons of Sensation, or even my short stories or romance book I've got partly written. I wish you happy reading, viewing, writing, and/or preforming!

Welcome To The Heart Month

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First, I want to say I did do one writing thing for January. I entered a contest writing about my happiest moment as a caregiver, (one of the times I took my daughter horseback riding). It wasn't a writing contest per sé but it did have the requirement of 300 words or more, so I'm counting it as a writing thing. Not sure when or if I'll hear back, the deadline was the 31st of January. Hopefully I'll be able to do another writing thing in February, whether that's working on my book(s), or submitting poems for publication, or writing reviews, or anything that has anything to do with writing. I'm working hard on focusing on the positive, I'm internally criticizing myself so hard. That's not very good for my nerves, or heart. And of course, February is the heart month, both the physical and emotional heart.

I'm sure the emotional part is thanks to Saint Valentines Day. I'm guessing that people wanting to bring awareness to heart health decided it would be congruess having the physical heart month attached to the emotional heart month. To me personally, they are very intertwined. Sometimes my heart is heavy, (pun intended,) because my Grandmother died of a heart attack when I was a young teenager. Not only that, most people have to live through the pain of their grandparents dying, but practically all of my Dad's family has heart problems, and my Dad has had many heart attacks. Fortunately he is still alive and doing everything he can to keep his heart healthy. According to my echocardiogram, my heart is doing well despite the occasional bout of heartburn. So what's Heart month got to do with poetry? Well that's easy to answer, poetry is the language of the heart!

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Poetry is the expression of emotion, a word which is often a synonym of the word heart. While I named my first poetry book "Un-Clenched Emotion" it could have easily been "Unclenched Heart". I poured my heart out when I wrote those poems, just like whenever I write any poem. I'm sure any poet would tell you the same. The other reason I'm writing out the theme of the month of February is because it's something I would often do in my poetry classes: ask the students to write about the month we're in or about a Holiday we're near. That got me the idea,  and many written poems, for "Seasons of Sensation". If your struggling with ideas to write this month, write about February. If you're a reader, read some poetry in celebration of the month. 

  

                                                    

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Or don't read poetry at all, read other stuff that has to do with February. Since it's African American History Month as I well, I do reccomend reading some poems by Phillis Wheatley, a Women African American Poet from the late 1700's. She was a slave who became educated and then later freed. Of course, there are also many more things you can read for African History month as well, like Fedrick Douglass's autobiography, or the speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. February is also the awareness month of many things. For breveity's sake of this blog, we'll just focus on February being heart month. If you want, you could read non-fiction medical books on the heart. You never know where a person's interests lie, I happen to like physics books, both science fiction and non-fiction books. Be sure to take care of your hearts, both emotional and physical!

2/13/2026 

Today, A few days after I first wrote this post, I went to look and see my rankings on the seller list for books (I was ranked low) and I ended up looking at AI summarizing my reviews. Here's what it says today (I notice it changes every so often, despite not getting more reviews):

I immediately noticed that someone said the "heart" was a well-spring of feelings. I thought, how fitting for the blog I just wrote! Than I started to read my reviews to see if I could find this particular one. I couldn't find it, but noticed that the word heart was all over the place in my reviews. That's great, that means that this blog is relevant to my poetry. Thanks for reading!

Happy New Years and Resolutions!

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I don't know if I got any work done on my new book this year or not. I do know I wrote at least one poem this year that is not going in the book. I think I might make working on Seasons of Sensation my New Year's Resolution, as much as I dislike New Year's Resolutions. I think our society is way too obsessed with goal setting. A little bit is okay, but it's gone too far. Everything in moderation!

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Setting this goal though, helps me work on other goals too, like prioritizing my mental health and accomplishing things I can be proud of. What better way to do that then poetry? I also just got diagnosed with a nervous system disorder (functional neurological disorder or FND) and mindfulness is supposed to help. I think mindfulness and poetry relate big time! In fact, in my classes, I would sometimes have everyone do a mindful exercise and then write a poem. Writing a book might be a little more structured, but every poem I write doesn't have to go into a book.

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I could also work on getting individual poems published and getting a little money through that. I read somewhere that someone made it their goal to send out different poems to three different publishers every month. I could do this too. I get emails through AuthorsPublish which sends out lists of whose accepting manuscripts/pieces (paid and unpaid). I have a tracker on my computer to list what I sent out and to where. I'm all set up for it!

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Things are always circling in the back of my mind too. Should I pull out the romance novel I started writing and work on that again? (I don't want to get pegged as a romance author though). I do need to sort through what speculative poems I have and start on that poetry book, but maybe after Seasons of Sensation. Should I look for an agent? Perhaps after Seasons of Sensation. And I simply need to pull out the short stories I already have written and start compiling them into a book. Lastly, I should totally start being more consistent with this blog! It does get lots of traffic! 

Thanks For Reading,

Happy New Year's To You All!

Photo Thanks To BoliviaInteligente