22 Poems; January 28 2026

I don’t know about y’all, but where I live, we’ve been buried in several feet of snow and had a mild earthquake last night. I think we may have angered Zeus with all our political drama.

But enough about that.

I’ve been debating going the self-publishing route for my poetry chapbook, A Life Poorly Lived. It’s a collection of 22 poems (until yesterday, it was 20 poems – I realized how perfectly two of my other poems fit into the narrative and did a quick tweak). In it, I reflect on the trauma of having undiagnosed psychosis and the toxic, even abusive, relationships that led me to where I am today.

I know that sounds like a downer, but I promise it ends on a hopeful note, if not a happy one!

I did submit the earlier version of the chapbook to a publishing contest, but I’ll be honest – my hopes aren’t high. I can’t even conceptualize how competitive the market is. If it does get rejected, I’m going to look into hiring a cover artist and self-publishing venues. I want to avoid Amazon if possible; there’s one or two imprints I know of that could work instead.

It’s just the money that’s the issue, really. Amazon offers print-on-demand, which makes it a tempting route to go down… I can’t afford to pay for printing up-front.

We’ll see which way the wind blows, in any case!