Brevity being the soul of wit, let's be brief.
You. Need. To. Read. These. Poems.
Period.
Journeys and memoirs and adventures shape every path and portent of our lives. For the most part, they speak to a singular audience, a singular experience. Not this time.
The whole world lived through, is still living through a pandemic. Living through the firebomb of politics and policies that highlighted secrets and things left unsaid for far too long.
LOVELY AND SUFFERING is this year in poems that sing, shout, celebrate living through this time and trial as a Black woman in America.
Defiance and definition, betrayal and broken hearts, sass and solidarity.
The poems are uniquely personal, but the frustration, soul-cries, and definition of self are not.
Read the poems.
Cry if you need to.
Laugh and shake your head.
Let that burning in your heart ease a little, or start a fire of truth in your own belief and perception.
So, against all tradition, I'm going to say I KNOW THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU.
It belongs to the you who came through the pandemic, who's still living with an ongoing process, the you who wanted to ask questions or needed validation for the way you've survived all these years.
You may be horrified and fascinated, disturbed or jubilant, entertained, mystified, enlightened...or all of the above. It won't matter, as long as you read and think. Read and feel. Read and embrace a full year's journey and the revelations thereof.
This time, more than any other, requires you to be brave and bold. To say, to sing your heart-work, your spirit-songs. Let this collection be your primer.
Open your hand to buy LOVELY AND SUFFERING.
Then open your soul, and watch what happens. The change will come forth in praise or pain, in recognition or release. But the change is definitely "gonna come."
ORDER LOVELY AND SUFFERING NOW!
And please, share thoughts, comments, journeys of your own. Because we are truly in this one together.
