Monday, March 19, 2018
1:04 AM

I once loved to laugh,
and though I still do,
hidden beneath the ripple of joy
An echoing scar,
A teardrop of pain.

Once So loud and so free,
things hilarious to me,
Were projected for all to hear,
But now I've reflected on my laughter of past.

Of how many times that laugh was a tool,
to cover the pain caused by all of the fools,
The cruel words that were spoken,
and jokes left me broken,
As they all fell so close to home.

Leaving me weary and wary,
And oh so alone,
I comprised a charm to protect me from harm:
"Fools cant hurt me if I laugh along",
I'll steal their power with one of my own,
I'll laugh the loudest,
and i will laugh last.

While all of the while leaving a piece of it there.
Until one day none was left,
An empty and broken and hollowed out laugh,
A cruel joke of it's glorious past.

I recently had the great privilege of editing Mike Essig's latest poetry collection, THE BIOLOGY OF STRANGENESS, and I'm honoured to have been entrusted with such fantastic material. Putting together a book like this is every poetry geek's dream.

It's a beautifully textured assortment of poems, earthy yet lyrical, narrated by a voice that's uniquely grained with experience. There are pieces that will make you smile, think, wince; there are pieces that hit you in the gut out of nowhere; there are pieces that welcome you into them like old, worn-in shoes; there are pieces you will remember late some night when you're by yourself, and remembering them will make you feel less alone.

This collection of poetry makes you look at the banal and the everyday afresh; it finds magic and mystery in the mundane, and even Hawaiian shirts are poem-worthy when Mike Essig's writing about them.

The Kindle version is already available through Amazon.

A paperback edition is due out next month, and I can't wait to have a copy of this book on my shelf as well as on my e-reader.

Mike's previous poetry books, Never Forgotten and Huck Finn Is Dead are also available through Amazon and are excellent.  

From his author profile on B Star Kitty Press:

"Mike Essig is a veteran of Vietnam and a retired English teacher. He’s also been recruited by the muse as a poet, like he hadn’t already been through enough."

Sample poems, links to sales pages and more info can be found at the B Star Kitty Press website.  www(dot)bstarkittypress(dot)com.

Please do support this very talented indie author.

I merge clips.
I merge audio and video,
sound and pictures.

That's all I merge;
For fear of disrupting
this natural order
I have constructed.

But tonight I merged
two separate lives I owned
And to my surprise,
things turned out okay.

Perched perfectly on tumblr and facebook
For everyone to get a good look
At how I felt a month ago
But why wait so long
Because words need trimming
Stanzas need perfecting
Lines need to find their proper place
And that takes time
And in my mind
A thirty day cycle will suffice

I love editing.
Have I said that yet?
I love practically hearing
The scenes
And the words
That zip
Through my mind
Like arrows
From the bow
Of an Indian.
I love feeling like I am doing something.
I love editing, have I said that yet?
Well, I'm saying it again.
Stories, novels, poems...
I love it all.

When the wind blows
the heart goes
wild, though you're now known
for resolution
Waving, you wave to meet me
planted feet, we work on

and never will the will divide, subside or enervate
knowing all the drive of future forward
blast the past and liberate
the little pieces to combine
to gain one whole life once shattered
we come to meeting
stand to celebrate

When will this wind stop beating at the windows?
When they ask, tell them straight and lively, it won't.