Thought-Provoking Poems #Thursday Book Feature

In My Feelings: A Book of Poetry

by Butterfly Thomas

 

What Smashwords Says

 

Love and passion. Conflict and regret. Pride and defiance. Rage at equality denied. Compassion for friends and boundless love for one’s children. Some poems express anger at racial injustice and the exploitation of the disabled. Still others delight the reader with images of strength and beauty or their clever arrangement of words. Never pretentious or opaque, all of them will make you think.

 

My Thoughts

 

I like the way the author has arranged this collection. Starting with poems about relationships that tell a story of love, loss, and new beginnings, she moves on to poems about her blindness and injustice, then finally to a section she calls “Miscellaneous,” including poems on other topics. Being a widow, I could identify with many of the relationship poems, although they have more to do with loss due to separation or divorce instead of death. These poems will help you see things in a way you may never have seen them before.

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If you’re on Facebook, you’re invited to a promotional event called Mayday Magnificence, in which I’ll be participating May 1-3. Authors, myself included, and businesses will promote their work and maybe share a few laughs. Please click here to join the event. I hope to see you there.

By the way, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are now available on Smashwords as part of its sale to support those isolated by the coronavirus. This sale will run until the end of May. Please click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books. As always, thank you for reading.

 

New! The Red Dress

Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

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When You’re Not Here #Poetry

The following poem appears in My Ideal Partner: How I Met, Married, and Cared for the Man I Loved Despite Debilitating Odds. This is a memoir about how I met and married my late husband Bill, then cared for him at home for six years after he suffered two strokes that paralyzed his left side. My Ideal Partner is available free from Smashwords until the end of May. See below for details.

This poem describes what life was like for me at home alone while Bill was in the nursing home, recuperating from his first stroke. It also appears in my poetry collection, How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver. You can click on the title to hear me read it.

WHEN YOU’RE NOT HERE

I listen to your music,
hear longing in the words,
sit in your chair
surrounded by the warmth,
eat your favorite food,
know your pleasure in the taste,
drink your beverage of choice.
My thirst isn’t quenched.
I imagine your body next to mine.
You’re not here.
***

If you’re on Facebook, you’re invited to a promotional event called Mayday Magnificence, in which I’ll be participating May 1-3. Authors, myself included, and businesses will promote their work and maybe share a few laughs. Please click here to join the event. I hope to see you there.

By the way, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are now available on Smashwords as part of its sale to support those isolated by the coronavirus. This sale will run until the end of May. Please click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books. As always, thank you for reading.

 

New! The Red Dress

Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

***

My Books

My Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Website

 

We Are the Champions #Monday Musical Memories

The song I’m featuring today was our fight song when I was on the high school speech team during the 1970’s. One of the guys had a portable eight-track tape deck and a cartridge containing this song plus its companion, “We Will Rock You.” We, as a team, often listened to these songs in his hotel room. While traveling, when that combination came on the radio, the volume was turned up, and we all sang along, distracting our poor coach, who was, by the way, driving the van we used for most of our trips to speech meets.

“We Are the Champions” can be applied to this current situation. Since its inception, the world has been through so much. We can survive this. If we keep doing what we’re doing, i.e. staying home, only going out when necessary, wearing masks, etc. we can be the champions against the coronavirus. Enjoy the song, and keep fighting.

If you’re on Facebook, you’re invited to a promotional event called Mayday Magnificence, in which I’ll be participating May 1-3. Authors, myself included, and businesses will promote their work and maybe share a few laughs. Please click here to join the event. I hope to see you there.

 

 

By the way, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are now available on Smashwords as part of its sale to support those isolated by the coronavirus. This sale will run until the end of May. Please click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books. As always, thank you for reading.

 

New! The Red Dress

Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

***

My Books

My Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Website

Poems Celebrate Seasons and People #Thursday Book Feature

Celebrations

by Bill Batcher

 

What Amazon Says

 

The seasons, the people, the moments of our lives,—a day at the beach, a walk in the woods, a realization that life is passing by, a memory of those already gone. From thinking about cleaning the garage to deciding not to empty the dish rack. From a meteor shower to a missing dish at a family meal. From Biblical lessons to our bewilderment reading today’s newspaper. All these are there to be celebrated, for they make up the fabric of living.

 

My Thoughts

 

After reading one of the author’s works on Your Daily Poem, I decided to purchase this book, and I’m glad I did. I like the way it celebrates seasons and people with a variety of rhyming and non-traditional poems on a wide range of subjects from nature, to family, to religion. There’s something for everyone here. My favorite is the last poem in the collection, in which the author reflects on his decision not to empty the dish rack.

***

If you’re on Facebook, you’re invited to a promotional event called Mayday Magnificence, in which I’ll be participating May 1-3. Authors, myself included, and businesses will promote their work and maybe share a few laughs. Please click here to join the event. I hope to see you there.

By the way, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are now available on Smashwords as part of its sale to support those isolated by the coronavirus. This sale will run until the end of May. Please click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books. As always, thank you for reading.

 

 

New! The Red Dress

Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

***

My Books

My Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Website

 

 

An Italian Meal Without Wine #Poetry

The following poem comes from my collection, How to Build a Better Mousetrap: Recollections and Reflections of a Family Caregiver. If you click on the title, you’ll hear me recite it, then sing a Dean Martin classic about how Italians perceive love as it relates to food. I performed this combination last week during a virtual poetry event sponsored by Behind Our Eyes, and since that was such a success, I thought I’d post it here. Enjoy!

 

An Italian Meal Without Wine

I love to eat seafood fettuccini Alfredo,
taste the shrimp, crab, scallops
in a rich, creamy sauce
on a bed of fettuccini noodles,
slurp the noodles into my mouth,
savor the flavor,
garnish it with garlic bread,
chase it down with water.

 

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By the way, for the next month, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are available on Smashwords as part of its sale to support those isolated by the coronavirus. This sale will run until the end of May. Please click here to visit my Smashwords author page and download these books. As always, thank you for reading.

 

New! The Red Dress

Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books

When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.

Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.

***

My Books

My Amazon Author Page

Facebook

Website