Every Day’s a Butterfly

Today I took a walk over to Malastrana and visited my favorite bookstore, Shakespeare and Sons, and drop off a couple of copies of my latest book, ‘Every Day’s a Butterfly,’ which has existed for at least 6 months now but we’re just getting our first copies from the printer, part slackness on my part, part slowness of delivery.
Anyway, my visits to Shakespeare and Sons are a long, almost invisible but very real thread through my life over the past 10 or 15 years. I average about one new book of poetry a year, maybe two, so every 6 months or so, sometimes a year, I’ll head down there and drop off a new book, and see if they’ve sold any of the ones there. Sometimes, it’s zero, sometimes it’s two or three. I’m not actually a famous writer or anything.
Today was a good day, for a few reasons. It was a lovely day as days go, bright and sunny and perfect for a walk through Kampa park, and I am very pleased with this new book, most of the poems are solid and there are a couple of hum-dingers. Also, they’d sold one book.
Now, more successful writers might see that as kind of a puny thing to be pleased about, but when it’s the difference between being ignored entirely and knowing there’s somebody out there reading a book of my poetry, that they actually paid money for, it makes a mark.
And that book was 155 Sonnets. I don’t know if it’s my best book, but it’s one I’m seriously proud of. It’s a hard format, but I set my goal and I got to it and there are 155 individual, original thoughts in there which are worth reading about.
So, that’s my blog for tonight. Sleep well.