the hard work begins

over the past couple years, mostly because my then writing group demanded something of me, i compiled my poetry into two collections. since then, i have written another. since these collected collections comprise a story of sorts, i hesitate to send them into the world unbound together. they will be read in varying order, and may become singletons when in fact they are triplets at heart.

to remedy that, i have decided to publish the three collections in order. they have proven to be unwieldy and quite overwhelming. some things i could overlook in one collection i could not overlook in the triad. each collection suddenly had to bear the weight of the others.

weighing in around 300 pages, i opted to cull the collection of lesser poems that never had much more of an appeal to me than origin. those were the easy ones. the ones who never looked like my children, but bastards, orphans if you will. i cut them loose, and sought to find others to send away with them.

it has taken over five complete readings to narrow the collection down to somewhere in the neighborhood of 209 poems. these withstood my repeated scrutiny. their words held together when questioned by my editorial sensibilities, and these, i believe are the best representation i can present at this moment to the world. (critics now's your chance!)

these triplets need a collective name, and it is to that end i write this now. i thought i'd ask only my friends but decided i'd do a poll of sorts so see what would happen. so i'm listing here some of my potential titles for my collected collections. individually named and in order those collections are called: revolution of a soul, break me gently, and irreverently reverent.

collected, these are the optional titles (see if you can pick out the two my husband suggested) in no particular order:

rampant ingratitude
radical dependence
infinitely loved
shattering encounter
veiled clarity
out of darkness
lived concrete
exhilarating agony
stark raving honesty
reckless abandon
pantywaist preacher
a soul laid bare
naked trust
ragged journey
unearned grace
poems from a dark night

i am also open to suggestions. this seems a most important choice and i don't necessarily want a christian reference or some sappy happy title. i dig perplexing uncertainty.

anywhoo. there you have it. have at it, let me know your thoughts.