Did I mention that 2023 has been going really well for me? In addition to a low-key creative boom, I also fell in love. Hard. And, luckily, so did she. But we, as most people (or at least introverts) tend to do, didn’t actually think it was happening.
It was during this enormously frustrating and euphoric period that I was reading a Takuboku collection, and my emotional overflow funneled itself into the writing of several short poems. …and then several more short poems. …and then even more short poems. I was helpless on two fronts and enjoying every minute of it. So after I confessed to her, I put together this time capsule of my yearnings.
The title popped into my head while listening to the Nick Cave song “More News from Nowhere”; the word, nested in lyrics of a totally opposite hue, rang in my ears as soon as it was sung. The art came to me in a flash soon thereafter and is, at least I’d like to think, a gentle nod in the direction, via the lines’ placement and strokes, to Japanese characters and points to the reasons behind not only the form of some of the poems but the differences in focus and tone between sections I and II.
And because I was (and remain) so enamored of this woman with whom I fell so madly in love and who found herself a similar victim, I made it my mission to get this small collection of poems published. It only took one submission before Pining found a home at Alien Buddha Press. So it is my pleasure to announce that Pining will be available for purchase (from me and Alien Buddha Press) on November 14!
Affairs of Ink 