I am pleased to announce the first poetry chapbook published by World Class Poetry. It is not yet available, but it soon will be.
Gary B. Fitzgerald has commented on some of the blog posts here at World Class Poetry Blog and has been a faithful reader now for about a year, I guess. Last year he published two full-length poetry books under the imprint of AuthorHouse. While these two books are self-published, the quality of the contents would not suggest it.
Gary has agreed to allow me to publish a selection of the poems from his two books, titled Hardwood and Softwood, as a chapbook. We’re talking about a total of 155 poems between the two books. Our digital chapbook will feature less than 20 poems from each book, but those poems will showcase Gary’s poetry in the best possible light, a task that proved to be quite easy considering the high quality of his verses.
Nature poetry does not get much respect in our modern technological era, much less does it when approached from an Eastern philosophical bent. But Gary B. Fitzgerald’s Taoist nature poetry is must reading for anyone interested in simplicity without simple-mindedness and humanity without vituperation.
The Three Phase Publication Schedule
The publication of these two chapbooks will come in three phases. The first phase will be the publishing of Hardwood as a standalone chapbook. The second phase will be the introduction of Softwood as a standalone chapbook. Phase III will be the combining of the two chapbooks into one dual chapbook.
Why three phases? Honestly, for practical reasons. Rather than wait on the publication of both chapbooks, I’ve decided to offer the completed chapbook while the other is in production mode, but only to WCP Toolbar users. When Softwood is finished, it too will be made available to our toolbar users. The final chapbook, with selections from both Hardwood and Softwood, will be made available as a .pdf document to anyone who wants to download it.
Hardwood will be made available in the next day or so. If interested in the 15 poems that make up Hardwood then I encourage you to download the World Class Poetry Toolbar so that you’ll have access to the chapbook when it is made available. The toolbar is free to use and also includes access to Internet radio, some of the most popular poetry blogs online, and almost 30 online poetry journals.
If you have a full-length book you’d like to promote and would like to get it in front of the 15,000+ and growing unique visitors every month that World Class Poetry properties has to offer then sign up for our chapbook update list and you’ll be notified of when you can submit work for publication as a chapbook.
Until then, I hope you enjoy Hardwood.
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In the interest of ‘truth in advertising’, I feel obligated to note that my poetry is not, despite my Taoist perspective, completely ‘Taoist’ in nature. I have written many poems from other philosophical and Theological points of view, including Christian, Pantheist and purely secular as I have explored the confusing mysteries of our existence.
I should also point out that my internet posting career began with my crusade in support of self-publishing. I have never submitted my work to contests, magazines or publishers. I feel it is important to maintain a certain uncorrupting distance from the established ‘Po-biz’. I have actually published four books, with two more due out this summer, all intentionally self-published.
To further clarify my position on self-publishing, following is a post I made on Ron Silliman’s blog in response to a comment by Seth Abramson about the number of poets publishing today:
“I would like to note that Mr. Abramson’s post does not even mention the ‘self-published’ poets with books who, if included, would cause the numbers discussed to skyrocket. Yes, of course, many of these may be dismissible…but not all. These are the poets that are not only ‘off the radar’ but are flying the Stealth fighters. The thing about Stealth fighters, though, is that they will, as intended, sneak up and surprise you.
Here are some of the at one time unknown self published ‘stealth’ writers:
Alexander Pope
William Blake
Walt Whitman
E. E. Cummings
Ezra Pound
T.S. Eliot
Edgar Allan Poe
Robert Bly
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Robinson Jeffers
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Percy Bysshe Shelly
Robert Service
Carl Sandburg
Not to mention,
R. Kipling
H. D. Thoreau
W. E. B. DuBois
W. Cather
T. Hardy
N. Hawthorne
E. Hemingway
V. Woolf
O. Wilde
D. H. Lawrence
Consider this: The given names of these once complete unknowns shown here only by their initials are now known by every one of us. Shall we dismiss today’s self-published writers and poets so quickly?
What’s more, should we be willing to accept the validity of those published only by today’s recognized presses so quickly?”
I hope that you will enjoy my poems.
GBF
Gary, thanks for the clarification on your Taoist leanings. I did notice the different perspectives in your poetry, which I quite like. It isn’t all leaning to the East. I believe your willingness to explore metaphysical questions from a variety of perspectives is one of your strengths. The book is really a good read. It is now available through the WCP Toolbar.