Friday, October 1, 2010

Editing an expanded poetry volume

My poetry chapbook on Lulu.com has done amazingly well--- it sold 1 copy, to my mother--- and so I'm doing a complete re-write and expansion into a full book which can be sold on Amazon.com. If I work really hard on it, maybe I can sell another copy to my mother.

The chapbook was called 'surly petunia' after the name of one of the poems. I figure the new book should have a different name, even though it's going to have all the poems from 'surly petunia' plus whatever other ones that I've written that don't now annoy me. I'm also NOT including the one which is an acrostic featuring the 'F' word, which was an even dumber idea than you'd think. Acrostics are HARD!

I've also changed my pen name from N. I. Annakindt to nissa_ami_kato, because I really like my new internet name. You can even sing it! You know that song 'Mr. Roboto'? The part that goes 'domo arigato, Mr. Roboto', you can sing 'nissa_ami_kato, Mr. Roboto'. At least, you can if you are as weird as me.

The possible titles for the new volume include 'jungle spiders', 'wired floor sculptures' and 'alien invasions & the love of lawn furniture'. and, well, any other poem titles from the poems in the book. I'm also willing to entertain suggestions from readers so long as those suggestions are NOT 'what a piece of sh---' (because I've already thought of that one myself, but decided against it since my mom might not buy it if there is a Bad Word in the title.

I also wouldn't mind some input on the poem I'm adding to the book right now, which goes like this:

paper dragons


blue & yellow folded paper dragons
sail away in an indigo Tintenfaß
dragons dangerous yet delicate
for they cannot breathe fire
and live

Well, I'm pretty much satisfied with this poem (which I wrote over 10 years ago). Yes, I'm way too easily satisfied. But the question I have is whether I should include a footnote to the poem explaining the word 
'Tintenfaß'.

Would explaining that the word is German for inkwell, or at least mentioning that the letter'ß' is pronounced like 'ss', be helpful, or would it spoil the whole thing? I mean, when it comes to my poetry, I kind of think trying to understand what it means is beside the point.

If you have an opinion on this, let me know. Or else you can always go over to Dan Lacey's blog and view his latest pictures of Obama naked on a unicorn. Because you can just never have too many pictures of Obama naked on a unicorn. (Don't worry, they don't show Obama's naughty bits.) Dan Lacey also likes to paint people, including saints, with pancakes on their heads.

2 comments:

Amanda Borenstadt said...

This is very good. I have not convinced my mom or my husband to read my novel even when I offered it to them for free. :/

Nissa Annakindt said...

Maybe it's better that way???