Café Philos: an internet café

Amanda Gorman.
January 20th.
You took America,
held her on your tongue,
then spoke her real again.

With all that has gone on this past week, I completely forgot that Spillwords Press was publishing my poem, Where the Stone Turns to Fire, on the ninth. Fortunately, a friend in the UK emailed me with a reminder a few hours ago. 

I self-published both my books, and this is the first time anyone besides myself has published a work of mine.  I reckon that makes it a milestone.  If you yourself are considering submitting a poem for publication, I can testify that the three staff members I came in contact with made quite an impression on me both for their professionalism and for their friendliness.

Here’s the link: Where the Stone Turns to Fire.

The poem was originally published in my most recent book, Ashes and Wine.

Ashes and Wine is a collection of engaging poems, aphorisms, epigrams, and short prose pieces that deals with a family of related themes, including vulnerability and authenticity, abuse and healing, and of course, intimacy and love.

Most of the poems are narratives. Their stories are based on real people and true events. They reflect my love of rich metaphors, clever witticisms, and unpretentious wisdom.  Ashes and Wine is for older teens, young adults, and adults. It is an experience to be savored by all who refuse anything less than to connect deeply, love meaningfully, and live fully.

I am making available a free, no obligation pdf sampler of the contents of Ashes and Wine so you can decide for yourself whether this book is for you.  Simply email me with your request at cafe. philos. blog@ gmail. com — minus the spaces, of course. I will respond as soon as possible.

Ashes and Wine is currently available as a paperback on Amazon at the special, low introductory price of $7.94.  Act soon to secure your copy at this extraordinary discount!

Suppose it was the custom for us humans to give each year an official epitaph. Say, all of humanity voted on December 31st in order to select a pithy few words summarizing the year that was ending. What would 2020s’ official epitaph be?

I’ll go with “2020: I want my money back!”

Your turn…

A Secret Shared

 Ages ago. That first secret you shared.
 What was it now?
 It was a window, wasn’t it?
  
 A window into your self
 that you cracked open just enough 
 for a slight breeze to slip through bearing
  
 a shy hint of your scent.
 You smelled of summer, long lost canyons, 
 and growth. 

---

A Secret Shared is from my recently released book, Ashes and Wine.

Ashes and Wine deals with a variety of themes, including vulnerability and abuse, dependency and authenticity, healing and growth, and of course, intimacy and love.

It is available on Amazon in paperback.  A Kindle version is forthcoming.  Use the blog contact form to email me for a free, no obligation pdf sampler of the contents of Ashes and Wine, or go to the book’s Amazon page. 

Dear Reader,

Yesterday evening, at 8:18PM Mountain Time, my most recent book, Ashes and Wine, went live on Amazon. “Going live” is what Amazon calls “published”. The book was a year in the making, and I’m naturally happy to see it ‘leave the nest’.

What kind of book is it? It’s a hybrid of some sort. I’ve not personally seen anything like it. It contains dozens of poems, 100 aphorisms, epigrams, and short prose pieces, and an hilarious foreword. Most of the poems tell stories — based on real people and events — about intimacy and love, vulnerability and abuse, healing and authenticity.

The poetry is emotionally charged, rich in metaphors, often laced with wit, and unpretentious. Readers should expect to laugh one moment, cry the next, and feel uplifted the next after. Again, most of the stories are based on real people and actual events.

The book is for older teens, young adults, and adults — actually, for anyone who believes in connecting deeply, loving meaningfully, and living fully.

I am currently preparing a free pdf sampler of the poems, aphorisms, epigrams, and short prose pieces. If you would like me to email you a copy of the pdf when it is finished, simply use my blog’s contact form to email me with your email address and I will get a copy to you within the next day or two so you can see for yourself what the book is all about. Reading the pdf in no way obligates you to buy the book.

The book is currently available as a paperback in the US, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Japan, and a few other nations. A Kindle version will be out in about a month or so.

All the best,

Paul

Did you hear about the poet who lost her job?

She walked into a bar afterwards, told the bartender to ‘set them up’ because she’d been fired.

“What!” Says the bartender. “Why were you fired?”

“A disaster, a catastrophe indeed!”

“That’s terrible! What was it?” The bartender asks.

She says, “My publisher discovered my readers understood my poetry!”

DON:  Hello?

PAUL:  Don, it’s Paul.  Did you feel the earthquake last night?

DON:  Earthquake!  There was an earthquake?  When!  What time?

PAUL:  Oh, thank goodness!  If you didn’t feel an earthquake, and I didn’t feel an earthquake. There probably wasn’t one.  What a relief!

DON:  Wait.  You thought you felt an earthquake?

PAUL:  Oh, no! No, nothing like that.  It’s just this morning I got to wondering what if? What if there was an earthquake last night, and I didn’t notice it?  It’s a pretty scary thought, don’t you think, Don?

Don…  Don?  Don, your phone has died.  AGAIN.

Dear Paul,

Like some people, I blog in the nude.  As a precaution, I lock my bedroom door so that my eight year-old son doesn’t walk in on his mommy while I’m in such a state. However, about a week ago, I forgot to lock the door and the inevitable happened.  It’s been six days now, and he is still in shock!  He refuses to call me “mommy”, and he even refuses to eat any food I prepare him, forcing my husband to do the cooking.  What can I do?  He got over the nudity within an hour, but he still can’t cope with his mommy being a blogger.

— Desperate Mother.

.

Dear Desperate,

Whatever you do, seize this opportunity to create some great content!  You should be able to get at least a post a day out of your son’s shock.  Priorities! Focus! Focus, before he comes out of shock and this god-sent opportunity is lost.

Paul

First Fall of my life
I’ve been unhappy to live
in America.

Never thought
it possible.

Time to fight.

Anything that can be made beautiful can be made an art.  Anything that can be made empirical can be made a science.  And anything that can be made ugly can be made a politics.

The thought occurs to me this morning that perhaps the reason some talk show hosts talk over their guests is because they could not win a dispute in a fair fight.  That is, they could not win if their guest’s opinions could be heard and reflected upon.  But I really don’t know.  I don’t watch a lot of talk shows. Thoughts?