A little under a month ago I launched a Kickstarter for a book of poetry I wrote during the first year of the pandemic. We met the project goal in the first four days! I am so grateful to my friends, family, and community for your support.
The campaign is currently funded at 141% over goal. It has 3 days left, after which point I’ll put the book up on Amazon where folks can buy it in paperback or ebook. But the celebrate meeting the project’s goal and the last 3 days of the campaign, I wanted to share the poems I’ve been posting on Instagram. Each are illustrated with images from the Smithsonian museums’ Open Access project, a database of tens of thousands of pieces of art licensed under Creative Commons 0, dedicating them to the public domain.
This book of poetry was always designed to be a small book. I wrote each poem with about a dozen people in mind: the volunteers who come to the community garden each Saturday that we can gather together in a socially-distanced work party. I wrote these poems for the people mentioned in them, and I’ve been so grateful that others have also found something in them: a pinned-down memory of an awful, strange year; the bit of hope many of us found in growing things during that time.
I’ll keep writing a poem every week for the Friday Journal, the weekly newsletter for St Stephen’s in-the-Field, the church that hosts the community garden. I’ll keep posting updates online about the work we’re doing in the garden.
Tomorrow we’re planting trees on the campus surrounding the community garden, oaks that will — with luck, time, and care — still be growing strong in 250 years. If you’re interested in coming to help, comment, message me, or text me. We can always use more hands.
So, if you’re interested in backing the Kickstarter, you have 3 days left. There’s some cool rewards, like native seed packets, a custom poem for your garden, or an audiobook. It’s been fun figuring out how to self-publish this small book and once again, I’m so grateful for everyone’s love and support.
Love your poetry.I’m repeating this request I made on Instagram just in case you haven’t seen it…
Hi, I’m from the California Native Plant Society, Yerba Buena chapter. I’m putting together a Native Plant Week art exhibition on our website (cnps-yerbabuena.org) that features native plants, landscapes and wildlife that thrives in the urban wilds of San Francisco and Northern San Mateo Counties. We love your work and would love to feature three of your pieces. Naturally, we will link to website, blog or Instagram page. Cheers, Bob Hall, CNPS Yerba Buena chapter (yerba.buena.cnps)