Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US

Petals Leaves and Thorns Amazon Digital Services LLC - KDP Print US

A friend who read some of the poems commented, "They don't write poetry like that anymore. I like them." That remark meant so much to me as he was a respected author who is held in high regard, not just because of his works, but because he is a gentleman in the real sense of the word. If I was unsure about publishing before his comment, then doubt flew out the window. Where doubt actually went I don't now and don't care. Whether you will like my poetry, ah, that's a different matter. I hope so, but there's no pleasing everybody. So I suggest you take a peek at a few of the poems before forking out any of your hard, or easy, earned cash. To sum up the range of my poetry in a few words: it is satirical, loving, revolutionary, naughty, war-like, political, philosophical, both Aussie and international, both deep and shallow..... I will stop there as you get the drift it covers a wide range of subject matter. Actually, I find this hard, namely, selling yourself and your works. It's far easier to have someone sell you and your works as some unknown genius, not quite Shakespearean, somewhat less than Milton, not quite up to Dante, yet nonetheless worth a read. I suppose the range of my entries are quite varied because variety has always been my life. For instance, I put up my age by four years so I didn't have to have my parent's consent to join the army to go off to the Korean War. So I was probably the youngest Aussie to fight in that conflict. My sister Pat asked my mother if she was worried about me fighting in Korea? She replied, "No, John can look after himself, it's his morals in Japan I worry about!" Well, I told that story for a few reasons. First to get to the word count required for this intro; second, to give you an indication of my age; third, I have seen a lot, experienced even more, which has given lots of subject matter to write about. Regards the actual writing, if I try to write a poem nothing much happens but if some event occurs or I read about some bullying act by state or religion, words just flow and the poem is written with ease. Words flow, then lines grow into paragraphs, voila, a poem. Of course, it may take hours to tidy up, to erase, add, and evaluate. Then days later, the same again, 'To add a comma, or remove a comma, that is the question?'Seriously, even a year ago, nay, six months ago, the thought of publishing a book of poetry hadn't remotely entered my head. But then, it did. So I took stock of what I had written and what I was writing. After leaving out all those poems I had written to my lady loves over the years (don't want to embarrass them), I had more than enough for a book. Something else happened to act as a catalyst. It was the software, Affinity Publishing, which was released in 2019. It's a great programme for those like me, who write and self-publish our own books on Amazon and Kindle. I have six other books published on Amazon. If you want an 'unusual read' like no other, try my THREE WARS A SOLDIER. I haven't sold a lot, as I am not crash hot at selling myself, which you need to if publishing on Amazon. Certainly it's different to some commercial publisher telling and selling to the world just how brilliant you are. If you do like my book, you will become my salesperson when you tell someone it's a worthwhile buy - if you don't, you won't. That's it for my number of words - so bye - be kind to yourself.