Be You. Why not?
- Patricia Chaffee
- Jul 15
- 2 min read
It's taken me 65 years and a tiny cottage by the sea to get my head around a message on my new favorite t-shirt. It reads, "Be you. The world will adjust." And it is with that message in mind that I have published my second book. Poetry from a Magic Cottage by the Sea, (a title I chose but keep mixing up) is the culmination of a lifelong passion for writing poetry. Some of the 130-or-so poems inside were written decades ago, while others were written even as I was gathering pages to put some order to a book that didn't want to be organized in the traditional sense.
I kept going back to the reality that for me, poetry as a writing genre is one of the most vulnerable. Take haiku, for example. A pattern of 5-7-5 syllables. Where does the poet hide? There are no characters. There are no fabricated towns, villages, restaurants. There are no Hallmark movie themes. It's just the poet and the words. Uber simplicity. Uber authentic. Uber no place to hide. So it was with that in mind that my collection of poetry came together. And for the first time in a long time, with permission to just be myself, to honor what I needed to write, I didn't care. Nothing was censored, though I tried. Read Poetry Unleashed, p.6, about that. Or maybe I'll make a video of it for you. I've made several of me sharing some of the poems, and let me apologize now. I'm better at writing than I am at making movies. My friend pointed out that I said "um" 5 times in one of them. Thank you Joanne. I'll work on that.
But back to my book...here it is in all it's splendid glory, vulnerability on a platter. I hope that some of my poems resonate with you. I'll bet they will. I'll share more about the journey soon, but for now, here is one of my haiku poems, one of only a handful in the book, that describes Poetry from a Magic Cottage by the Sea, beautifully.
Here are some fun pics and updates. Poetry & Prose had a memorable experience at the Nightjar Fest. Everyone was incredibly warm and welcoming. Here's my new shirt and motto for living. Hillary and I wrestled weavings and books in the wind at the gracious Savour in Centerbrook recently. My grandson Noah helped out that day. Three weavings have found new homes, and this one called Rescued did too. Happily residing in Niantic. One of my sisters, Camille, joined us at Tea & Tarot for their Pride & Solstice weekend. They just had their first anniversary at the new location in Clinton. It's a must-see. So much to experience there. Check it out. We've been busy and looking for a venue for Hillary and me to hold a launch party to celebrate our new books. She has a third one coming out in her Ogilvie series. Stay tuned for more on that. Until next time...
