C is for Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro (kee-ar-uh-SKYOOR-o): The contrast and balance between light and dark.

Chiaroscuro is the title of my upcoming poetry book being published by SynergEbooks. Today I’m going to share how the collection came to be.

Back in 2008, I took a course at the Muse Online Writers Conference called “How to Turn Your Poetry Into a Saleable Chapbook.” I had a lot of poems under my belt and wanted to create a cohesive collection.

I looked over all of my poems, and sorted them into themes. I found a lot of them were on the darker side: death, pain, abuse. Of course, a lot of those were from my teenage days. You know how teenage angst can get. But I still use poetry to deal with the darkness.

With encouragement, I went ahead with the dark theme. Chose my title, Chiaroscuro. My initial tag line was: Exploring the darkness, bringing the monsters of death and abuse into the light.

What was initially a 25 poem chapbook, later expanded to a book length collection so I could enter it into a local writing competition. I didn’t win, but I did get valued feedback from my peers, and wrote what is now the introduction.

Within us resides a tapestry of darkness and light. It is woven into our hopes, fears, dreams, and secrets. To understand the tapestry leads to knowing ourselves. Follow these threads of dark and light. You may be surprised at what lies hidden, lost, or wandering.

Last year during April Poetry Month I wrote some promising poems that fit the theme, so I polished those to fill out the content some more.

And now it’s on its way to becoming a digital book. Here’s a glimpse inside:

Anniversary

The door lifts to the bleak garage--
flashbacks barrage,
emotions show,
eyes overflow.

One year has passed since he's been gone;
my heart's withdrawn.
His red race car
sits like a scar.

My finger traces through the dust
as thick as lust;
I draw a heart
and then depart.