THE LIGHT VERSE: AN INTRODUCTION

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1. In 2018, I put out a book of animal quatrains and animal factoids. Called An Alphabestiary, it was very home-made, especially in its illustrations, which at the time, I found charmingly amateurish. I’ve withdrawn the e-book, but Amazon won’t unlist a published paperback.

So I’ve revised it, and I’ve put together an upgrade, called A Betabestiary. Its hand-drawn illustrations are gone; the cover is new and sharper; there are more and better photographs; I’ve rigorously honed the writing. And I’ve expanded it: there are now six sections instead of four, and 150 featured animals rather than 110.

A Betabestiary is now available, exclusively on Amazon, both as a $1 e-book and a $10 paperback. Attention: it’s a browsing book. (Can an e-book really work that way?)

 

2. Visit PIC LIT to see the entire PDF of a book I borrow from for A Betabestiary. The book is The Flap Over Tree Debris Island, and it’s over at PIC LIT because it's a hybrid: every bit as much a book of photography (albeit on trade book quality paper) as of writing. And anyway the writing isn't exclusively light verse, or even verse. If you’d like a hard copy, you’ll need to contact me (go to PING ME).

 

3. A Betabestiary still has outtakes. And I’ll continue to write creature quatrains. So below, in this very section of my website, there’s a “3rdBestiary” folder.

 

4. l toss off limericks regularly. Mostly I don't keep track of them, but there are a few below in the "Limericks" folder. And I'm also issuing a Limerick Challenge, because who knows? Check it out.

 

5. There's a "Lights Out Loud" folder too, for performance pieces, just one room down, in this same wing of the website. (PLAYGROUND). Check the PERFORMANCE tab.

 

6. In the late 80s to early 90s, for a period of several years, I wrote nothing but poems and short stories about animals beginning with the letter C. I was engaged more in other arts at the time (theater); my C-Beasts work was mostly just for fun. There are "C-Beasts" pieces all over the site (e.g. at LIGHTS OUT LOUD, and as SONG LYRICS, at the PROJECTS tab—even one fully serious poem, under POETRY, “Mutt Spirituals.”). I'm planning a chapbook of some. Others, I'll gather to post right here—eventually!

 

LIGHT VERSE SAMPLES