Yes I write poetry. Certainly not normal poetry. I make up the rules as I go along. Of course that means rejecting some rules that I was taught in school. Man I hated those rules! Here are some screen shots of my store and my ko-fi shop. http://ko-fi.com/connieboje
Because many people go on vacation in August I decided to boost sales by trying out a sale on my zines! Buy four zines get half off! This is the time I can work on my Etsy store because I am off from work. I have also expanded the amount of information available for zine purchases. Now you can actually read some of my poems for each zine listed. Each zine listing looks different (also lists the individual poem titles) but that was not enough to tell what poems were lurking inside. What are they really like.
So you can now see some complete poems. My poetry tends to be short and to the point. Sometimes I have added short stories. Each zine is a mixture of possibly photographs, words and cover/back cover art and copyright information. The photographs are usually in the public domain. I find most really almost all of the photographs on Pixabay. I love this web site. Anyone can upload photographs to be judged by Pixabay users as to its own merit into being added to the substantial list of photographs that anyone can download from their website.
Latest zine in Etsy shop is about the recent shootings of innocent people in the US. Not a fan of assault rifles so here I go again poetry wise. Hope you like it. This will be my third zine (No Name, Ethnic Supremacist) written solely with one subject in mind. Usually I would write a bunch of poems and sort through them and pick ones to put together under a dominant poem. Not anymore. I am picking news-worthy subjects and going there in words.
New zine about the war in Ukraine. Follows the news after Russia invaded Ukraine in poetry fashion. I spent my Spring Break writing it. You can currently find this zine and others in my Etsy shop.
Contains the following 54 poems:
Here are the zines. I have not come up with a description for them yet so I think I will try right now to save some time later. This is a stamped numbered series of same medium sized zines, which is true of all of the zines in the group. I aim for around sixty poems for each zine but that can vary. I write a big batch of poems in the beginning and then pick the most dominate poem (or my favorite) and add supporting poems. My first thought is to put them together after the dominant poem is picked. This time I switched out some poems that were obviously in the wrong zine so they are no longer alphabetical. Someday I want to publish all of my poems into one book. Not sure how I would organize the poems yet or if I should combine similar zines into one book each.
I am not yet at the physical copy stage of this group of zines. I want a second pair of eyes on my poems, My daughter, Olivia, has been most helpful and encouraging of me to print my poems in zine format. She gives zine talks and organizes zine fests. I also need her expertise on scanning. She has all along been my computer support person when Word took over my ODT files. She also eliminated the MS bloat wear, One Drive, from blocking all my progress to move my documents around. Thank you, Olivia! Now I can use my new computer again!
Zine 26 A Field.
This zine is about land and earth and dirt. I think in some ways this really is my favorite because I come from Nebraska and was born in Iowa. Some could look at my writing as being commentary or criticism of the way things are handled like the decline of forests. But I think I really like to look at the bigger picture so I use the word bigger frequently in my poems.
Zine 27 Almost Black Almost White.
This zine is my take on what recently happened with Black Lives Matter. I am not black but poets can write about what happens in society. I am white. I think we are all related in the ancient past. I also look for common ground. Instead of saying we are all of something I think we should realize we are all a little of something else.
Zine 28 Big Pill
This zine is about mental and physical health. It may err on the side of exposing part of my life because I have been there done that. I cannot tell you when I started writing poems as an older female person but it could certainly have been in the psych ward. It has been a journey and while this batch of zine poems reflects me on medication (the first batch was me refusing to take my psych meds) I think they go together and refer to each other.
Zine 28 Digit Tall
This zine is about technology that we all have to learn and to put up with in our daily lives. While some people chose to opt out of the whole computer introduction, others we inspired to embrace the change and see what they could learn to do. Of course there are always new training for whatever new tech device is on the horizon. For some people it is easier than for others.
Zine 23 Driven.
I have wanted to write this zine for a long time since my oldest daughters were in high school. Now my youngest is in high school and finally it is here. I used to write bits of ideas on small bits of paper and keep them in a purse. I carried that purse around with me and one day went through all of those ideas and tried to sort them but they were not poems and I had no idea I would end up writing poems. So here they are. Although not directly related to those ideas they represent my idea of driving.
Zine 33 Glitter.
Many people in my family are part of LBGTQIA. I am what is called cisgender. I try to be supportive and open to what my children want to do with their life while also trying to understand new to me concepts. Since this is happening to parents around the globe (and they are not always supportive) it is a necessary subject.
Zine 21 Have Paper.
This zine is about writing. It is something I like to do. To write and to discuss the writing process. I went to a high school that prided itself on writing. I transferred from a private school to a public school and they made me take a remedial writing class even though my grades had been excellent. I had a doctor for a teacher in that class. He liked to put people down. I took a writing class in college and we got to see what everyone wrote anonymously. I did fine but never took another class because none of my teachers encouraged me and no one ever wanted poems. I hope you do!
Zine 24 House Payments.
Many people in the past have been able to buy a house. Now all of a sudden it is much harder. Rent payments have gone through the roof and now housing prices are going up accordingly. Wall Street is also buying up single family homes so they can profit from this current dilemma. I live in a house we used to rent. I looked for a house to buy before that that was better than the house we were living in. We were lucky this house fell in our lap!
Zine 31 Meat.
This zine is a little off beat. It has poems about cats and dogs and regular meat. I used to spend my time on Instagram before Facebook bought it and I saw things on there that you cannot un-see. a dog getting cooked. I am sorry it was terrible. It really was a learning experience. And also an opportunity to remember my love of dogs. I had a dog growing up, a wiener dog, who used to sleep with me and my parents gave her away. They had no collar for her nor a leash. She got out several times and almost got ran over. I was sad but buried my sadness in cats. Instagram has so many cat and dog photos. Totally recommend it. Just be careful.
Zine 27 No Name.
This zine will not register with anyone unless I tell you it is about Covid-19 when it was just starting to spread and they did not have a name for it yet. I totally watched everything I could about this virus starting with its origins in China. Work did not think it was a problem but of course it became a big change in protocol when we came back from quarantine. For some reason a big segment of the population has been anti-vaxxer since vaccines have arrived to combat sudden death. I have had my two shots and did develop an awful rash on my hands and mid arm area. It went away after a month. No sweat!
Zine 22 Send Heart.
This zine is an attempt at romantic. I realize most poems romanticize nature or complain really about how sad they are. I want to say that I am not sad. I am more angry. This is as romantic as I get. It just means every so often heart-like poems appear out of nowhere. I do like when they show up and obviously need more of them in my life. The poem Send Heart is an exercise in repetition.
Zine 32 Twenty-Two.
This zine has mainly Science Fiction poetry. It is speculating on the next century which is always fun to write about since no one really knows what is going to happen. It is open to criticism as well. I am sure I should have made this zine longer because some poems ended up in other zines but once you decide on how many sheets of paper this is going to be it is impossible to change later on if the poems have a set order.
Zine 29 Witched Brew.
Okay I am not really into witches as in Halloween. Nor am I a witch but it is not my place to say anything about people who are nature lovers. But this is a collection of poems that are about creepy stuff. The picture for the zine shows a fractal that looks like some type of chemical brew. There is also a picture inside of someone soaking in a bubble bath to carry on that theme of unnatural. But perhaps fractals are of nature? Good question.
Connie Boje 