God, Hair, Love, and America.

2010 has already been a year of many firsts for me. It is a pleasure to announce the release of my first book of poetry. It's called God, Hair, Love and America. A collection of Poetry. You can find it at www.amazon.com or also at Open Book, A Poem Emporium located in Wallingford at 2414 N45th Street and the Center for Spiritual Living Bookstore 5801 Sand Point Way NE in Seattle, WA.

Though I've been writing since I can remember, and it's always been my dream to publish a book I hadn't gotten around to it. Finally, in December of 2008, I decided I was ready. One of my writing projects/New Year's resolutions was to try my hand at slam poetry. The slam is a poetry competition that takes place once a week (currently Tuesdays at the Rebar, if you're in Seattle). That's when 8-10 poets compete by performing pieces that don't last longer than 3 minutes. For 3 whole minutes you can get on the mic and say what you want, all eyes are on you. The work has to be original, you can't use props and it can be memorized or read. Then random judges from the crowd hold up score cards and let you know how you did with numbers from 1-10, 10 being you are a slam god and 1 being please go home and come back when you're ready (I've never seen anyone get a 1 though...mostly people bring it!).

After slamming once a month for year, I had amassed a collection. At the prompting of my mother, I put it all together in book form and then life happened (it does that). I won't go into the excuses, because the important thing is that I did come back to it and it is a collection that I'm proud of. God, Hair, Love, and America is named for the top 4 themes that run through my work. Each poem has got it's own story to tell, but every word is an authentic expression of self. I hope you enjoy it.