For my fourth project, I compiled 152 of the poems that I wrote over the past year together. Then, I paired each poem with a quote that is is similar to the poem written. I chose to do 150 poems and 2 final "doxologies" to mirror the biblical psalms. I did this using Adobe InDesign and Adobe Illustrator.
Over the past year, I have gone through a sort-of "deconstruction" of my faith. Writing these poems became a way to process this deconstruction. Now, looking back, each poem has a story attached to it. I can remember clearly where I was and what inspired me to write each poem. But, at the same time, I think these poems and this story of deconstruction to rediscovery is not just exclusive to me. By compiling these poems, pairing them with quotes, and sharing them with the world, I am trying to connect my story to all of our stories. I am trying to find out how the whole is greater than the sum of its small and fragmented parts.
The book is meant to be read in two page spreads, with the poem on the left and the quote on the right. The book is 351 pages long, and is divided into three sections: "Broken Psalms," "Blue Hymns" and "Darkness Dancing." Each part is then split up into the months that the poems were written in, beginning in April 2017, and ending in April 2018. It is called "Between Prose and Poem" after a poem that uses that same phrase. Here is the cover:
Here is a few example of some two page spreads:
Here is a link to the entire pdf. Please download and read!
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHN_BVXsVEKddjLooQpyrJxdxX6sY-Ym/view?usp=sharing
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In addition to this 351 page book, I compiled only the poems together into another book and called it "Between Belief and Unbelief." I used Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing to publish it on amazon. Both ebook and paperback are available to purchase :)
Here is the link to the book on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1980925380?ref_=pe_870760_150889320
This is the book description on amazon:
"In April 2017, I started a personal project of writing a poem a day for an indefinite amount of time. As the days went by, it became more like a poem every other day. Then it became a poem wherever and whenever inspiration struck. After an entire year of this, I had written over 180 short poems. This book is simply a selection of 152 of those poems. This book is simply a year of my life told through poetry and rhyme. These are my broken psalms, my blue hymns, and my dancing songs."
Here is a photo my friend sent me when he got his copy in the mail. I am so glad I got to compile an entire year's worth of poems into a book. I am very happy with how this final project turned out!