Poetry Can Save Your Life

Dearest Friends,

A few of you have asked me to share this news… so here goes! Late to
poetry, several years ago when the structures I always depended on in my
life began falling apart, when there were no words to describe what it was
like to lose a long marriage, my mother, and my home in a period of five
weeks, I was granted an amazing gift—the discovery of a whole new
language at my disposal—poetry. Sure, poetry had been around for a while,
(since the 3rd millennium BCE), waiting for me all along. I just need a
powerful catalyst to find it. Honestly, I believe poetry saved my life.

With the support of amazing friends, mentors, and teachers, some of their
names listed below, I’m thrilled and overflowing with gratitude to share,
Finishing Line Press is publishing my first full-length poetry collection, called
In the Thaw of Day, now available on pre-order at a discount directly from
the publisher; and in print, and from Amazon in October. I would be honored
and delighted if you would check it out. Ordering it this way initially, helps
me as the author, so special thanks!! 

Thank you for reading, and for being part of the PINK community—and for
being on this amazing, terrifying, spectacular journey called life, which of
course, we’re all on together.

With PINK wishes for a lovely summer.   
 –Cynthia

CLICK HERE for More from the Publisher

 
My Father’s Smoke 
 
There was the crinkling  
cellophane, then pulling  
the gold strip to open  
the five packs he puffed 
each day. Did it relax him 
exhaling the stylish toke? 
 
Or did it burn him  
as he lit up each morning  

before flipping on the light?  
I was addicted to his  
balm of Salem Menthol  
masking everything bad— 
stuffy bedrooms, stench  
of diesel fuel and sea  
sickness. Their shouts 
from the kitchen. I would 
stub out his cigarette  
decades before we  
suspected emphysema,  
 
the only time I recall  
him yelling at me.  
I savor the aroma.  
Even now, all of him  
in the ocean—  
if someone lights up  
I inch in to get closer. 
  

About the Book—
Good’s poetry collection chronicles the speaker’s decision to leave a difficult marriage, and coming to terms with trauma, and her journey to recover while finding deep meaning and joy in the smallest things: …the ocean, sky, dirt and air, and space // between my cells…  Believing it’s essential to express what burns inside us, even at the risk of ridicule, the author grapples with big questions of impermanence and why we are here, how the wind off the Seine /crawls under your scarf. The black / and white photo from the museum, / an image of Basquiat between us / tells me Basquiat is dead, / and in this photo, all of us are memory. The collection is bursting with the natural world, filled with whales and wild mushrooms, taking the reader from Paris and Mexico to Los Angeles, Atlanta and the moon. The book looks at grief following the loss of the poet’s long marriage, the death of her mother, and her father to suicide, while always finding something to be thankful for, even if it’s, the way a leaf / still shudders after the wind.

Special Thanks—
In The Thaw of Day is dedicated to my sons Alden and Julien Reiman; my brothers Glendon and Brad and dear friends who helped me through and believed in me; Meg Reggie, Keiko Drew, Susan Johnson, Barbara Barry, Tina Good, Jill Campbell, Christine Leuthold, Danica Kombol, Maria Guarisco and Albert Amato, Denise Direnzo, Monica Diaz Rivera, Dawn Solomon, Genevive Pelletier, Kathy Hart, Trina Keuller, Sacy Bryant, Annette Loper, Rob Brinson; my poetry community Ann Buxie, Nathan Hassall, Heidi Seaborn, Karen Javits, Kathryn Kelly; to the extraordinary humans and poets I’ve had the chance to learn from and who made me realize I wasn’t crazy, I just needed this language; Catherine Barnett, Camille Dungy, Memye Curtis Tucker, Mathew Rohrer, Robin Coste Lewis, Nick Laird, Brian Teare, Brenda Hillman, Victoria Chang, Deborah Landau, Forrest Gander; and especially this is dedicated to my editor and friend and wonderful poet Travis Denton.  
IN THE THAW OF DAY
Coming October 2024
Pre-Order: HERE