Hello. everybody! I'm a first-time indie author, and my book, I'll Take You there, is available on Amazon (published April 2018): The book is a quick read-- 80 pages (soft cover) with 50 poems.
I’ll Take You There is about butterflies and bugs, relationships, choices, and growing old. It’s about familiar things imagined in new ways and unspeakable things given voice. The poems are pithy and layered, infused with plain talk, and deal with a myriad of personal and topical issues, not least among them, racism, which is dealt with in each of the four sections of the book (Discovery; Snapshots; Choices; Memories). Feelings predominate in Discovery, where the author rummages through heart and mind to discover self. Snapshots include whimsical, reflective poems of brief, indelible connections with both man and nature. Misinformation, disinformation, greed, sin, and social pathology are dealt with unflinchingly in Choices. Growing up in the 1940s and ’50s is the theme of Memories, with each poem beginning with “I remember.”
What is probably unique to I’ll Take You There are the text references (to the back of the book), where foreign, colloquial, and made-up words are defined, some verses expounded on, and some poems given historical and cultural context.
I am very much interested in AALBC considering I'll Take You there for one of the free book reviews. Like I say, it's a quick read, but a deep dive.
Here's one of the shorter poems:
BLACK PEARL
You forced me into your house
and I became an irritant.
You tried to smother me
and I became blacker,
more beautiful, more precious.
When you were shucked
I was free to be me,
my value on display
for the whole world to see.
ISBN-13: 978-1732091009
Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1/131-3277931-2216451?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=verdelle+lambert
Author Profile: I earned a master's degree in magazine journalism from Syracuse University. With the exception of writing for Jet magazine, I spent my entire professional career writing and editing employee publications for major corporations (including IBM). After retirement I published the now defunct biennial Christian magazine, The Gift Is Free, which I distributed gratis to local churches from 2008 to 1012. My hobbies are photography, gardening, designing greeting cards, and watching well scripted movies.