Exactly one year ago today, in the final hours of my 50th year on earth, I submitted a chapbook-length manuscript to Finishing Line Press.. Last October, they accepted it for publication. And today I am halfway through the pre-sales period, getting a crash course in book promotion.

It’s interesting how the universe works. If I had not gotten a nasty thumb infection, I probably never would have attempted a poetry manuscript. And yet here I am, one year later, with a book set to release in June—just not the one I expected to publish! Which is pretty much how things tend to happen in my wacky, wondrous unplanned life.

I’m actually pretty grateful for that thumb infection and how things worked out!

To celebrate my forthcoming book, Across An Aqueous Moon: Travels in Autism, as well as all the crazy twists and turns that brought me to where I am today (not to mention my upcoming birthday!), I thought I would post a poem. This is one of the poems from the book. The first one, in fact.

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED

An untold wait followed by joyous,
razor-sharp months, then a clear-cut forest
on the blackened slopes of my once verdant heart.
I wandered the moonscape, stumbling over
silence, dragging my grief—an ox at the plow.
Then a stormy angel turned terror inside out,
a seedling sprouted strong and sure
from the debris of my discarded
life.

I predict my next trip around the sun is going to be a fabulous one!

Until next time,
Cynthia