Sirenities 3.0

Hello again to all my readers. Welcome to Sirenities 3.0. If you enjoyed my first two poetry books, you'll remember that the misspelled title, "Sirenities" is the product of a story about the arrival of my first grandchild. In case you're new to my work, let me explain. When my granddaughter was born, my son asked me what nickname I wanted her to use for me. "Was I to be a "Boompa" or G'Pa, or what would I prefer to be called?" he asked. After thinking for a moment and in my best ex-military voice, I answered, "Why don't we start with sir and go from there?" And so, for my first poetry book, I decided to publish under the pseudonym "Sir." That's why my first two poetry books, Sirenities, A Collection of Poems, the second book, Sirenities 2.0, and now, this book, Sirenities 3.0, are presented to you under the same name. Sirenities 3.0 is another collection of poems and includes 20 new poems along with 14 favorite poems chosen from my first two books. As in my previous poetry collections, after each poem, I include a brief narrative explaining the genesis of the poem and why I wrote it. I do that because over my many years of reading and writing, I have found it useful to know what was in the poet's mind at the point of creation of the poem. I also think it provides the reader with a greater appreciation of my poems and perhaps, it might even encourage them to write their own. The author David Brooks wrote, "Writers are beggars who show others where they got their bread." In the interest of full disclosure and if the truth be told, I am more a storyteller than a poet. I have always felt, though, that poets are simply impatient storytellers. I will, however, yield the point that poems are small stories all on their own. Poems capture the heart of a moment, in real time, with no delays. I also should admit that while I respect those schooled in some formal poetic process, I follow none. I'm quite sure that if my poems fell into the hands of some tweedy professor of poetry, it's highly likely that I've violated most or all of the traditional rules for writing poetry. With all due respect to that professor, I reject the idea of poetic process. Poetry that is borne of process and rules is tyranny. I follow no pattern or reason, no particular theme. My poems lack a prescriptive number of lines, and rhyming might be accidental, but also deliberate when the words work. My poems are simply random musings at a moment in my life that struck me as poetic and worth capturing. They are free form, free verse, and free spirit. If Socrates was correct and "an unexamined life is not worth living," all my written work is an attempt to honor his words as a way of remembering, examining, and memorializing a moment; a way to stop and remember before the moment is gone. I hope you enjoy them, but more importantly, I hope you'll consider writing your own. I believe there's a poet in each of us. The Afghan poet, Rumi, reminds us that "we carry inside us the wonders we seek outside of us." That's why I write. That's why we all should write. So, without delay, I humbly offer up to you, Sirenities 3.0.