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How I Received My First 5 Star Rating on Goodreads

A look back at my second book of poetry

If I Ain't Readin'
4 min readAug 4, 2021
sunflower in a book
Photo by Mrika Selimi on Unsplash

In a previous article, I mention that poetry is dead.

What I meant to say was: Poetry needs resuscitation.

My book, Sea of Iron Hands was created and printed in 2012, but in 2015, I received this notification:

I was floored and I feel awful for not marketing the book more afterward. I’ve received a few more five stars on Amazon as well. The question remains though: What the heck have I done to get the book read?

J. Kahele’s review of Sea of Iron Hands | Goodreads

A catchy title?

The book is titled Sea of Iron Hands. So, perhaps I should begin here.

Titles are super important. Before sitting down to create a title, I wrote the poems first. Each poem is based on reflections or some poetic exercise that served as my muse. After writing them, I thought of a title. It had to be snappy. Catchy. Memorable.

I had a hard time.

After a few days, I began searching through my completed manuscript and decided, the sea of iron hands would win. To this day, I am not sure, but while writing the poem, I saw nothing but images of hands reaching up from a vast sea and they…

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If I Ain't Readin'
If I Ain't Readin'

Written by If I Ain't Readin'

Erica is an essayist and poet who enjoys reading, creating content, and helping others find their purpose too. Above all, she loves to read🖤

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