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How I Received My First 5 Star Rating on Goodreads
A look back at my second book of poetry
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…