Search for a Kinder Muse

By Terrie Leigh Relf

This is a collection of poems about writing, or Ars Poetica (And yes, that includes poems about not writing and everything between and beyond). It is also about language and where ideas come from—mine, yours, and other people’s. Furthermore, this collection is about how writing affects the day-to-day lives of writers (i.e., awake at night, dreaming during the day) and other experiential phenomenon such as that attraction-revulsion dynamic. It is also about how poets affect those around them, such as family, friends, significant others—and total strangers. There are also a few Ekphrasis poems here, inspired by Marcia Borell’s art.

In addition to a few previously unpublished and/or new poems, this collection is a thematic “best of” as well as a sequel, for two different collections: My very first chapbook, Lap Danced by The Muse: How I learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Tease, which was published in 2002 by David Boyne, the former publicist for WritersMonthly.us (and where my first writing column was housed); and My Friend, The Poet, and Other Poems About People I Think I know, which was published in 2008 by Sam’s Dot Publishing. Both collections are out of print; however, there may be a few copies of My Friend, The Poet to be had on the web.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terrie Leigh Relf
• Release date: Jul 18, 2015
• ISBN: 9781311030535

Terrie Leigh Relf

Terrie Leigh Relf is a Lifetime Member of the Science Fiction Poetry Association and an active member of the Horror Writers Association. She is the author - and co-author - of over ten books, and appears in several genre anthologies. In addition to being an author, Relf is a copywriter, editor, content provider, and NLP & Hypnotherapy Writing Coach. Find her work as an editor and author at Alban Lake Publishing and Elektrik Milk Bath Press et al.

Book preview

Search for a Kinder Muse

Poems by Terrie Leigh Relf

&

Art by Marcia Borell

Copyright 2015 Terrie Leigh Relf

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

First Helping

Further Adventures with the Muse

if you let them. . .

Meringue

My Friend, The Poet

Okay, Muse

A Romantic Lobster Dinner

In Search of a Kinder Muse

Like Insects Crawling

Winter Solstice 2008 and Other Cursed Tales

An Afternoon Tea

Second Helping

Trans-stellar Lexicon: An Exercise in Greeting

After Attending the Transgalactic Poetry Conference: Developing Cultural Awareness of Metric Systems in Translated Works

My friend, who writes in her dreams

On learning earthtongues

Bless me, Father

Donating Poems

Some Poems are like zombies

How to resurrect a poem from the dead

Third Helping

at the sushi bar

After a poetry reading

Save the poets

What mask shall I wear today?

The Muse of Nightmare Alley

XenoGlossolalia: Alien Linguists Study Terran Tongues

Have you ever. . .

Banishing Spell

Author’s Note & Acknowledgements

Artist Statement

Last Page - Connections

***

First Helping

Further Adventures with the Muse

The Muse has just returned

from another sojourn across the globe.

She flops onto my front porch chaise,

traces a graceful (yet somewhat random)

arc connecting several points in the night sky,

says, "Your poems need to travel,

so