Poet Unfurled

By Alberto Maneri

How many of you out there wish you had kept your creative meanderings, your short stories, and your adolescent musings?

I happened to have kept some of mine around. This is a collection on poetry I've written over the years. Some lay forgotten in dusty drawers for a decade or more.

A moment of inspiration led me to re-discover my w

• Language: English
• Publisher: Ewings Publishing LLC
• Release date: Oct 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9798890316424

Alberto Maneri

Having lived in extremely different environments has shaped my view of the world around me. I was born in a small farming village in Puerto Rico, then spent my adolescent years in the inner city (South Bronx to be exact), and finally have spent the past 30 years or so in rural New Jersey (Yes it does exist!).These poems are influenced by those environments, but are not bound by them. I may in fact have been influenced as well, however having always been a very independent thinker, I did not let circumstance dictate my destiny.

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Copyright © 2023 Alberto Maneri.

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ISBN: 979-8-89031-640-0 (sc)

ISBN: 979-8-89031-641-7 (hc)

ISBN: 979-8-89031-642-4 (e)

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Foreword

So what do have here? Another Joe Nobody trying to indulge delusions of grandeur? Perhaps.

First a little about me. My given name was Alberto Cruz-Natal. I was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and lived in a very small farming village called Arrozal until I was just about turning eleven. It was then that I saw there was no future in the little village for me. And so I decided to go live with my mother in NYC. Culture Shock!!! I left NYC when I was eighteen and moved to rural NJ (Yes there is such a thing!). So in a weird way, a full circle-country to city to country.

I married my husband and took his name.

As for the works in this book; they are a sampling, a collection if you will, of my poems throughout the years. I have no formal training in the craft of poetry, nor do I wish to have any. You see, I feel poetry is personal. It should be an organic extension of self. It’s a way to use words to paint a picture of an idea, an object, a feeling, or a place.

Some of the poems were written before a single pen or keystroke was used, while others took work and re-work. I likened it to walking into your kitchen feeling thirsty. Sometimes you walk in and find a glass full of cold crisp water. Sometimes the glass is half full, and it is just enough water, or you need to go the fridge door to add more. Sometimes the glass is empty and you have to get the water. Sometimes, however, there is no water flowing and you must go out and dig, work, to get to the source of water in order to be satiated. The thirst is the impulse to write, the glass is the intent to write poetry, the water, well, that’s the poem.

I chose to divide the book into three sections, although I am sure there are multiple ways to sort these as you will soon see. The first is A Prelude to Social… It is a grouping of social commentary, of observations and opinions. Some of these are quite dark, while others are light and playful. Several deal with the AIDS epidemic as it stood in the late eighties and nineties. More than a few deal with our impact on the environment.

The second group is What Lies Within. This group is mostly introspective, reflective, having to deal with my emotional development and growth. Some deal with struggles facing cancer, depression, self-loathing and acceptance, from both a personal and vicarious experience.

The last section is Ramblings of Love and Lust. These are self-descriptive. Some rhythmic, some lyric, and others simply odd.

I chose the title because in putting my words out in the public eye, I am exposing myself to the world. More importantly in going through my poems I realized I was in a way unfurling myself to me. I rediscovered things long forgotten.

Am I a poet? Well in the sense that I write poems, yes I am. But I am no more or less a poet than you. I think everyone is capable of poetry and I think poetry should be accessible to all.

In any event, I hope you enjoy my wordsmithing.

One last thing before you go on. Thank you.

For Frank, the love of my life.

Contents

Prelude to Social…

Declaration

Illusion

Castillos

Outstretched