A collection of 230 poems or more? I know of no such thing, WAV. There are dozens, hundreds, thousands of books of around thirty or so poems published by big name publishers. And there are piles of small poetry magazines to be found in bookstores and well-stocked magazine stands, most of which are quarterlies, but many monthly publications.

I'm not a poet myself (I am a published—and paid—prose writer, however), but I am no stranger to the world of poetry. Within the past couple of years, I have been part of a group called "Miscellany" (Nancy Quensé, guitarist and singer, Isla Ross, violinist, my wife Barbara, singer and keyboardist, and myself, singer and guitarist) that provides background and incidental music for readings by award-winning poet Jana Harris. She has seven books of poems published along with a couple of novels, one of which was a Book of the Month Club alternate selection.

Jana has a large group of slides appropriate to her poems, and Nancy has researched music and songs, and although Jana does most of the reading, she has us all read (I read the "guy" poems). Between the readings, the slides, and the music, the presentations are somewhat reminiscent of the Ken Burns television specials. We've given these presentations at a number of bookstores and at book fairs. No presentations right now because Jana is busy writing another thematic group of poems for a new collection. There is the possibility that in the near future, we may give the presentation on television.

I have also recorded several poems for local poet and old friend Richard Gibbons for a planned web site and audio CDs of his poems. He has a few other people recording his poems as well, because he wants a variety of voices in addition to his own. He is also a published poet and writer, and is best known here on Mudcat as having written "Sully's Pail," a song recorded by Tom Paxton.

If you are unemployed, I'm quite sure it would be nice to have a few checks coming in, especially royalty checks, where the work has been done, but the checks just keep on coming.

There are plenty of publishers out there if you are courageous enough to submit your poetry to the scrutiny of editors.

Don Firth