(Or listen to the collection on: Slightly Crooked: Good Stories, Told Well 🗣🎧)

(From the inside of the book)

how this came to be

I wrote most of these poems over a three-month period in late 2021. I won’t go into too much detail because that’s part of the fun—the collection tells a story. 

Here’s what I will tell you, though. 

At the time, I wasn’t sure what I had. It sorta felt like just a random set of little poems. There were a lot more than what you’ll read here. In fact, I had close to double the amount. It was daunting to see all these little poems just sitting in a folder. I hated it, and I was dreading what I had to do next—organize them.

Once I started to sort the poems, though, something happened. I began to see a through-line. A seed of hope, if you will. I realized that if I arranged the collection well, it would actually have a narrative. One that almost felt like a mini-memoir. Sure, it was quite personal, and it hit much deeper than I expected. But honestly, that was the moment I became committed to getting the collection out into the world.

There were a lot of poems that I felt were strong (maybe stronger than some that made the collection), but in the end, they just didn’t fit the story. I didn’t want to start adding a ton of poems just to fill in gaps, and I also wanted the collection to be a true representation of the time period that I wrote them in, rather than a razor-sharp narrative in which every detail is super clear. They are poems, after all. I did elect to include a few poems here that were previously published on my website, DouglasVigliotti.com. (They just seemed to work well.)

Lastly, you should know the poems are very close to their original state. I made only small tweaks here and there, mostly grammar and minor word adjustments, just so you didn’t wonder if I was an idiot. Nothing that altered the intention or meaning of the poem. I was really just shooting for an artistic aesthetic that I adore—unbridled rawness. I love it. It’s risky and fun. And, the more unaltered, the better it is. In the words of Pablo Picasso, “Everything interesting in art happens right at the start. Once you’re past the beginning, you’re already at the end.”

If you like lean art as much as I do, you might enjoy what I’ve done here. Or maybe I’ll make you a convert. One can only hope. The rest is on you.

Now, let’s begin.

Just enter your email and I’ll send it over. 😊