Review of 2024: Part Two

The first part of this annual review can be read at this link.

May

As the summer of 2024 began to break through, May saw the publication of Marmalade Hue by Oldham poet Donna Marie Smith. There's a story behind this cover. During the production stage Donna and I discussed the title of the book, and I asked her to come up with a title that lent itself to imagery. Marmalade Hue was chosen because it immediately conjured up a picture in my mind. The image was one I took of trees in winter, which I then colourised. 

Donna's gritty, down-to-earth but very humorous and touching book has been quite popular, and has attracted some glowing reviews, including this one by American poet Gregory Richard Barden: 

This wonderful book of poetry is filled with so much beautifully expressed content, presented with eloquence and charm, I would recommend this for everyone – get one for your nightstand or coffee table, and take this marvellous journey through poetic excellence!

June

As the month of June began, Wheelsong published its next collection of the year, by Gregory Richard Barden. Melancholy Moon is the first of several collections that will be published by Greg through Wheelsong. Greg's eloquently crafted poetry deserves a much larger audience than he currently enjoys, and hopefully this book will begin to make him more visible in the poetry community.

Greg is a master of the fixed form genre of poetry and his stunning poetry is very rich in both imagery and metaphor. It's quite exciting to anticipate what he will create in his next book.As Mark Massey remarked in his review: 

Greg Barden’s collection of poetry touches every emotion. His sonnets are perfection. This book needs to be in your collection.

July

There has been a demand to publish a second collection from Matt Elmore ever since his first book, Constellation Road hit the bookshelves. In July Wheelsong finally released a superb collection from the Kentucky poet that we hope does justice to his poetic genius. Matt creates poetry that is breathless, relentless and thrilling. In Average Angel, he conjures up a very enjoyable sequence of poems that challenge, thrill and amaze.

In Matt's own words:

Average angels surround us. They give more than they take. They make life worthwhile and they light up our lives. Do you know any? This is about them… Life is a game of opposites. Positive and negative, pleasure and pain… life and death. There are many who cannot reconcile the good from the bad because there seems to be such little hope without some form of unseen intervention.

August

My own book of new poetry, The Infinite Now was published in August of 2024. It contained a collection of diverse themes and styles. I think it's my most sophisticated book to date, but I won't blow my own trumpet. I'll introduce my brass section instead:

This extraordinary volume ... is a magnificent achievement of poetic excellence, inspiring spirituality, and exceptional beauty. Steve Wheeler is a modern master creating an immense breadth and depth of poetic forms and intriguing themes. – Linda Powers O'Dell

From the preface, through the verse-gilded pages, to the very last punctuation point, this book is a rich and varied glimpse into the realms of a prolific poet and a wondrous imagination. Every selection is a new spell-binding story that will leave you breathless, enriched, and wanting for more. Of all the many anthologies I have read of late, this one was the hardest to put down. – Gregory Richard Barden


The final part of this annual review can be read at this link.

Steve Wheeler

Review of 2024: Part One

2024 has been a busy and very productive year for Wheelsong Books and Invisible Poets. Here is the first of three parts of a comprehensive review of our achievements and successes over the year.

January 

The goal Wheelsong Books set itself as a publisher in 2024 was to publish one book each month. The first book off the Wheelsong press in 2024 was a collection of my own poetry from 2020-2023, titled All the Best (this is usually how I sign off an email). 

The poems in the collection were drawn from a number of previously published books including RITE, Shocks & Stares, My Little Eye and Nocturne. It contains poems such as Yasmina, I Ordered an Uber and a Hearse Showed up Instead, and many more.

What may have baffled some readers is the section headings which were all named in Latin or Greek. That's just me having a little fun with language!

February

As an online poetry community, Invisible Poets celebrated its first birthday in February 2024, a milestone commemorated by the publication of Invisible Poets Anthology 1. IPA1 is a collection of premier poetry all of which has featured in Live Poets Society shows. The best of the best poetry featured in the book, which is still on sale today to raise money for Save the Children. In total, the book featured more than 350 poems and at just over 300 pages, is the largest volume Wheelsong has published to date.

The cover art is a split image of artistic graffiti I found in a motorway underpass just a half mile away from my house. My daughter Amy Wheeler took the image, which features me in a green hoodie. The separated image of the hooded poet has since become the icon for Invisible Poets, and now features on our charity T-shirts (of which more later). 

March

As the first signs of Spring began to appear, we were working on the final touches of a wonderful collection by American poet David Catterton Grantz. Previously an educator, Dave's poetry has an ethereal lyrical quality that has to be experienced to be believed. Shadows into Light really showcases his unique talent as a poet, and although it may have been the first Wheelsong publication, it was in fact his fifth published collection. 

His work is summed up nicely by Ellis Ralph, wordsmith and singer-songwriter: 

Grantz is an expected surprise, a familiar novelty, dependably unpredictable in form and content, style and mood ever shifting his ideas, and yours. Strap in and ride shotgun in whatever vehicle he’s driving, to wherever it goes. He knows the way.

April

The Wheelsong Poetry Anthology is becoming a regular twice-a-year event, with contributions drawn from five or more large poetry groups across the online network. Wheelsong Poetry Anthology 4 was edited by me, ably assisted by Donna Smith and Matt Elmore, and what a difficult job we had! We received more than 500 submissions in just 3 weeks, and systematically waded through each, to select the very best of the best. I think the editorial team managed to do a very good job, as the collection clearly indicates. It's a great book, well worth a read, and hopefully it will become a classic in time. 

The beautiful image was donated by David Catterton Grantz to grace the front cover of our flagship publication. All proceeds are donated to our favourite charity, Save the Children and every sale raises enough to feed a malnourished child for almost a month. 

Continue reading the review of 2024 in these posts:

Review of 2024: Part Two (May-August)

Review of 2024: Part Three (September-December)

Steve Wheeler

Overcoming writers' block

Today's blog post is a guest post written by one of our Invisible Poets moderators Donna Smith. It contains some great advice and encouragement for all writers about a topic with which we are all very familiar.

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I have seen a few post recently where people are having writer's block or losing inspiration. 

As writers this is something we all go through and every one of us can relate to this feeling. Our brains sometimes need a switch off. We  can't be constantly thinking of the next poem or project as we have other 'stuff' going on too. 

Therefore we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves when it happens. Here are my top tips to deal with it when it does happen.

1) Don't stress or worry when it happens. Remember it happens to us all and it's only a temporary state.

2) Do what works for you. If reading others poetry helps to re-ignite the spark, all well and good. If not and reading others brilliant pieces is making you feel worse, switch off your phone and don't engage for a while and give yourself a break. 

3) Ask for a prompt or a title. When you have the theme given to you, half the job is already done. 

4) If you do want inspiration go to Matt Elmore pinned post at the top of Invisible for all the exercises. There are loads of different themes/exercises that may set you off on a specific poem and it may be a style you've never tried before. They also lead you to the wheelsong blog which is full of useful tips to help with your writing. These exercises have helped me to come up with a few poems and some have been my best work. 

5) Re-visit your own old work and correct spelling mistakes and grammar. This way you are at least doing something constructive with your writing. You may even see that a word needs adding or a different sentence would make it better. You could even end up with a completely different poem at the end of it. 

6) Delete, tidy, organise your work. Put your work into categories, genre, etc so that if/when an opportunity arises for a competition or publication for a specific type of poem, you can quickly see what you have got in that field.

7) When you can, tune in to Live Poets Society with Steve Wheeler on Invisible Poets. UK time 8pm on Fridays and new from today 8pm on Tuesdays with Matt Elmore and Brandon Adam Haven. Listening to other people's work being read out is a massive inspiration. Sometimes just hearing a certain word can set you off on your own journey.  

8) Going to go back to number 1. Just try not to worry. Know that we have all been in the same boat at some point and we understand how you are feeling. 

If anyone else has any more tips, please feel free to add in the comments section below. Happy writing. Xx

Donna Smith

Image from pxhere used by Creative Commons licence