Book release week – Update 27.4

In the world of poetry this week has been wholly positive with a successful reading at my poetry evening and the release of my new book on kindle.

First to mention my poetry open mic readings, I chose five poems to read. Two of these were paranormal poems written in rhyming verse (and under my pen name, Savannah R James). I’d practised well and as a result the readings went smoothly. Then it was a nostalgic poem about Meopham, the village where I grew up. Tracey from the host pub, The Mole, filmed this and broadcast it live. The hubby, who watched from home said how much my live readings have come along. I still haven’t watched it; I must! But I do agree that I feel a lot more confident about reading my poems now than I did two years ago when I first started. I’m so grateful to Tracey for giving me a platform to perform my poetry. Before she suggested such an event reading my poems in public wasn’t something I thought I could do.

The next poem was a letter to myself about what I went through last year and the final one was from my new book and was called I Can’t. I sat down for this one and gave an expressive performance, hopefully doing the poem justice.

I loved hearing everyone else’s work that evening. Amazing! So much talent! Well done to all.

Onto the main subject of this blog, the release of my brand new poetry collection, You Are Not Alone, a collection of poems about grief and loss. I am awaiting a proof copy so I can check the paperback layout but the kindle was ready so I released that earlier this week. Many are waiting for the paperback, which is fine. I find many people want to own physical copies of poetry collections but I know the ebook is still in demand for poetry. I’m running out of space for physical copies of books so any I can get on kindle I will!

This is a project very close to my heart and has been a highly emotive one. I hope people find solace in the poetry I’ve written during such a difficult time. Feedback on individual poems I’ve posted has been amazing. The poem I mentioned earlier, I Can’t has had an amazing response on Facebook. I Can’t is a poem about that overwhelming feeling that grief brings. The first line is ‘I can’t do this today’ which is a feeling that anyone who has been through grief will be familiar with. At the start there may be many days when you feel like this. Or you might feel like this every day. Lots of the comments I’ve had on the post have said every day is like this. I feel humbled to have had such a strong reaction to this poem and that many have felt a sense of ‘someone knows how I feel.’ This is my main wish for this new book; that, when reading it, people will find poems that speak to them and bring them comfort.

I will close by sharing I Can’t with you and then the link for You Are Not Alone

I Can’t

I can’t do this today
I feel so alone and lost
Without you next to me
Without you near
Without being able to talk to you

I can’t do this today
The house is so silent
The imprint is still on your chair
Your empty chair
I can almost see you
Still sitting there
But I know you’re not

I can’t do this today
I just heard your favourite song
I can’t breathe
I can’t speak
There are no words anymore

Jen Elvy

If you’d like to check the book out and maybe order it on kindle, click here.

Thank you for reading.

Jen x

Poetry Update – Publication and Performance

This week has been busy but I’ve managed to do some work on my new poetry collection ready for its publication in the coming weeks.

I’ve had to solve some spacing issues in the kindle app and read the poems through again. Yesterday I wrote my acknowledgement and started on my introduction, which I’ll continue shortly.

I’ve had a few sales of my poetry books this month, which has been great. I had a lovely author post on social media about the collection I wrote under my pen name, saying how much she enjoyed it. It’s always such a boost! She left a review too.

The facebook algorithms are always a bit up and down but I’ve had some great responses to my grief poems recently. Some people have asked me to let me know when by book is released, which is lovely.

As well as preparing my book for publication, I’ve been preparing some of my poems for reading at this month’s Holy Moly Spoken Word poetry evening. I always look forward to this chance to connect with other poets and showcase my work. This week I’m reading two of my paranormal rhyming poems, a poem about the village I grew up in and a couple of emotive poems, including one from my new book. I also get to see what my fellow poets have to offer and always look forward to hearing their work.

I love writing poems related to wellbeing and I want to close out the post by sharing one with you.

Check in with you

Checking in is a kind thing to do
But never forget to check in with you
Find a quiet place to sit and reflect
No one will mind; no one will object
Think about how your day has gone
Is there anything you need to reflect upon?
Think about anything preying on your mind
Remember, remember to always be kind
Think things through, but do not dwell
Instead focus on those things that went well
Tell yourself that you’re doing great
Treat yourself like you’d treat your best mate.

Jen Elvy

Thank you for reading this and I’ll touch base again next week.

Jen xx

Catch Up

It’s been a while since I wrote on here and I can see the traffic has been good so I was thinking maybe I should be writing here more often, providing you with more posts. So I’ll try and do a post once a week to update you all.

I’ve been working on a poetry collection about grief over the last few months. The title will be You Are Not Alone and that is the message I want to convey. We all go through grief at various points in our lives and we all deal with it in different ways. It’s important to realise that we are not alone in our feelings and others have been there before.

The poems I have shared have had a great response on social media with so many people saying how the words resonated with them. That is my biggest wish through all of this, that people who are in immense pain through grief find comfort in the words I use and it warms my heart to hear when it happens.

I have still been writing other poetry, especially paranormal haiku poems that I write under a pen name. I actually set up a prompt challenge on socials to inspire paranormal poetry but there have been no takers yet.

I also wrote a fantasy poem this week.

I will close with a poem from my new book, You Are Not Alone. See you next week.

I wonder

I wonder if, in heaven,
You’re greeted at the gates
And members of your family
Gather ’round in wait.

I wonder if, in heaven,
You see your special place
Or places that so long ago
Somehow fell from grace.

I wonder if, in heaven
You eat just what you like,
Instead of having to jump on
An underused exercise bike.

I wonder if, in heaven,
You sit upon a cloud
And watch over your loved ones,
Feeling very proud.

Jen Elvy

Signs

Distanced

Hi all

It’s been a while but I see there has been traffic so thank you so much.

I’m currently putting together a book of grief poetry and the title will be “You Are Not Alone”.

Here is a sneak preview of the title poem.

New year – an alternate view

Be kind

In April last year some wonderful colleagues asked me if I had any poems or could write a poem about looking after the environment for their Year 2 class assembly. So I wrote this one and the children read it out in assembly. This is a lovely memory I can take away from my former job. ❤️

It also carries an important message into 2024 and so it makes a great first poem of the year to share with you.

Happy new year and thank you

Thank you for all your support this year.

Next year I hope to bring you my grief collection and to finally finish my Meopham collection.

I would also love to write some poems for you on request so please get in touch to learn more about the service I offer.

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2024. I leave you with the final part of The Snow and the Sleigh

Jen xxx

New review

I try not to check my reviews on Amazon too often as it can be disheartening seeing there are no new ones.

However, a few days ago I checked as I thought I hadn’t in a while and I got a pleasant surprise.

I have a new review for More Perfect Prompts.

More Perfect Prompts was released last year (2022) as a sequel to The Perfect Prompt. Like its predecessor, it contains whimsical poems with prompts to follow to inspire further creativity.

It is geared towards young readers but I believe any reader of any age should be able to pick up a copy.

Here is the review: (along with a little picture of the cover of the book)

To hear that the book helped this reader’s granddaughter warmed my heart as that is the very purpose of the book, to inspire and help others by providing rich, accessible poetry with prompts to encourage fun and creativity.