Hello, hello! Over a month ago I asked you to provide me with questions regarding the poetry collection I’m in the process of publishing. In this post I’ll answer all questions that I have so far and will also give you a few updates at the end.
Q: What is the meaning of the title?
A: When I posted my very first poems back in December, the majority of you were most impressed by “The Man Who Made Death Miss“, a few of you even called it a masterpiece. For that reason, I decided to place it first in my poetry collection, meaning these the opening lines of the entire collection:
All men who ever lived in this baffling world of ours
Received these two gifts - bullets and flowers.
Later on, when I was considering the title, I decided that my poems could also be characterised as “bullets“ or “flowers“ depending on what triggered me to write them. Most of them were written as a result of negative emotions, depressing moods and thoughts, which were weighing on me and I found a way to free myself from their weight through writing the poem - those ones I call “bullets“. Behind the rest of them, on the other hand, stood positive emotions and people that I wanted to acknowledge through writing a poem about them - those I called “flowers“.
Why “16 Bullets and a Bouquet“ then? Well, I actually googled what’s the maximum amount of bullets that a handgun can hold and the first number that came up was 16. So, in essence, my gun was loaded with the maximum of 16 bullets, which I all fired through the poems. Bouquet is simply a bunch of flowers - 5 in my case (Waves, Blessing in Disguise, Why I Write, The Portrait, Aesthetic).
Q: What is your favorite poem?
A: That’s actually a really tough question since I naturally love them all. Furthermore, your opinion has swayed mine about some. Your top choices are “The Man Who Made Death Miss“ and “The Road“, and I think I like them a bit more than I initially did after you have given me your feedback. While both certainly make it to my top 5 (select yours here), my personal favorite is one that I doubt many of you appreciate as much. My favorite one is definitely “Prayer“, but keep in mind that I say this as the author who spent countless hours selecting the right words in order to make both them and the poem’s unconventional structure convey my message. It is hard to understand, it holds an important message and it is something of a trademark me, since it’s so far off from the conventional way to write a poem, and a display of the way I think.
I must add that the poem I came back to read the most times was “Invitation of the Birds“, and it is definitely one of my top choices too.
Q: How are you going to convince people who don’t know you to buy the poetry collection - why you, and why this collection exactly?
A: Here are some of the ways my poetry collection will be promoted to people who don’t know me (how I get to them):
The collection will be sold (not exclusively) and promoted through my publisher’s website;
Facebook ads (managed by my publisher);
Public posts and comments on Medium & Twitter to gain an audience;
Participation in writing competitions, hopefully wining some;
Shares by current fans;
Links in my own podcasts & website;
Here are some of the reasons about why me exactly:
I’m aware my poems are pretty unconventional in some ways and I feel that my style would suit readers who are not that much into poetry, but rather in philosophy and psychology, since there’s a lot of that in my work.
Because the experience of reading the poetry collection doesn’t end by reading it. My goal is to analyze every poem, give insights about what made me write it in the first place, and answer each question that a reader may have about it. The poetry collection may be printed and published, but the show will go on here long after.
Q: When does Mitiohammer write?
A: He only writes captions (for those who don’t know, that’s my Instagram handle).
Update 1: The poetry collection and the cover have been edited by my publisher. We’re now closer to the final steps, but I still don’t know any dates.
Update 2: I will be launching a new series in which I’ll give a full analysis and insights about every poem. However, only subscribers will have access to it. Subscribe here.