What Was and Is

<p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>A unique collection of the best of Theresa Werba's work over the last forty years. In it she explores such diverse issues as love loss faith disillusionment neurodivergence historical figures and events and the creative process. She is able to skillfully render such poetic forms as the sonnet villanelle ode pantoum terza rima and nonce forms in addition to easily crossing over into the world of free verse. She thus bridges the gap between these two normally opposing and segregated schools of poetry. </span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>This volume of poetry is the distillation of over forty years of writing. There are as many if not more poems I have written which are not included as are present here. Most have been previously published but some are being published here for the first time. I chose to glean what worked thematically as well as musically to my mind's ear as a kind of composition in a series of movements made of individual poems making up sections which come together to comprise the whole.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>There are eight thematic sections to this work. They represent the areas of interest to me and how best to codify my life experience as it has been expressed through my poetry. There is no reason why one might not begin at any point in the book and read a section that interests them out of order. Although I assembled the work according to what worked for me logically and aurally I hope that the reader will enjoy reading the poetry in any order that will make reading meaningful and rewarding to him or her. The title of each section is a phrase from one of the poems within that section.</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>In </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Writing is the Labor of the Mind </strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>I delve into the creative process its joys and frustrations and my experimentations with and initiation into sonnet forms such the Petrarchan and Spenserian. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>All the Loves I've Loved and Known</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is a collection of poetry to people I have loved and lost or whose love I never managed to attain throughout my life and the state of things as it has come to be. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>My Mental World is Overloaded</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>explores various aspects of my own experience with neurodivergence including Asperger's Syndrome anxiety and bipolar disorder. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Pantheon</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> is a collection of poems I have written to or about other people- some historical some contemporary some literary some personal. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Music's Made Through It</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> reflects aspects of my life as a singer and musician. In </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Ebbs and Flows of Life</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> I bring together poetry about pivotal experiences of my life such as being adopted and the finding of both my biological parents. </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>The Change that Comes with Age</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> explores the challenges and vicissitudes of the aging process. In </span><strong style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)>Ever Towards Uncertainty</strong><span style=color: rgba(0 0 0 1)> I try to come to terms with the great changes in my spiritual life over the last few years and where I am at as of the publication of this work.</span></p>