Up To Speed

I should get this car.

Re getting up to speed, it would be fun to do more projects spontaneously. It’s easier to be consistent when what you’re doing is fun and in the moment and not a tedious, discouraging bore. Less packaging work, more using all the cool tools to send messages in the moment.

I’d have to rely on experience, be brave, and have faith…

This radio poems session is a good example of fun, but it’s not quite in the moment, but I’m getting closer.

“More Babies!” — video with short rhyming poem, artwork

by New York poet NG Swett

Just a quick video post today, including a couple of extra pieces of material:

• notes about the substance of the poem

• when and how I wrote it

• creating and posting the video

The substance of the poem

The billionaires, plutocrats, oligarchs — some are calling for more babies.

Women should have more babies, some say. Women shouldn’t be able to end a pregnancy under any circumstances, some say. Life is too… precious!

Over a lifetime, families can easily shell out hundreds of thousands of dollars per person for taxes, health care, child care, education, shelter, food, transportation, weddings, and finally assisted living. The willingness to pay is only limited by our means. The value of a statistical life was estimated at $7.5 million in 2020 according to FEMA. Oh how the shareholders must drool at a number like that!

Other happy civilized countries don’t have things set up this way. Every heartstring we have is tapped for all it’s worth. Every fear stoked for our last dime.

There’s pushback on social media to this idea of women as livestock, especially among women. But the good news for the owner class is that they can mute ‘em with algorithms. (Studies show that social media is terrible for women’s mental health, especially secular liberals.)

Scientists proved that the human race is stripping the planet of resources, causing mass extinction, and polluting it to the brink of extinction. So do we really need more people? Or should we get our house in order first?

Writing the poem

So this all tickled my funny bone a little, so I jotted down this little rhyming poem, “More Babies!” just this week in a big black journal that I’ve been using lately for sketching and writing.

To illustrate the poem, I pulled up a painting I did some time ago of a made-up plutocrat, “One.” It’s from a series of a couple dozen mini acrylic paintings I made as art therapy to get me through writing and editing my first novel — a very, very challenging project! The paintings are all illustrations from scenes of the novel.

In the painting, One lounges god-like across a royal-looking chair in front of a glass window at night. You can see a bridge lit up behind him. The rug under his shiny black boots is a rough map of the Outer Lands Archipelago.

Making the videos

With the poem, the painting, and some branding basics for 4seasonshelf, I then made a short video in two formats, wide and vertical mobile. I added two audio tracks, one with the sound of a typewriter and another with the sound of an eerie lullaby…

I’m placing the wide format video here on 4seasonshelf.com first.

Then they will go on the billionaires’ platforms…

Where is the Outer Lands Archipelago on the U.S. east coast? Is it a real place?

A map and brief field notes by Nan Patience

Hey there, just a few quick field notes on this place. Do you know about the Outer Lands?

A lot of people don’t know about this archipelago, but you may know more about it than you think!

The islands of the Outer Lands Archipelago is located on the American northeastern coast. The long line of islands came into being 30,000 years ago when the Labrador Glacier halted at the mighty Atlantic Ocean.

The archipelago includes many beautiful and storied islands, such as Long Island, Nantucket, Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, and many more along this ancient coastal region. What most people don’t know is that there’s this fantastic name for them, the “Outer Lands.” If you didn’t know, now you know.

The islands all have four seasons and similar natural histories.

Remoteness has left them untouched by time compared to the mainland. This can be quaint but also quite interesting…

Their primordial wisdoms mix with local and global currents and find their way into most of my recent projects. I’ll have to wait and see if readers and art lovers can feel it. Can you see it on this website yet at all? I’m obsessed!

It’s where I live, and it’s HQ for 4seasonshelf.

P.S. I made this map on Canva by adding graphic elements to Google satellite imagery and with guidance from natural history book, Outer Lands, by naturalist and writer Dorothy Sterling as well as the “Outer Lands” Wikipedia article among other sources. See Wikipedia entry for Outer Lands.

Love in the air in New York

Love, walking & poetry trending as New York poet publishes book of love poetry

Did you know? Brand new studies say New York is now a top LOVE capitol of America? And most walkable too!

And poetry is red hot in 2024.

Lucky accident! Serendipity! What better time for a New York poet to release a brand new collection of love poetry than during a national love fest for New York?

Oh yes indeed, here are some great trends to hop on for getting the word out about my new book of love poems, HOLD ME TIGHT: 36 stories in short poetic rhymes about love and loss in modern times (blog post about writing and making the book).

More below about how to jump on a trend.

(What about you? Are you working on a project that’s related to any current trends?)

Walkability, Romance Trending in New York

According to one study, New York City is the #1 most walkable city in America, and according to another one New York is the second most romantic state in America.

Walkability

At first, I was surprised to see the Big Apple ranked #1 most walkable city in America*. But think about it. You don't need a car to get around town. There are sidewalks, parks and bike paths everywhere. The walking grid of streets is easy and always interesting. Lovers can easily stroll up and down the town. And what a big, big town it is.

Walkability is a growing smart trend connecting some key groups of people including families, young adults, Gen Z, price-conscious people, millennials, seniors, visitors, tourists, workers, and New York locals — basically for everyone. Walking can help keep us healthy and fit. Owning cars has become too expensive and too much of a hassle. Even public transportation can be too expensive. Walking and biking are better for the environment. A nice stroll is a good activity for getting out of the house for our mental health.

Here are the top 10 walkable metro areas according to the study:

Most walkable cities in America are:

1. New York City

2. Boston

3. Washington, D.C.

4. Seattle

5. Portland

6. San Francisco

7. Chicago

8. Los Angeles

9. Pittsburgh

10. Philadelphia

    * Study by Smart Growth America

I Love NY — the Romance

According to another new study**, New York is the second (2nd) most romantic state in the nation as measured by Valentine's enthusiasm (and spending) data. Wow! Gotta love New York.

Only second place? We try harder! LOL.

From the study here are America's top 10 most romantic states:

Most romantic states

1. Massachusetts

2. New York

3. New Jersey

4. Virginia

5. North Carolina

6. Maryland

7. Florida

8. Georgia

9. Connecticut

10. Colorado

**Study by JeffBett

But hey, no need to spend the most. The moon and the stars are free. Go for a romantic stroll.

Enter new book of love poems by New York poet

Love is in the air in New York!

I caught wind of it last summer when the sky was yellow and out of the blue wrote a book of 36 love poems. I self published the collection, and I'm slowly getting it out into the big old world. (Blog post about making the book.)

(Thanks so much for your encouragement. You know who you are! XO)

Poetry is trending, too.

All kinds of poetry — the good, the bad, and everything in between. I’ve done some market research, and poetry is hot right now. I don’t know how long it will last, but hopefully forever. It is also all over social media.

Poetry is a powerful, elegant, fun and expressive way to describe the world. This first book of poetry was fun to write, edit, format and self publish.

In Hold Me Tight, I tried many kinds of poetry formats from traditional rhyming poems to limerick and haiku, rap to free verse. The nature of the poem’s message and tone was a key piece of which kind of poem I used.

In the poems, I talk about the blind elation of falling in love, the wedding, the lovers spat, the love for children, the courtship dates, the building of a life together, the love of neighbors, artificial intelligence and good friends — and more. And toward the end, I indulge in some strident poetic justice type of topics which may or may not have anything to do with love.

Each of the 26 poems is formatted in a two-page spread with a black and white photo collage illustration. The style is minimalist and modern.

The type is large, and the poems are short. Brevity is a superpower IMHO.

Example of Using Trends

It's good to always be looking for trends to latch onto for key words and searchability and relevance. These NY headlines could be a godsend. It’s worth a try at least.

How to use all this lovely New York news about romance and walking in an announcement about the release of HOLD ME TIGHT (global bookstore links)? Maybe something like:

"As New York strolls in as the smart new cosmopolitan capital of romance and walkability, contemporary New York poet NG Swett gives voice to the moment with a collection of fresh new love poems."

(Too long; needs editing, I know.)

"Love is in the air as New York poet releases collection of new poems..."

or

"New York poet captures a moment with love poetry collection..."

I'll sleep on it.

Maybe I’ll make a blog post about it and make some social media posts... Haha

February 1st*** Update:
Sample New York love video with love poem

Doing my own stunts over here haha! Sharing with you in case it helps.

In an attempt to pull the above trends together and tie them to my new book of love poems, I made the vertical mobile video below.

I made it in Canva and uploaded it to the 4seasonshelf YouTube channel.

And I’m uploading the video as a pin on Pinterest.

So far, all this is done on my desktop.

Uploading to social media next, I’ll use my phone. First I’ll get the video onto my phone and upload it to other social media channels: Instagram, Threads, TikTok. That shouldn’t take more than an hour. I’ll compose the description starting with what I used on YouTube, adapting for each platform, and adding hashtags and audio soundtrack of some kind, like city sounds.

This video runs for a minute. In the next one, I’ll probably add in an analogue

clock showing one minute elapsing along with the hashtag #newyorkminute which might give people a sense of time being more spacious than we think and also to highlight the fact that the poems in HOLD ME TIGHT are short and accessible. I have at least three more similar designs lined up and ready to roll.

*** February 1 is too late to try to start ranking on search engines for anything. On the other hand, maybe we’ll show up in searches as we get closer to St. Valentine’s Day, spring romance, weddings, anniversaries, and who knows maybe even more good news about New York!

Book of love poetry as a gift?

HOLD ME TIGHT is available internationally in hard cover and ebook. Each of the 36 love poems in this new collection of love poetry by New York poet NG Swett is short and is illustrated with a black and white photo collage in a modern minimalist aesthetic.

A book of love poetry is a romantic gift for any occasion — a lovers stroll, Valentine’s Day, springtime romance, birthdays, anniversaries, weddings and engagements.

Treat yourself to some poetic inspiration! It’s perfect reading for coffee cafe lounging and people watching.

The poems are about love, relationships, falling in love, everyday love, long term love, love of children, self love, reflections on the world at large, declarations, city life and country life.

Poetry of Love?

As Canadian wildfire smoke turned skies orange way down here in the Outer Lands Archipelago, I wrote love poems…

TikTok video of Stolen Moment, one of the first poems
in the poetry collection Hold Me Tight.

Why A Poem?

At our wedding, our best man advised us to follow the KISS principle: keep it simple stupid — the shortest speech in the history of weddings. Now that we’ve had a lot of time to think about it, that was darn good advice for a twenty-something guy to give.

And now, what could be simpler than a poem?

And did you know, poetry is alive and well? So I thought I’d give it the old college girl try.

Immediately yes! I loved it. I’m a pen and paper note taker, a list writer, a scrapper, a note hoarder. My entire career thus far has been about making stuff up, fitting it into impossibly small spaces, and broadcasting it.

More Love

You’ve probably heard some version of the Cherokee legend in which an elder uses a story of two wolves to explain to a child how to choose a course of action. One wolf is FEAR and the other LOVE, the one we feed is the one that will survive.

In that vein, I started a new project early in the summer of 2023 — a series of love poems — to be dedicated to my husband of more than three decades. I carried around a notebook almost everywhere I went. When I got an idea, I jotted it down. When time allowed, I worked poems out like word puzzles.

I kept the poems short to make them easier to read and share.

Before long, there were a dozen poems. I started setting them up as a collection of love poems in a 6x9” book format using Canva. I created a black and white photo collage illustration for each poem. Each poem got its own two-page spread.

As I finished poems, I added them to the book. By Labor Day weekend, I had 36 poems. That was a good place to stop, I decided. When you’re the decider, you can decide anything!

With the world burning, I wanted to give love more oxygen in my life.

I played around with the title, subtitle, description, and cover design. I researched key words and categories. I added the dedication to Cary and a copyright page, the inside title pages and the acknowledgements — and a couple of About pages.

Cover reveal

So here is the final cover:

Can you spot the typographical error?… I’ve decided to keep it there lol, at least for now. And also to give my inner perfectionist a chance to relax.

Going Wide, Going Global

I purchased a bundle of ISBNs (International Standard Book Numbers) from Bowker and published the book as a paperback on Amazon, as a hard cover on Ingram Spark (which offers it to independent bookstores, libraries, and other retailers), and as an ebook on Draft2Digital.

The book is now available on a wide range of platforms all around the world. That’s cause for a celebration right there! No?

Draft2Digital offers a nice thing called a Universal Book Link on its sister platform Books2Read. Using one link, you can direct readers to get the book in all of its formats wherever they get books around the world. I’m slowly building those links… Here is the UBL for my book of love poems, Hold Me Tight.

Time & Money

This little poetry collection took six months to conceive and bring to this point. It’s been a labor of love! The main investment was my time and focus, which I borrowed from my loved ones a day at a time.

How Print on Demand Works

Print-on-demand publishing is free for authors who can create, edit and produce their own books and upload them. Only when someone orders the book is it printed/produced. The author sets the book’s price and receives royalties from any sales. There is no up front print cost.

Sharing Poetry

I’ve definitely been dragging my feet about sharing the book, even though I feel pretty good about its contents. As the lion in The Wizard of Oz said, “C-c-courage!”

Final Thoughts for Today

Though published, the book is still a work in progress.

I’ve barely touched the promo work that would have to be done for readers and the book to find each other.

I’ve learned so much, and there’s still a lot to learn.

Writing a love poem can lead to the permanent existence of a book of love poems for posterity, what’s left of it.

~ Nan

P.S. I made 4You a FREE pdf sampler of the poems in the book. Click here!