“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.

Mission Creep

This is a short vertical video carrying a scratchy dark noir island dispatch from Nan in which she’s graphically and symbolically dressed in an unofficial but also official pilot’s hat. This video was uploaded to 4seasonshelf channels/profiles on multiple social media platforms with audio added in from each platform. The video itself was created in Canva using a mobile video template selected for its mood and aesthetic.

When you begin, there’s the idea, an inspiration, a fluttering of the heart?

Then a path appears, so you take it.

Next thing you know, you’re signaling to merge onto a superhighway.

How did that happen?

It might be mission creep.

Nan, what are you talking about?

Mission creep. Wow will you look at that view!

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!

#shelfie #4seasonshelf

What's on the shelf today?

On the shelf today are early indoor planting stuff…

• seed packets

• pen & ink sketches of seed packets

• herbs in faux terracotta window planter (indoors)

• clean plastic containers for planting seeds

It's springtime, and the garden adventure begins again here in the Outer Lands Archipelago.

We still have a while until we can plant outdoors, except for certain crops that like colder temps, such as leafy greens, peas, etc., which don’t mind a little frost.

Farmstand Update: What’s In Season

It’s the end of March, and most local farmstands have only one thing as of yet: firewood (see below). But before you know it, you'll see early crops start to come in like rhubarb, asparagus, horseradish and many more bittersweet lovelies. Local chickens are already laying eggs. And fresh daffodils!

Local farm stand with firewood in early spring empty shelves.

~ Nan

P.S. The #SHELFIE short video above is part of the #100daychallenge and will be uploaded to the 4seasonshelf constellation of social media. I created it in Canva, downloaded it, and will send it up to each platform. I’ll also add gameshow sounds on those platforms because it’d be fun. Find and follow @4seasonshelf on your favorite platform!