You Break It You Buy It
Author
Lynn Tait
Author Bio
Lynn Tait is a poet and photographer born in Willowdale, Ontario and now resides in Sarnia Ontario with her husband, Rob. She began writing poetry in public school and has not stopped writing since. Her poetry has won, placed and been shortlisted in various contests, published in numerous magazines, journals including The Literary Review of Canada, Vallum, CV 2, FreeFall and in over 100 poetry anthologies world-wide. Her photography and digital art has appeared in art literary journals and graced the covers of a least nine poetry books. She is an associate member of the Academy of American Poets, and a full member of The Ontario Poetry Society, The Writers’ Union of Canada and League of Canadian Poets. You Break It You Buy It is her debut collection, and she is presently working on her second book of poems.
Description
You Break It, You Buy It features poems about disconnection, misconnections: the loss of friendships and identity, our voice, our purpose. At its core, it is a collection of elegies railing against and dealing with toxic relationships, from fair-weather friends, controlling mothers to narcissists. These poems invite the reader into personal experiences, public observations and the price we pay, positive and negative for our interactions with the media, our global and local conflicts, environmental challenges, the pandemic, the Me Too and Black Lives Matter movements. The author writes about her son who died from an accidental fentanyl overdose at the age of twenty-nine as well as about the father and family she never knew. Even though Tait feels and writes about disconnect, there is a longing for connection, and a definite pushback as she breaks the silence on matters her generation was taught not to discuss. She writes about the dark underside of our lives with a sense of danger, humor and of hope for reconnection in the future with our community and our world. You Break It You Buy It features 68 poems broken down into three sections: Disconnections; The Enemies We Cannot See and Collision Course. There is a poem for every reader in this unique collection. If you’ve ever been betrayed, outed, shunned or put your trust in the wrong people; if you are dealing with dysfunctional family members and friends, and no one will listen to your story leaving you feeling alone, isolated or invalidated this is a book that will show you, dear reader that you are not alone. You are not a victim you are a survivor.
Book excerpt
Heat Wave People are burning. Melting into one scream— others don’t know enough to burst into flame. Days are burning up hours. No time heals the slow sear— all those empty stomachs, scorched hearts. My life’s a controlled burn. Sleeping seeds erupt, green flourishes rise up through muck and wasted carbon. The world is kindling and charcoal. Embers break off scarring Earth’s face. We talk about all the suffering souls, our flora and fauna smoldering— meme it to cinders, scroll over and dream, insist our thoughts are with them— hot air humanity fanning flames in all directions. The blaze closes in. We draw the blinds. It’s not our house burning. ************************************ Aletheia Speaks Out Three things can’t be hidden for long: the sun, the moon and the truth. —attributed to Buddha When I go home to my holy well, my hair will weave itself into a nest. I plant birds for the lady next door to marvel at, though birds frighten me and say so. I love to throw myself against walls of mirrors, see a thousand heads, all agreeable and in love. What happens in the shadows? You’ll have to ask the other one, the one without feet. Oh, how she loves curves and angles scattered and warped. Straightening out her handiwork is so tiresome and best done in the desert—less distractions. Goddess of Lies—calm your tornado of sticks. Throw away the pointed hat. Call my pretty name and I shall answer—an obedient dog hoping to chase a bone, but instead, you toss the horn of truth downstream, jump in and swim against everything good, pretend to drown before you’d hug any righteous coastline. To be foot-less, yet have a foothold on so many souls frustrates the Hades out of me. Any time someone asks for the truth, I tell them; but it’s seldom the answer they’re looking for. *Aletheia: The personified spirit of truth *********************************** The Guitar Shredder’s Ex: Non Sequitur in E Minor I’ve made my share of messes— like one white duck on your wall my feathers pinned to the fridge, a chick magnet twittering characters into cyberspace, amped up with donnybrooks and plain old-fashioned bullshit. I’m not sliding into that song and dance routine anymore. There’s enough fake news out there. I know a victim when I hear one, and you’re not it. Yeah, I could sing the blues. I’m over-extended across twelve bars but can see through your muddy waters. Hand on my neck, bending my strings, on a scale from one to ten reach a solid pentatonic five. In this new age of gospel truth are you open to minor suggestions? Now that your playlist includes philosophy, belting out fallacies without a song sheet— all your sharps turn flat. You could always improvise. But don’t get too close. Once straw men burst into flames there’s nothing left to support your conclusions— but I hear there’s a tonic for that. ********************
Genre Poetry
Author Website
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Email lyta@sympatico.ca
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Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/36381409.Lynn_Tait
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