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Collected Poems (1988-2008)

by Sheila Bitts

173 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-2788; ISBN 1-4120-4980-6; US$28.11, C$28.11, EUR19.20, £14.51

Debut poetry book written and edited over a twenty year period. Free form, haiku, prose poetry, shodo, photography.

About the Book

Chicagoland…

all the neighborhoods I spent time in from groovey dark bars near the el to the peaceful rainy shores of Loyola University.

My hometown of Lombard, Illinois in the Western Suburbs:

I thought of things I saw on my walk home from school; the sound of my shoes on the sidewalk, the colors like the green trees and the blue sky… the orange '70s car at the corner house meant I was almost home… three houses down.

In the daylight, at the park across the street, the stream is bubbling…

These poems are grouped on their styles and themes:

Free Form

Chicago, the Western suburbs
a Belmont sonnet
Tai chi poems
Shodo calligraphy, one haiku and photography
Philosophical/theological;
Roman culture, Greek mythology

Multiculturalism
Rallies for a more humane world.
Poems about race
International Women's Day

A small British section
Poems about ancestry, my family and about my dream to make money writing this stuff!

The science poetry section of my book is inspired by genetics.

a Feminism section:
What it's like to be a girl, what is it to listen to classic rock and to know.
What it is to be free.
Timeless imagry; who I look like before photographs; Christian imagry
The privacy of romance.

Prose poetry narratives
moving backwards and forwards in time
peaceful interactions with nature
Connectivity to the divine

California Punk Rock and the
Apocalyptic romantic ending.

(& there's a little bit of the ecology in the apocalypse!)

About the Author

Sheila Bitts 2007

I was born on June 6, 1969 in La Grange, Illinois. My hometown is Lombard, Illinois.

The poems in this collection are semi-autobiographical/observational (with poetic license). I began writing on my own when I was sixteen, practicing with form and philosophy. Many themes are regarding individual human expression, observation and love poetry.

At Willowbrook High School, I took a creative writing elective class taught by my dad, Jerry Bitts.

After graduating, I went to Loyola University and majored in biology, but I also took many humanities including a poetry class. While on campus, I had the opportunity to represent the Loyola pro-peace group on CNN during the first Gulf War.

When I lived in Oakland, California, I took a University of California Berkeley-extension course in short story writing, from which I have some stories I may publish in another book.

Two poems not included in this book were published in small presses. The most recent one was published in Black Bear Review, Fall-Winter 1998 www.myspace.com/sheila_bitts

About the Author Currently
My next creative endeavors include: Editing two short stories I wrote a while ago that are still relevant and hopefully writing some more poetry. Also, I am learning how to play, tune and re-string the lever harp (classical training.)

Excerpts