This book was sitting on my chairside table, and I thought I might read it for the 2026 Winter Reading Challenge‘s “Inspiring” category if Be Water, My Friend bogged down too much (not quite). And when I finished the reading challenge, I ran through it pretty quickly.
I bought it sight unseen in a bundle of chapbooks only last spring, and although the name of the editor sounded familiar, I don’t have anything else by her or edited by her. However, I might well have a poem by her in a similar collection–and I well might have. The publishing house is SPS Studios, and one of the poems is by Susan Polis Schutz–a poet who has been editing and publishing poetry since the 1980s (her first company for self-publishing was Blue Mountain Press, which later turned into BlueMountain.com which did electronic greeting cards which sold for $780 million in 1999, and that, children is how you get Governor Jared Polis of Colorado) If anyone wants to buy my publishing company, it’s far less expensive and comes with 7 unused ISBN numbers at no additional charge! Plus a couple of apps, presuming that the clankers companies don’t come from them. Sorry, where was I?
Oh. Inspiring? Meh, not really. A bit of lightweight mindfulness musing. Poetry? Again, no, not really. Sentences with line breaks. Not quite as good as heartfelt grandma poetry, albeit more spiritual than Christian–definitely a California-and-crystals vibe with 0 mentions of God and the only faith is the faith in yourself.
Still, with the number of copies that turn up in Springfield book sales, SPS has definitely had more reach than either my publishing company or my publications which recently have only paid in electronic presence which is lasts as long as the university keeps paying hosting fees. So….good?
