I’ve had it hard in life, I remember it well
Sixteen and I moved out, from hell to….hell!
I had experience me, under my belt
Making ends meet, god that shit smelt!
I was young, eighteen living with my bloke
Living at his parents so we weren’t broke
We were trying to buy some land, we busted our ass
200 miles, 3 days a week, Alaska’s fucking class!
Then my guy got a job close, awesome news
His parents loved me, god it was so cool
Things going well, so bloody great
My guy comes home, a lot on his plate
He sits down, I jump on his lap and try to kiss him
He pushes me off, to the floor like I sinned?
“What did I do, what’s wrong with you?”
“Get out, leave, I had enough of you!”
“No please, I love you, stay with me”
“Get the fuck out! It’s not to be!”
I left, stormed out, cried all night long
Got wasted somewhere before getting home
I go to our bed to get in next to my man
Not happening girl, you been banned
The prick left the morning, left me like that
The coward got his mum to toss me out, the twat!
I had nothing, no money, just my car
So I drove for a while and stopped at a bar
I slept at the beach, wasted that night
Wasters walking by gave me a fright
Tequila, smoking weed, partying when I didn’t work
My heart broken, in pieces from that poxy jerk!
I wanted to die, kill myself, drive into a wall
I couldn’t cope with life, not at all
So I smoked a million cigarettes, I drank and I got high
I did some bad things and I told lots of lies
I ended up at my sister’s place, she let me stay
I continued to party hard and I slept where I laid
Until one day my sister kicked me awake
Get up girl, get a grip for fucks sake
She told me to scrub up, stop feeling sorry for yourself
So I listened to her and I spruced up myself
She took me to a job interview, I got through
Within a week I got a second job too
I got my life back on the road and everything changed
Thanks to my sister for being there and helping my pain.
.
A poem about the life of one of my readers. A massive thank you to you
.
Taken from Rhyming poetry to change your day by Philip Lister
Listerslyrics 
Excellently written, Phil, but such a sad story to begin with. I’m so glad there was a happy ending for this girl.
Do you mind me asking you how you went about getting your books published? I’d like to publish some of my poems, but I don’t know where to start. Publishers charge a fortune. The cheapest I’ve found charges £600! I just don’t have that sort of money—many thanks.
I hope you are well and that the weekend has gone well for you so far.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Ellie, I self publish, it is free, it costs to do your cover. Best to get it done by someone but you need to agree on price. I use kdp Amazon. You have to know or know someone who knows computers. Stay far away from publishers. They are all rip off merchants, don’t expect to see millions of books. And if you wish to sell you have to advertise, unless you have a dedicated network of fans. WordPress is the best outlet for me. Don’t expect to make a profit to start off with. I’m probably about 800 to 1000 down since I started, included artwork and advertising, but I’m very prudent now and I have learnt from my errors. My latest book has probably sold more now than my first book. I’m aiming for at least one poetry book a year. Quality pays, you must take your time. It is all experience.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Phil. Thank you so much for all your helpful advice and information. I’ll talk to my computer tech guy and see if he can advise me on finding someone to help me with KDP. I have looked into that before, but it’s way out of my skill league. I was thinking of publishing a book of the best of my poems. I’ve written more downbeat poems than upbeat ones, so I want to make it into a sort of ‘journey’ through the year. I want to design my own cover, although it would have to be sourced from somewhere like Unsplash or Pexels, as I’m hopeless at art! It rather depends on how much this will all cost as to how much I want to earn from it (if anything). I’d like most to publish it for my own satisfaction but selling some copies would be better as it’ll reimburse me for some of the costs. I would advertise it on my blog, though. I admire your plan to publish a book a year. That’s quite some achievement. Well done. I can’t afford to pay a publisher upward of £600 anyway, as I don’t have that sort of money. I’m a bit of a perfectionist as it is, so I am prepared to put a lot of work in on it to achieve a good quality publication. Thanks again for taking the time to give me all these pointers 😊.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s good that you are a perfectionist, if your tech guy knows Photoshop or something similar after that you are laughing. You really have to pay for an artist, editor and someone for kindle publishing. It’s a massive achievement to get your book out. You need to consider sizing of book if you want to sell the book through Amazon on other platforms. We can discuss that more when you decide to get the art done. Kdp really isn’t hard to do. It’s very self explanatory. Take your time.
LikeLiked by 1 person
You’ve got me thinking more now. I will phone my tech guy during the week. If he can’t help, he’s bound to know someone who can. I haven’t got a clue about Photoshop. I’ll Google it later. I think my book would simply be standard paperback size as Amazon would be a good outlet. I do vaguely know an editor (she’s the author of one of the blogs I follow). Finding an artist would be a challenge as I’m very picky about what images I use with my work. I’m prepared to accept help with that, though, if it would improve my chances of being published. I’ll take another look at KDP – it seemed incredibly complicated at the time I looked. I’ll have to reread the information again. Thanks for offering the opportunity to discuss more with you nearer the time. As my last poem said, I’m incredibly busy at the moment, which is why I’m not keeping up with all my blog reading. I think I need to work out a way of balancing my passions with my commitments. Thanks again, Phil. .
LikeLiked by 1 person
I forgot about this! Revisiting it fresh eyes was great. What a trip!
(Although, I was bummed to read your comment about staying away from publishers at all costs, considering that’s literally what I do 🫤 BUT I do respect different opinions too.)
Speaking of which, I need to see if I have all your books. I’m thinking you may have put one out that I didn’t notice. Off to Amazon I go!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Tara, I’m talking about big vanity publishers in general. When I first started looking to publish I contacted publishing houses and had to wait months for a response and to be told to pay 1000 or there abouts to publish one book.
Personal publishers like yourself and a couple of others that I know of seem very professional and I would consider it if I had the money to risk but as I know it is hard as balls to get sales on your books I prefer to have control. Unless my publishing company could promise me thousands of sales from my input. I keep control of my wallet.
I had been very very tempted to ask yourself for my artwork as I know you’re style and you know my work. Every person I have used for my artwork has fallen short of what I have asked for. But if one person could nail it I’m sure it would be you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Believe me, I understand that there’s some fleecing happening and I was by no means trying to justify that or even promote myself, only to say there’s various options available and every person’s journey is individual. I wouldn’t discount every publisher is all I’m saying.
I agree that controlling your own book and expenses is the way to go. I also agree it’s good to do a lot of research and evaluate risk.
That said, I’ve seen a huge influx of very poorly done self-published work. Huge. I won’t get on the soapbox on your comment section but it’s a passion of mine…
LikeLiked by 1 person
I got myself into trouble with Tara. By the way I’m happy you got to see your second poetry piece. Thank you for respecting my opinion. I have seen your works and I confirm they are great.
LikeLiked by 1 person