These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them) by Donovan Hufnagle
These Are Not My Words by Donovan Hufnagle is an enlightening and deeply personal collection that will resonate with readers who appreciate introspective and lyrical poetry and are drawn to explorations of identity, self-discovery, and the interconnectedness of human experience. (Storygraph)
A book blog tour from Goddess Fish Promotions.
Thank you to the author, publisher, and Marianne & Judy at Goddess Fish for providing me with the information for this tour.
These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them) by Donovan Hufnagle ~ Spotlight & Guest Post ~ $25 Gift Card Available #Poetry @GoddessFish @donovanhufnagle @dhufnaglepoetry
Book Details
These Are Not My Words: I Just Wrote Them by Donovan Hufnagle Published by Resource Publications on July 22, 2024
Genres: Age: Adult, Poetry
Format: eBook, Hardcover, Paperback
Pages: 106
Echoing Chuck Palahniuk’s statement. “Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known,” this collection explores identity. These poems drift down rivers of old, using histories private and public and visit people that I love and loathe.
Through heroes and villains, music and cartoons, literature and comics, science and wonder, and shadow and light, each poem canals the various channels of self and invention.
As in the poem, “Credentials,” “I am a collage of memories and unicorn stickers…[by] those that have witnessed and been witnessed.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpt from These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them)
Refurbished
Susan taught me that poetic energy lies
between the lines, white noise scratching
and clawing between images, ideas,
things…
And like a poem,
the chair was molded by my Tio’s hands,
an antique wooden upholstered desk chair.
My Tio moved from Durango, Mexico
to Forth Worth in 1955.
He became a mason and wood worker.
He bricked the stockyards
He built the signs
He died in 2005.
Now,
matted. Worn. Faded floral design. Wood
scarred like healing flesh.
The arms torn, ratted by the heft of his arms
and the stress of the days. The foam peeks
out.
The brass upholstery tacks rusted. I count
1000 of them. With each,
I mallet a fork-tongue driver under its head.
A tap, tap, tapping until it sinks beneath the tack,
until the tack springs from its place.
I couldn’t help but think of a woodpecker.
A tap, tap, tapping into Post Oak,
a rhythm…each scrap of wood falling to the ground
until a home is formed.
Until each piece of wood like the tacks removed
shelter something new.
I remove the staples, the foam, the fabric,
the upholstery straps
until it’s bones.
I sand and stain
until its bones shine.
I layer and wrap its bones with upholstery straps,
foam, fabric, staples and tacks.
New tacks, Brass medallions
adorning the whole, but holding it
all together—
its bones
its memories,
its energy.
Excerpt provided by the author/publisher for use in this post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Purchase Links for These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them)
- Amazon Kindle Edition
- Hufnagle, Donovan (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 104 Pages - 07/30/2024 (Publication Date) - Wipf and Stock Publishers (Publisher)
Also available in Paperback and Hardcover.
If the above links do not take you to your country’s Amazon page for These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them), please let me know, and I’ll gladly get you a link.
Using my link does not change the price you pay. Amazon pays me a minimal amount out of their share, and every penny helps to support this blog.
Purchase These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them) from YOUR local Bookshop!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I love my Amazon Kindle Unlimited Subscription. So many books, so little time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Donovan Hufnagle is a husband, a father of three, and a professor of English and Humanities. He moved from Southern California to Prescott, Arizona to Fort Worth, Texas. He has five poetry collections: These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them), Raw Flesh Flash: The Incomplete, Unfinished Documenting Of, The Sunshine Special, Shoebox, and 30 Days of 19. Other recent writings have appeared in Tempered Runes Press, Solum Literary Press, Poetry Box, Beyond Words, Wingless Dreamer, Subprimal Poetry Art, Americana Popular Culture Magazine, Shufpoetry, Kitty Litter Press, Carbon Culture, Amarillo Bay, Borderlands, Tattoo Highway, The New York Quarterly, Rougarou, and others.About Donovan Hufnagle
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Guest Post by the Author of These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them)
Why I Write by Donovan Hufnagle
Which came first, the chicken or the egg poetry?
A recent study suggests that though chickens were domesticated from about 7,000-10,000 years ago, we didn’t really eat these precious culinary proteins until about 2,200 years ago, 200 BCE. Poetry, on the other hand, was sung before we wrote it, and the first written poem came around 3,400 BCE. And, you guessed it, before we ate chicken, we consumed poetry. We tasted the various flavors of language and found nourishment in those words. We formed lines and rhythms. We styled and textured our lives with mixtures of language—one word at a time. We laughed and cried by the word. We found new with words as well as lingered in the past. And we still do.
I write because I feel nourished when I labor over a single word and how that word, in relationship with other words, feeds the whole, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, creative nonfiction, essays, or, yes, poetry. I write because when I finally find and write that word that I labored over, sacrificed for, and eventually surrendered to, I feel full—I am whole. The poem “Lost and Found” in my new book These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them) plays with this notion, a sort of Ars Poetica that meditates on writing and the writer. Here are a few lines from the poem:
I am bartender because I want to become
a writer and fashion language old, I pour simple
syrup sweet and dash bitters bit by bit—
to express, to feel the emptiness of a lowball.
This—more than ever—is a necessity.
Though the years have taught and shaped my writing, writing has taught and shaped my years. In writing, I tend to take a microscopic view on language and style. Once I have found my words, I span out with a broader scope and listen to those words tell the narrative and expose emotions. The example from “Lost and Found” illustrates how the writer like a bartender must compliment the sweet with the bitter, using each individual ingredient, like words in a poem, to form the correct balance, which reveals the intended emotion.
In life, I tend to take the broad emotions and narratives and try to magnify and focus on singular moments and tangible things that conveyed those specific emotions within those grand narratives. For instance, when my oldest daughter graduated from high school, we all felt happy, grateful, excited, nervous, and so on. The day was filled with many moments and memories. However, to filter through those memories, I like to single out and picture my daughter’s smile. Her smile at the moment she was about to hug me, reminds me of that overwhelming day and all those emotions surface through that singular image.
I am reminded of the famous quote by Robert Frost, “Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words.” I write because I want to find those words that express the moment of discovery, when thought and emotion find each other.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Giveaway!
One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card.
Visit more stops on this Goddess Fish tour for extra chances to win!
Official Tour Page for These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them)
Full Tour Schedule:
October 22: Momma Says: To Read or Not to Read
October 24: Sandra’s Book Club
October 29: Kenyan Poet
October 31: Literary Gold
November 5: Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
November 7: Lisa Haselton’s Reviews and Interviews
November 12: The Avid Reader
November 14: Beverley A Baird – review
November 19: Edgar’s Books
November 21: Westveil Publishing
November 26: Beyond Romance
December 3: Ellwyn Autumn
December 5: Gina Rae Mitchell
December 10: Fabulous and Brunette
December 12: A Wonderful World of Words
December 17: The Faerie Review
December 19: Author C.A.Milson
December 31: D. S. Dehel
January 2: It’s Raining Books
January 7: Joanne Guidoccio
January 9: Beautiful Books
January 14: Moonlight Compass Books
January 16: Welcome to My World of Dreams
January 21: Our Town Book Reviews
January 23: Of Books and Bookish Things
January 28: Stormy Nights Reviewing & Bloggin’
January 30: Sea’s Nod
February 4: Straight From the Library
February 6: The Pen and Muse Book Reviews
February 11: Long and Short Reviews
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you enjoyed this post, don’t forget to like, follow, share, and comment!
You can find me as ginaraemitchell on most Social Media sites.
If you would like to review books for Goddess Fish Promotions, please click the link below:
Goddess Fish Virtual Book Tour Host
Please help by sharing this post!
Discover more from Gina Rae Mitchell
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
[…] These Are Not My Words (I Just Wrote Them) by Donovan Hufnagle […]
It sounds like a really interesting book.
Sounds like a good story.
Thank you for featuring my book today! I enjoyed writing the post!
It was a pleasure to have you. Good luck with your tour!
I liked the excerpt.
Thank you for the comment!
This should be a great novel. Thanks for sharing.
I hope you enjoy reading it!
You are a new author to me – have to check out this book.
I hop you do. Let me know what you think when you read it.
I hope you do check it out. Let me know what you think when you do read it.
Thank you for hosting today.