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Strange Beauty

Kaci Skiles Laws

Closet Cat-Lady
Editor
My first poetry book is now available on Amazon from Dead Man's Press Ink!

I am so excited to share a collection of my poetry as a whole.

“I have memories of my Dad telling me and my sisters ghost stories every other weekend after my parents divorced, being immersed in the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, and experiencing paranormal activity often at my grandparents’ farmhouse as well as poltergeist-like activity in my own home.

My mother told me of a story when I was no more than a year old; I would refuse to go into this one house. I'd be kicking and screaming, hysterical. Not long after my episodes, the house burnt down. I have a tendency to be hypervigilant which might account for my extrasensory abilities, or perhaps it’s the other way around. It’s been said I'm highly sensitive and clairvoyant and haunted.

It isn't uncommon for the running theme in the majority of my work to be about death. I became well acquainted with loss around the same time I began reading and my grandpa died in his house from lung cancer. After that there were two suicides in my family, one being my sister, Heather.

I do mention suicide more than once within my collection, which also includes themes of transitions, growing up, family dysfunction, illnesses, trauma, and other bizarre, dark matters."

If you'd like a copy here is the link:

Amazon product ASIN B09LGRTSYW
Thank you for everyone who has supported me on my writing journey, and more to come!

Screenshot_20211110-123642~3.png
 
dear Kaci

it looks like you forgot to include an active link

yet more importantly can we order an autographed copy directly from you ?

silent lotus


~
Thank you! I am going to sell some copies on Etsy. Once I get it up there I can paste the link here. I appreciate your interest in a signed copy!

I think if you click on the shop now button it should come up, but if not this link should be good: (it keeps turning itself into a button, lol)

Amazon product ASIN B09LGRTSYW
There is also a clickable link in my bio on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kaci.skiles.laws/
 
My first poetry book is now available on Amazon from Dead Man's Press Ink!

I am so excited to share a collection of my poetry as a whole.

“I have memories of my Dad telling me and my sisters ghost stories every other weekend after my parents divorced, being immersed in the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books, and experiencing paranormal activity often at my grandparents’ farmhouse as well as poltergeist-like activity in my own home.

My mother told me of a story when I was no more than a year old; I would refuse to go into this one house. I'd be kicking and screaming, hysterical. Not long after my episodes, the house burnt down. I have a tendency to be hypervigilant which might account for my extrasensory abilities, or perhaps it’s the other way around. It’s been said I'm highly sensitive and clairvoyant and haunted.

It isn't uncommon for the running theme in the majority of my work to be about death. I became well acquainted with loss around the same time I began reading and my grandpa died in his house from lung cancer. After that there were two suicides in my family, one being my sister, Heather.

I do mention suicide more than once within my collection, which also includes themes of transitions, growing up, family dysfunction, illnesses, trauma, and other bizarre, dark matters."

If you'd like a copy here is the link:

Amazon product ASIN B09LGRTSYW
Thank you for everyone who has supported me on my writing journey, and more to come!

View attachment 8546

Congrats, Kaci!
 
I had an idea and wanted to share it here:

I am sending out my first black heart to my cousin, Kim, who reviewed my poetry book, Strange Beauty!

I am sticking true to my offer to gift the first ten people to review my book a knitted black heart and/or painted rock of your choosing/request.

Or for my poet friends I'd gladly trade a chapbook/review for a chapbook/review. PM me for details.

If you like dark, strange, and unusual things this might be your cup of tea.

Here is a sample poem from Strange Beauty:

Rio Vista

My first memory was rain,
movement, drifter feet plying
down the roofline in sheets;

nothing was separate:
the T-frame wires through
the spread of distance,

the dance of clothespins
and the grease trap
that once ate a girl.

The rain—its lapping
could fill our farm's well in reverse
until it rose over, and the dead debris,
the black cicadas would not sleep,

not easily, not
with the screen door frantic,

the electric porch a pool
of arching spines, the wind spinning
outside counter-clockwise.

My second memory was grief,
stillness, my church shoes
sinking in mud from the cloudburst;

that last April at home:
the silo folded in, where
the boards should've been

there was an empty cavern.
The secret got loose
through the windmill
as it mourned its vacancy.

The grief—its apparition
stayed in wait after the burial
until the house sold what was left
of the girl,
the white pillars by the door
would not stand,

not easily, not with the foundation
of peat moss caving,

the stylus of memory scoring
my vinyl skins,
the wolf spiders slipping
under the damp overlay
and beneath my rug
of incomplete feelings.
 
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