I have a personal triumph to share today, one that’s been in the making for many months! For some time now, I’ve been compiling all of my poetry into a book – well – a word document for now, with the eventual aim of being a book. My goal, for no particular reason, was to reach 100 pages, and on Thursday this past week I reached 107.

This is exciting for me for several reasons. One, I’ve never actually finished one of my own books before, and while I still need to go through and edit it, the book is there. Two, its poetry, which I never really saw myself publishing before, and three: I’m absolutely stoked to move on to the next phases of editing, searching for a literary agent, and submitting queries. It’s kind of unbelievable.

Plus, I’ve been reading and listening to a lot of poetry lately – Dawn Lanuza, Rupi Kaur, Ocean Vuong, Andrea Gibson, and many others. My Thursday night poetry sessions with LSA’s QSummit have definitely helped with that and inspired much of the recent poetry I’ve written (a big thank you to my peers and our amazing facilitators for that.)

All in all, it’s a surreal experience. One that I’m feeling very grateful for.

So, in celebration, here’s a little poem I wrote called “Special” (for you) – enjoy!

By Jules Sherwood

Special
And not in that condescending
“Oh honey,” way
Special
Like a surprise
Like a gift
Like a once-in-a-lifetime chance
You’re special like that

Love,

Jules ❤