If Scumbags Wrote Poetry

"If Scumbags Wrote Poetry," is my first book of poems. As a writer who has had many long talks with other writers, I've noticed that we have a curiosity about people who are not so concerned with their imagination. What would they say, we wonder, if something finally happened that somehow encouraged them to put pen to pad? With ISWP, I wondered what if that person doubted themself, or even wasn't that great at dealing with his feelings, but somehow put some of it on paper? It was a simple idea to challenge people's notions of "good" and "bad," and maybe encourage people to not be so quick to judge a person.

What I realized later was -- our collective ideas about "good" and "bad" have changed drastically over the past two decades. Someone being a little self-deprecating -- as this title suggests -- isn't exactly in vogue these days. Feelings like sorrow or grief have collapsed and fallen into "just being negative," which we are to avoid at all costs. Hopefully, with this book, people will be reminded of the more complex feelings about life that they used to be able to have. A poetry book or even a movie can be affected by the time in which it is published, but I think the winds are favorable, in 2024, for people to challenge themselves with unfamiliar people, places, and things.

Anyway. Please enjoy, "If Scumbags Wrote Poetry." Thanks for reading. -- Will P.B.