In this book I’ve taken Smartphone camera images of myself, digitally altered to sort of look like sketches, and used them to form an artistic collaboration with words. I season my words with a pinch of prose that at times materialize into expressions I call Artistic Sayings. The main spice I use in this creative mixture is a poetic essay style with an emergent spiritually philosophical flavor. This style can take on a more hybrid form called a Story Poem . Hopefully, through this collaborative brew, you as the observer and reader will more fully experience my opinions. Opinions on topics like mental conditions (depression, Bi-polar), thoughts of suicide, empathic sensitivity and clairsentient as they relate to what I call MY ABNORMALITIES NORMALITY.
I have asked two fellow artists who are also dear friends to co-write the foreword to this book, Madeline Sharples and Regina Walker. They know my story and truly understand how important it is to me to raise awareness about the topics presented in the book. Both Madeline and Regina have their own stories to tell and will be contributing their own poems and tributes to those they’ve lost to suicide. In 2016 I will be doing two 16 mile Out of the Darkness walks for the AFSP as a part of Team S.O.L.E.S around the time this book is released. My first walking partner in May will be Madeline in San Francisco and then in NYC my walking partner will be Regina in June. I will walk these two events as a social activist performance artist. I will be creating a body metaphor by wearing under my blue AFSP shirt dark clothes and a hood. This will symbolize the transitional process – to bring back to light out of the darkness, to air out, and confront through the healing process of dialogue, those inhibitions and predispositions that cast a dark shadow over those who struggle with mental conditions (depression, Bi-polar), thoughts of suicide or suffer from the loss of someone to suicide.
A portion of the proceeds of each of this book sold will be donated to the AFSP.
Please note: I often use the tilde ~ and ….., instead of more common forms of punctuation. Beware ! I do use the “F” word … a byproduct of my generation.
I use the words peace out beyond the normal accepted meaning in society herein instead of saying “end poem” when a poet finishes reading a selected piece.
Peace and love ….
~Keith Alan Hamilton~