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By The Days is now available for purchase!

By The Days is a compilation of Sam Starbuck's poetry from 2003 to the present. Sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, and sometimes slyly satirical, Sam's work centers around themes of renewal, social responsibility, understanding of history, and the wonders of daily life.

Is that the most pretentious blurb you've ever heard or what. It was so painful to write.

But yes. Poetry: it's a thing that happened!

You can purchase a paper copy for $7.99 USD here at Lulu.com. It is "pocket" sized, which really means "slightly too big to fit in an average pocket".

You can also purchase the ePub for $3.99 USD here at Lulu.com, downloadable instantly for your reading pleasure! This is also pocket sized, technically speaking.

IF YOU WISH FOR A SIGNED COPY, do not purchase a book! Instead, read on!

I will be selling signed copies of By The Days for $20, which includes the cost of postage; the net profit on the book goes to charity, in this case 826Chicago, which supports students ages 6 to 18 in their creative and expository writing skills and also runs fun shops like The Boring Store.

To sign up for a signed copy of the book, I have created an awesome new GOOGLE FORM. Just go here and fill out a few trifling details -- nothing too personal, I promise, no payment info -- and Google will take care of the rest. I'll be in contact over the next few weeks (possibly months, I never claimed to be efficient) to confirm your desire for a book and get address and payment information.

I'm always ambivalent about poetry, mine especially, because there seems to be criteria outside of normal literature for poetry and I've never been able to grasp what it is. I don't know if my poems are any good or if you should pay me for them. So in addition to the paper and epub copies you can purchase from Lulu.com, you can read it all for free at Gutenberg, and decide for yourself!

Here is a PDF from Gutenberg which you may download, share, and otherwise abuse without paying for it (except in pieces of your soul). If you do download a free PDF, consider making a donation to Project Gutenberg, an excellent internet resource and a force for good in the world.

Thanks, everyone!

By The Days

We look on History’s face through crystal eyes
Surrounded by a thousand clacking gears
Which keep a record of our scars on her
In magnet tapes and discs. Down through the years
Will little tape-wheel rounds read easier
Than painted walls which heard Iskander sing?
(Fate, History’s sister, never promised us
More kindness than she showed Etruscan kings.)
-- from "How Much For Three?"

My newly-minted book of poetry, By The Days, is now for sale!

You can read about how to purchase a copy or download one for free here at LiveJournal. There are also details about purchasing signed copies as a fundraiser for 826Chicago, which supports students ages 6 to 18 in their creative and expository writing skills.