​Paper Cuts was months in the making, where eight poets came together, shared their work, critiqued each other, applauded each other, and worked as a team of artists to become better poets. At times, it was difficult, and sometimes the paper cuts took longer to heal, but they did, and so, too, did we.

Our words, like skin, became more beautiful, textured, and interesting over time. Where layers grew, so did our integrity and character. It took some mistakes, some Band-aids, and some trial and error; but mostly, it took vulnerability. Without that, there is no growth for a poet. And as we exposed our wounds, slowly allowing ourselves to become more and more uncomfortable, we realized our deepest poetry was brimming just below our surfaces.

We are now ready to share our work with you, hoping our poetry cuts into your heart, your feelings, your emotions, and that you’ll heal, somehow, along with us. 

To read moe about our journey and our special thanks, get your copy of PAPER CUTS: We bleed but do not die.

I read a lot of posts on social media that say "we used to" or I remember at time when...as if things were so much better, that people were so much smarter, that people valued so many more things they don't anymore. Recently, I read a post where someone lamented how wonderfully respectful we all used to treat one another, how things used to be, how we used to value literature and art and intelligence and God and a list of many other things. 

I wanted to respond. But there was no reason to. It would have fallen on deaf ears and would have just become contentious. People were commenting: "I know" and "100%" and all myriad of responses like that, not challenging the content at all but doing exactly what the post said it condemned: Lack of thought. 

While I see some validity in it, I do. I see what the advent and popularity of social media has done to many of us who look for sound bites and instant gratification, our research skills vanishing, our attention spans minute and impatient. But the post screamed close-mindedness to me, elitism, even worse. It read so narrow-minded, so condescending to any aspiring artist or writer today who values all those things listed and more that I wrote my rebuttal to just myself, not wanting to get into a contentious debate that was just filled with sycophants. It amazes me how sometimes we use arguments that don't add up, just to push our own agendas of what "good" art or writing or culture is, to push our beliefs onto others as facts. It still bothers me so much so that I finally share it with you. I'd love to know how YOU feel about it. 

We used to have segregation. We used to be wildly homophobic. We used to legally hit our wives. We used to disallow girls from going to school and women from voting. We used to own slaves. We used to burn ‘witches.’ We used to think the Earth was flat. We used to think the boogie man lived in the primeval forest. We used to believe homosexuality was a choice. It used to be okay to slap a girl’s ass at the workplace. And we used to lobotomize people with mental illness.

Yeah, sure...let's go back to the way it "used to be." It was pure utopia.