I self-published two chapbooks through The Blind Press in Troy, Montana. One is an extended prose narrative, the other is a selection of closely-related poems.
The two chapbooks, Wooings, Books I and II, began as a narrative of someone’s early childhood and adolescence where, developmentally, just about everything went awry. I subsequently expanded the narrative to take in the later adult life of my central figure, Peter.
After his perilous childhood and adolescence, Peter has encounters with both the mental health and criminal justice systems. The central focus of the narrative is the impact of the choices Peter made in negotiating his life and specifically his history with a former therapist, Leah.
Peter, not always wrongly, imagined himself as helplessly and hopelessly constrained to make the choices he made. These choices lead to a prolonged period of great deprivation, alternating between mourning and rage with repeated rebuffs (sometimes self-inflicted rebuffs).
What I strived to etch was Peter’s evolution, despite the rebuffs, toward a sense of his shared accountability for his predicament. Ultimately, there was a measure of reconciliation when Peter assented his accountability, and his ruptured relationship with Leah healed after many years.
I feel that the issues dealt with in Wooings have considerable relevance to anyone who has experienced life’s rebuffs.
If you would like to order copies of the chapbooks, please contact: Samuel Pirro, 16 West 102nd Street, Apt.4C, New York, N.Y. 10025 or phone (212) 531-1893.