What Was and Is: Formal Poetry and Free Verse (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780965695503)

A unique collection of the best of Theresa Werba's work over the last forty years. In it she explores such diverse issues as love, loss, faith, disillusionment, neurodivergence, historical figures and events, and the creative process. She is able to skillfully render such poetic forms as the sonnet, villanelle, ode, pantoum, terza rima, and nonce forms, in addition to easily crossing over into the world of free verse. She thus bridges the gap between these two normally opposing and segregated schools of poetry.

"This volume of poetry is the distillation of over forty years of writing. There are as many, if not more, poems I have written which are not included as are present here. Most have been previously published, but some are being published here for the first time. I chose to glean what worked thematically as well as musically, to my mind's ear, as a kind of composition in a series of movements, made of individual poems, making up sections, which come together to comprise the whole.

There are eight thematic sections to this work. They represent the areas of interest to me and how best to codify my life experience as it has been expressed through my poetry. There is no reason why one might not begin at any point in the book and read a section that interests them, out of order. Although I assembled the work according to what worked for me logically, and aurally, I hope that the reader will enjoy reading the poetry in any order that will make reading meaningful and rewarding to him or her. The title of each section is a phrase from one of the poems within that section.

In Writing is the Labor of the Mind, I delve into the creative process, its joys and frustrations, and my experimentations with and initiation into sonnet forms such the Petrarchan and Spenserian. All the Loves I've Loved and Known is a collection of poetry to people I have loved and lost, or whose love I never managed to attain, throughout my life, and the state of things as it has come to be. My Mental World is Overloadedexplores various aspects of my own experience with neurodivergence, including Asperger's Syndrome, anxiety, and bipolar disorder. Pantheon is a collection of poems I have written to, or about, other people- some historical, some contemporary, some literary, some personal. Music's Made Through It reflects aspects of my life as a singer and musician. In The Ebbs and Flows of Life I bring together poetry about pivotal experiences of my life, such as being adopted, and the finding of both my biological parents. The Change that Comes with Age explores the challenges and vicissitudes of the aging process. In Ever Towards Uncertainty I try to come to terms with the great changes in my spiritual life over the last few years and where I am at as of the publication of this work."