I think I’ll fall back on the philosopher’s answer: Yes–and no.

But I think mostly … no, uh-uh.

I’ll have to think over whether or not Platonic caves are even possible in today’s social environs. Plato’s words suggest that in his time only men were chained in parabolic caves.

As for my publishing credits, you can find some of them in the links in my bio beneath this poem. You can also find a range of poems in various of states of finish on my personal blog (also linked to in my bio, though I know you’ve been there before). The first poem I published is here: https://dialoguejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/sbi/articles/Dialogue_V39N03_160.pdf. And here is a link to my poem that won the 2009 Ford Swetnam Poetry Award: http://www.isu.edu/blackrock/pdf/brs2009.pdf#Swetnam. (I’m allowed to toot my own horn, here, aren’t I, Patricia? ;)

As for a collection, well, I’m still amassing enough poems to put one together, a difficult task to undertake in the midst of raising kids, working, and doing doctoral work. But I am amassing. And I’ll be sure to let you know when that mass of language enters the world in one collected form or another…

Where are you published (I imagine several places)? And do you have your own poetry collection for sale (if not yet, when?).

I read a lot of poetry, online and in print. A ton of crap is out there, also some middlers (I may be included in that sad lot), and then the cream at the top of the poetry chain. You, sir, are in the cream at the top. Yeow.