Ex-Welland writer Ashbee dives into his discontent for e-book
No time like a pandemic for some poetry.
That’s how Welland-born writer Stan Ashbee saw it, sitting around one day listening to tunes. Stashed in his closet, he remembered, were some poems he had penned over the past 10 years. With nothing to do and nowhere to go he figured, why not put them out there?
“I just had an epiphany,” he says, on the line from his home near Lethbridge, Alta. “I have some time, I’ve been wanting to do it.
“I started going through the boxes of stuff in the closet again and thought, now’s the time. I have some friends who are writers as well and have gone the Amazon e-book route. I thought I’d give it a try.”
The result is “Memoirs of a Discontent,” available as an Amazon Kindle e-book for $7.04. Described as “the abyss of one man’s mind during a global pandemic,” the 46-page collection is a mix of poetry, prose and satire, with just a hint of the disturbing.
Ashbee, a singer/songwriter and entertainment journalist, says it’s an appropriate time for the collection — edgy and uncertain, with the occasional hint of reassurance.
“A lot of it is just observation,” he says. “Some critiques, if you will. A lot of sarcasm in there too, and some satire. It’s more prose than poetry.
“I’ve always been interested in Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells, Universal monsters, that kind of thing. It’s a little bit of that, too.”
An author of two previous poetry collections, Ashbee hopes to see a print version of the book by summer. And some public readings to help promote it, once the pandemic passes.
As it is, it’s hard enough getting people to pay attention to poetry.
“It’s going to be a tough sell, for sure,” he says. “You know, I did it moreso to do something in this time, but obviously I’d like to have some readers as well.
“I put out other stuff in the ’90s and into the 2000s and it was a little bit different. But it’s always been a struggle for poetry and prose, that kind of thing. It’s not the fiction or non-fiction people like to read normally.”
Ashbee left Niagara in the ’80s but still has plenty of family in the area.
“I don’t get to see them very often,” he says. “So I guess in general, just longing for family connection has always been part of the writing, for sure.”