Wind Night Love Leaves (The Four Books)

* A Self Interview Craft Essay on Books and Future Work Plan 

Brian Michael Barbeito

January, 2025

I sit at my window and the words fly past me like birds —with God’s help I catch some.

-Jean Rhys

Wide Sargasso Sea

literary map book abbreviation legend:

Wind: Still Some Crazy Summer Wind Coming Through

Night: When I Hear the Night

Love: The Book of Love and Mourning

Leaves: Exile in Autumn, The Karma of the Leaves 

How I feel about it currently is that there should be four books at the least. One, Wind, is already in existence. It is published by Dark Winter Press who did an excellent job and it came out in July 2024. It is a book of prose poems and photography and has three official reviews, plus a positive reception overall. The book’s introduction, a fantastic summary of the work, is by Cristina Deptula and the volume is dedicated to Tara. I am happy with the content and what I call the physicality of the book (how it feels and looks as an actual thing), its overall existential aesthetic.  

Dark Winter Press has agreed to publish the next book, called When I Hear the Night. Night is scheduled to be released in January of 2026. The manuscript is complete and the press has it. I am waiting for an introduction by a Vancouver based editor that wrote a highly perceptive and insightful review for Wind. But, yes, other than that said review, the manuscript is complete. Night, as with the four books I am talking about here, will all have similar formats. This includes cover art and back art by me, my prose poems and photography of course, a dedication page and quote page, and an introduction by someone competent and obviously sympathetic to the work. 

The third instalment in these four books, The Book of Love and Mourning, has the writing part of the manuscript done. These books are prose poem books, each writing approximately two thirds of a page. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. I will still have to pick the photos to go with the writings. I have sometimes been asked about the functions of these art forms, meaning which I practice primarily or if I give equal time and importance to both of them. Actually, I am primarily a poet/writer. In heart, in time spent at craft, in what I think about. In identity. I would like to mention here that each book is titled in accordance and inspiration from one of the writings within the text. For instance, there is a piece to be found in each manuscript that I drew the title of the entire work from. I like this, how it helps bring each entire book together thematically. Hopefully, Dark Winter Press will continue to work with me on this third book and the fourth one also. It would be nice to have a sense of uniformity and publishing stability for all of these projects. 

Exile in Autumn, The Karma of the Leaves, or ‘Leaves,’ would be the fourth installment in the prose poem photography books. If things continue as they are, with me writing and photographing each and every day, there will be more than enough poems and pictures to make up this book. I would ideally still have the involvement with the publisher, Dark Winter Press, and continue the format. As with the third book, Love, I would have to find someone who would be interested in writing an introduction. My thoughts about introductions are that they are a fine thing, grounding the reader in a sense of what they are about to embark upon. 

I would describe the overall writing as a celebration of nature and also a portrait of the unique spiritual journey. Unique simply because not all embark on it, and also because of those who do, each spiritual path has its own nuances, characters, its own stories. I would describe the photography as lauding the look of unique angles and light, mostly of phenomenon like pastoral vistas and also close things like flower petals. 

In conclusion, I am about two-thirds through the work of the prose poems and photos that will compile four books. This is a good place to be at as a poet and photographer. I am happy with the format and content of what has already arrived, what is waiting, and what is and will be in the works. Wind, Night, Love, and Leaves. In this brief writing I will include the four front covers. 

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