WHAT WAS AND IS: FORMAL POETRY AND FREE VERSE

"Theresa Werba is an artist who speaks to the soul"
Andrew Benson Brown, Classiclal Poets Live

“Werba goes from free verse to villanelle to sonnet with ease and mixes her subjects with acute observation and skill.” Lynette G. Esposito, North of Oxford

"Theresa Werba has presented herself as a highly skilled poet who can handle a wide range of subject matter, and who is adept at several styles of composition."
Joseph S. Salemi

"Theresa Werba is an artist who writes with honesty, depth and precision...a powerful and original voice for our time"
Hank Whittemore, 100 Reasons Shake-speare was the Earl of Oxford

“Touching, affecting and profoundly felt experiences, and I think represent real poetry from a real soul whom the Muse has visited. "— James Sale, poetry critic, Arts columnist, The Epoch Times

“A collection of her finest poems to date... a personal, introspective, and emotional autobiography” — James A. Tweedie, First Place Winner, 2021 Society of Classical Poets International Poetry Competition

From the Preface:

"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.

I have written in both formal poetry and free verse. The forms include the sonnet—Shakespearean, Petrarchan, Spenserian, hybrid, and a few that don’t fall into any specific sonnet category. Other forms include the villanelle, rondeau, ode, pantoum, and nonce forms of my own creation.

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.

As the title suggest, this is a collection of what was, or has been, in my life, and where I am at as of the publication of this work. I truly hope you find the reading of this cumulative collection to be a beautiful and memorable experience."