Vocal Deep Cuts 8

Hey everyone! Hope you're all well and ready for another deep dive into underappreciated and underread pieces from some amazing Vocal creators? I'm excited about this week's selection. Well, I'm excited every week, but nevertheless, it's a good collection of work.

I can't believe it's number 8 this week. Do you think having done 8 of these means I can officially call myself a content curator alongside poet and writer?

Anyway, for anyone new to this series...the short explanation is that because there is so many people publishing so many pieces of work on Vocal every day, it can be hard for everything to get the love and appreciation they deserve.

That's where I hope this series comes in to balance things out a little.

One of My Own

In keeping with the format, here is one of my own less read pieces that I love.

Distracted by Hunger

It is no secret that I love acrostics and the Dancing with Distraction challenge was one of my favourites so far because it revolved around acrostics. I published a few for that challenge (I actually wrote a piece about it that has links to all 22 of my entries)

I did a lot of experimenting during the challenge and took different approaches. Some were silly and included earworms, others were more serious. One thing I liked was the idea of creating a story that distracted from it being an acrostic, like this one.

Handle Bars by Mae Flowers

Mae is very new to the platform and already, rightly so, getting a bit of attention. I loved this piece because it's a great exercise in brevity and I got a real sense of longing and hopefulness. Even if the hope, potentially, is temporary.

Bare Arms by Erin W M

This is an incredibly powerful piece that I found yesterday while doing some research for this edition of Deep Cuts. This is the first thing I've read by Erin and it impressed me with how little it holds back about a subject that everyone has an opinion about.

Hello My Old Friend by Mark Gagnon

Mark does not really consider himself a poet and although I found a fine poem among his selection of writing, as I did with Stephen Kramer Avitabile, I felt it was best to show what Mark is best at - writing engaging fiction. This piece stood out to me because of its connection to The Sound of Silence by Simon & Garfunkel, one of my favourite songs.

And the Wolf Follows by Amanda Starks

Amanda is another writer that I am not very familiar with, having only read a few of her poems. She writes a lot about mental health issues, like depression. This is one of her first poems posted on Vocal and I found it to be very relatable in a lot of ways.

Poop Boots by Emma Kate Coleman

Emma is fast becoming one of my favourite writers on the platform. I just love the way she weaves words together. There were a couple I was trying to choose between from our growing collection of first-rate work, but this one just stood out to me. I really enjoyed her beautiful descriptions and the wonderful flow, combined with the less-beautiful elements of taking her dog out and the muddy old boots she wears, which made me smile and gave it a very authentic feel. There is a real sense of warmth and emotion behind it all.

A Love/Hate Sonnet by Rob Angeli

Rob is someone I've been familiar with for a long time, often because of the comments he has left for other creators I have been following. His Ode to a Glass of Red Wine was so evocative and magical. I was not surprised that placed in the Ode to Ordinary Challenge, at all. I picked out this piece because it was one that could do with more love. It has some stunning word play, impeccable flow and sublime rhymes. What more could you ask for?

Metra Sureves by C. Rommial Butler

I only recently started following this creator. The first piece I read of his was Dirty Window and my jaw hit the floor. It was just stunning. Originally I was going to feature that one, until I found the one below, that is. This one has less likes and is equally impressive, from a creative point of view and because it is very thought-provoking

Dear You by Cendrine Marrouat

Cendrine is a very hard-working and prolific creator who you can rely on to produce amazing pieces of poetry. She is also the inventor of several styles of poetry and has been running a number of challenges recently. I was looking through some of her work and came across this epistolary. It's very beautifully crafted, with a lot of emotion running through it from start to finish.

Morning Delirium by Ian Read

Last but by no means least, we have Ian Read. Ian is an archeologist and part-time writer. What astonishes me about his writing, is that, so far, everything I have read by him has been slightly different. He did this amazing horror story all focused on lucid dreams called (In)Coherence: The Halls that was approached in such a unique way. Then there is this acrostic (yep, that's why I chose it, sue me) about mornings, which I found incredibly relatable.

Well, there you have it. That's all for this week's edition. I hope you enjoy reading through these wonderful pieces by these amazing creators as much as I did when i was researching this piece.

Next week I will have another round (that will be Vocal Deep Cuts 9) that will follow the same format, but I am thinking of doing something special for as it will be the 10th edition. More on that soon!

Thank you for reading!

If you are new to the series, take a look at one of the past editions below:

You can also take a look at my profile here.