The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Big Sandy's own Steve Sibra has released a new book through Swallow Publishers. "Shoes For Baby" is a collection of poetry that reflects a great deal of growth for Steve as a writer. Historically, his work has been more narrative, telling brief snapshots of stories with sometimes silly or outlandish imagery. That style has made Steve's work fun and surreal to read (or better yet-listen to him read.) He explains that over the past few years, he has become a more introspective and serious writer through various experiences, friendships, with age, and through constant work on his craft: "There's more of me, personally, in some of the poems in this book... I've been writing seriously now for a dozen years. In the last few years, I've more or less retired from my business and all I do is write. I write every day. I write several hours every day. I have literally 1000s of poems or pieces of poems... You can only write about this silly crap for so long or for so many hours a day. At some point, you have to come into contact very directly, sometimes very abrasively, with your own feelings. When you do that, you learn some things about yourself that maybe you don't even want to know, but you do learn them. Sometimes, they will go down on that paper without you being able to to stop it from happening. I have learned to let that happen more, to opened myself up to that. There is a poem in the book called, "I've Forgotten." It is one of my favorites in the book and it is a poem of that sort. It came from an introspection on one's own emotions that I have not indulged myself in writing about until the last couple of years." To illustrate the point, Steve read several pieces to me. One, entitled "Snake River" used the river and the process of snakes shedding their skin to explore the experience of a person changing their life. Another related, in a very personal way, the childhood experience of hunting for arrowheads with his father. As a long time fan of Steve's work, I found the various poems he shared with me retained his unique, vivid, and sometimes jarring imagery. They also read like stories, which is something I have always appreciated about his work. The major shift is that now the more lighthearted tone has shifted toward something more deeply personal.

In recent years, Steve has moved more and more in the direction of writing poetry, rather than stories. "People sometimes ask me 'Why do you write poetry rather than prose?' I've written both. I've published both. In recent years, I've tended more and more toward writing poetry. I'm a person who likes to tell stories. Anybody that knows me knows that I will make up lies right and left for a good story. I've always been that way. Poetry requires a different kind of focus... When you write poetry, every word counts. Every word that you choose has to be the right word. You can't get a word that is close and say, 'That's good enough.' You need the word that tells exactly the part of the story you are trying to tell. It's like if you want to drive a nail, you can do it with a crescent wrench. It's not gonna work really well, you'd rather have a hammer. That's what the words are in a poem. They are very precision based."

Many of the poems in "Shoes for Baby" came about as a result of Steve's newfound friendship with fellow artist Ayesha Siddiqa. "I met Ayesha online at a reading or a series of readings. Once COVID hit, all of the live readings in the Seattle area shut down. Everybody went to Zoom and you found a whole different group of people. There's a lot of people that had been active at the live readings that disappeared and new people showed up. A lot of them weren't in the immediate geographical area. Ayesha started reading at both the 'Works In Progress' group and 'Easy Speak'. Her work was fascinating to me. She's writing a novel. She's from Bangalore, India." Ayesha grew up in a well to do family with paid servants who came in daily. The main characters in her novel are based on two of the women that worked for the family, exploring their lives. Steve and Ayesha began talking about writing, culture, music, and other topics, becoming fast friends. Ayesha

grew up in a very conservative Indian home and had really never listened to rock music. This inspired Steve, who is a music aficionado of sorts to embark on educating his friend in the finest American rock albums. She even visited the Sibras in Seattle and later flew to the US for the book release. Steve explained that their conversations about various topics and Ayesha's newfound exposure to western music and pop culture inspired many of the poems in the new book. "Shoes for Baby" is dedicated to her.

The book itself came about when Steve submitted a piece for an anthology of poetry about gun violence in America entitled "Humans in the Wild." His piece garnered specific attention from the editor, Jeniffer Ross. She approached him and explained that she really enjoyed his poem. After researching and reading more of his work, Jennifer decided to publish a collection of his writing. She pursued Steve's work, contacting him from time to time, asking to collaborate with him on a collection. He initially wasn't interested, but eventually gave in to her persistence. This required Steve to put off his work on another collection of works entitled "Lessons in Dirt", which he was working on with his friend Christian. "Lessons in Dirt" book deals with the experience of growing up in Montana. As Steve worked with Jennifer, patterns within the collection emerged and chapters formed. He explained that Jennifer's guidance through the process helped the book come to be. He described the experience of writing "Shoes for Baby" as a good one where he learned a great deal about the process of assembling a book.

"Shoes for Baby is available on Amazon or on the Barnes and Noble website. You can also go to Steve's website, which is still under construction. The address is http://www.SteveSibra.com.