Kimberly Vargas Agnese

Hello.. hello…

Anyone out there? Remember me? Kae? One of the poetry blogging pack prior to Covid?

Since then.. I have taken a DNA test, discovered that I was a second generation Mexican, and felt led, during prayer, to wander away from Buckets on a Barefoot Beach so as to pursue a different variety of publication opportunities. Additionally, due to the fact that my biological father turned out to be Native American/ Mexican instead of East European/ Romani/ Jewish ( lol that’s a lot to say isn’t it?) I have changed my name to better reflect the marrow within my bones.

This morning my daughter and I were reminiscing around our tiny pink kitchen table about the wonderful people I met while on WordPress so I thought I’d reach out and see if any of you are still here. Ready to dish about my jaunts if anyone cares to hear ..oh please do.. Would love to hear what you’ve been up to, hoping you walk through these cyber doors, grab a pillow off the couch ( or bring your own, ) kick back and..talk

So… I guess I’ll start..

  • My incredible ( home from college ) daughter Stephanie decides she needs to play agent and get my poems published in literary magazines. Impossible and I pretty much told her so.. but she does it. So now my poems are hanging out in Snapdragon, Seventh Wave, Shift, Rappahannock Review amongst others and she has made up a new website for me.
  • My website reflects my name change which is Kimberly Vargas Agnese. Would you believe it? I’m now a Chicano poet from Fresno Ca. who advocates for social justice and the environment .
  • My daughter decides to once again reach for the stars, asks me for permission to enter a collection of my poems in the 2022 Andres Montoya contest held out of the University of Notre Dame and I let her do it because ..well.. she’s so excited.. and who am I to get in the way of her fun? So she rounds up a bunch, pulls the title Red String on a Saguaro Cactus from them, enters it and rushes to me jumping up and down when I am named a finalist.
  • For a long time she has been telling me that she wants to see my poems not in a magazine, but in print.. which “must come from a publisher offering a traditional contract. You probably know what happens next. Yep. It’s official, Kadupel Flower has been accepted by Green Writers Press and is scheduled to come out next fall.
  • This is where the journey gets scarier for me. As full of ideas as she is she has all sorts of wonderful ideas .. book launch, readings etc.. and I am sorta kinda freaking out lol. Improving but still fighting long term Covid.. feeling safest when playing in our Food Forest or talking to my laptop.. she wants me out and doing “ stuff”. .. but.. when we ventured out on this path together we mutually agreed… that if a book ever came out she would come out of hiding and become my official agent, and that I would do things like poetry readings … ( I hate mics, and karaoke and she knows it.. but is holding me to my promise. And mothers aren’t supposed to lie.. are they?)

Circling back to the beginning, and that is where all of you, my beloved friends come into it.. because you are part of that. And I could not bear to not include you.. to thank you.

I hope you are all well, feel loved, and enjoying sunrise

even if,

no especially when

it rains.

23 comments

  2. Great post, and welcome back to the blogosphere! It’s pretty awesome what your daughter is doing with your poems. I’ve been translating my grandfather-in-law’s poems from Spanish to English, hoping they can reach his great-grandkids now living in the U.S.

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  3. 🙂 when researching my newfound family tree, analyzing my DNA reports and connecting with biological family… it looks like I have ancestral connections there.. through one of my great grandfathers.. Romero. Wondering what the story is .. and how he ended up in Mexico.

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  5. I was freaking out about a book launch- what if no one came? Then I fell ill with an overactive thyroid. I asked a far more experienced poet for advice via email at midnight. Ten minutes later she had sent several suggestions – bless her!

    She also pointed out that you only ever have one first book – so enjoy it!

    I arranged a party for family a friends. Hired a local hall, advertised it widely as a book launch. On the night I was surrounded by people who loved me and who celebrated me. It was wonderful. I was ill at the time- tired and dizzy. But I rested all day before the party and it was all ok!

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    • Thank you! I was feeling kind of like a weirdo that I wasn’t more excited about doing these kinds of events… was imaging myself sitting behind a table at a book store and passerby’s giving me skeptical looks as if to say.. “ so you think u wrote something worth reading?” Made me feel a little ill..

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      • Ohh, thank you! That means a lot. I drove myself crazy with the first few books trying to do everything and anything to promote. It was exhausting and discouraging. One day I clearly heard that still, small Voice whisper, Is this for My glory, or for yours? And that changed everything. I do what I can to let people know about my books, and of course I like sales and reviews, but at the end of the day, if God is pleased with my work, that is more than enough for me 🙂 I love books and stories and poems and all those who write them. If I can throw a little encouragement another writer’s way, I am happy to do it 🙂

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      • Yes!!! Exactly!!! If called to write, then write and share to make Him smile.. if one can cook, then share those meals.. whatever it is , is a gorgeous wonderful, reflection of Him.. and at the beginning, middle , end , and all that is in between.. He is the One … all beauty and glory … His presence greater then anything or any praise we can garner here.

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