Free copy of eBook version of my first book of poems for 48 hours (expires 12/10/2018)

[Victor D Lopez]

Although my published works are primarily in the area of law (textbooks, books and scholarly articles), poetry has been an important part of my life since early childhood, as has fiction. Most of my early output has been lost or destroyed over the years, but some remains, especially from college onward. My first book of poems is a sampling of my work from early college through middle age. It is a meager output and the least significant and least read of my published works, but nonetheless central to who I am both as a person and author. For 48 hours, I am making the Smashwords eBook version of my little book available free of charge in all major eBook formats. You can find the link below (no coupon code necessary).

It includes my first (and still favorite) sonnet written as a young old man of 18 in college, "Ode to Innocence". I included it in my first published short story as well ("Eternal Quest") written not long after for a creative writing class while an undergraduate at Queens College.

Ode to Innocence

Oh half remembered, fleeting, happy time,
When nothing mattered more than love and play,
Imagination was then in its prime,
And life began anew with every day.

A flower was then a joy, a mystery,
And not a petal, root and simple stem,
And life was full of wondrous fantasy,
Untainted by the intellect of man.

That time is gone now; it cannot return,
The fruit's been swallowed; its slow poison kills,
And yet my fallen heart will always yearn,
For that ephemeral time of unknown skills.

Oh false god, knowledge, daily you destroy,
All that was holy in me as a boy!

You can download a free copy of Of Pain and Ecstasy until 12/10/2018 here: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/181370