POEMS FROM QUARANTINE is a poetry anthology about the processes of life. It is a collection of poems that were once a scrapbook of poetry brainstorms. The author saved them for when she wouldn’t have any inspiration. When the pandemic hit, Kathleen found it hard to find new inspiration as she could no longer travel to new places and spaces. So, she took to old notes and pieces of memories of the past, to combine with the present, to create a new outlook on the future.

In the beginning, the poems were merely scribbled thoughts and ideas in a notebook, then enhanced with images and key words, so that at a later date the feelings associated with the brainstorm would assist in turning them into an actual poem. These enhancements include all of the typical things you would find in a scrapbook, such as photos, magazine clippings, and fancy add-ons.

By working in this way, the significance of the process is highlighted as most important as opposed to the end result. It is important to have an involvement with your imagination in the writing process, whereby you rely heavily on the creative elements coming together on their own. Since every single one of these poems started as a simple idea and none of them were completed from start to finish in one sitting, the meaning behind each one has grown to its highest potential to provide a truly engaging impact in the reader.

The poems appear in the order in which they have been written. They are written in various forms, including free-form as well as poetic structures. From each of the pieces individually and as a whole, there is a satirical lens in which to view life. Each poem can be a person, and the anthology a community. In this way, we notice the operative system for what it is and how a process starts, finishes, and continues. And most importantly, how to survive the global pandemic of 2020 together, as it carries onward into 2021.

The goal of this anthology is for people to have more pride in the steps they take to accomplish a task, so that in the end, the result comes out much better because we were invested in it. Written from the past in the present, this book causes the imagination to really indulge in the act of memory as a tool for the future.

How much of our memory can really recall a true picture? We see in this anthology how the memory affects the mind in terms of its thinking patterns, decision-making, and future possibilities for opportunity. Ultimately, society can communicate better by undertaking the philosophy of this book.