Giveaway: Poetry of a Hobo Mama - 7 Winners! {4.30; Worldwide}

This is a group giveaway with Hobo Mama, Living Peacefully With Children, Authentic Parenting, Up, Down & Natural, Code Name: Mama, Positive Parenting Connection, and I Thought I Knew Mama. Please enter at one site only. Find the section marked "Win it!" for the mandatory entry and optional bonus entries.

In honor of April's National Poetry Month, Lauren Wayne of Hobo Mama is offering a giveaway of SEVEN copies of her poetry book, Poetry of a Hobo Mama: The First Three Years. Each copy retails for $11.99, so the combined value of this giveaway is $72! Poetry of a Hobo Mama is a collection of poems by Lauren Wayne, inspired by the initial three years of parenting her firstborn son, Mikko.

About the book

I sling my baby like a bindle on my back, tramping along the tracks countless feet have worn before.

Poetry of a Hobo Mama contains three years' worth of parenting poetry, written from the time Lauren and her husband, Sam, were preparing for Mikko, through watching him grow to three years old. She has included poems that speak of their natural parenting journey — breastfeeding, the family bed, elimination communication, and natural birth among them. The book is a combination of free verse and more traditional poetry forms, and the topics and tone run through all the variations the poet felt when writing them: the grief of miscarriage, the anticipation of trying to conceive, the upheaval of the newborn months, the joy of parenting, and the balance of motherhood with personal passion.

Until you move away Pillow hog and space eater, chubby legs kicking my thighs. Starfish hands pushing my chest and unh unh unh in the darkness until I roll over and let you feed. Dream interrupter, devourer of sleep, you take while I wait until you move away. Lap hog and attention seeker, sturdy body invading my space. Starfish hand pulling my chin to meet your gray-green eyes, your chatter about octopi. Poem interrupter, devourer of time, you talk while I wait until you move away. Imagining a night with full sleep, imagining a day with concentration, uninterrupted, unrelenting, unleavened. Dreading the day you move away.

My review

For me, the beauty of poetry is for an author to be able to take a basic human emotion that countless people before have felt, and give that emotion life. It is an interesting experience to be reading truly beautiful poetry and have it feel as if the author was with you during a specific moment in life, and writes for you, as if they have had a glimpse in to your heart, in to your soul, and in to the quiet feelings and thoughts that lurk only in your own heart and mind. To see your exact thoughts and feelings poured out on to a paper, and given new beauty, meaning and character is truly a beautiful gift. Lauren Of Hobo Mama has given me such a gift through her incredibly powerful, moving and poignant writing. As I read "End Of Bleeding", a poem on miscarriage, I truly felt as if Lauren had been there with me through the raw emotions that I felt, and had been the voice to release in to the world the thousands of feelings and emotions that coursed through my body during those times in my life.

How Lauren is able to purely encapsulate the emotions of the heart and give that softness and warmth of reassurance, I have no idea. I don't question it, as I am wrapped up in the comfort of her poetry and writing. I simply allow myself to be taken on the beautiful journey with her, and be taken in to her words as she somehow seems to know my own journey as well.

First Birth

You become a mother before you’re a mother,

straining and rooting, to mother earth,

to all mothers who have trod this ground before.

Standing in the shower, dripping rain,

walking the sand, squatting deep,

moaning the sounds that will turn to cries,

to coos, to murmured words in the darkness,

to blessings and imprecations on your

new child’s sweet downy head.

Holding the bar in the shower,

on the steps to the beach,

to the ocean, to the endless sand,

to the endless mothers who came before,

anonymous and unique as all the grains here.

April 2008

Lauren's writing is dynamic, and encapsulating of the human experience and specifically motherhood. Through her writing in this book, she gives voice and understanding to mothers around the globe, and truly empowers the mother experience as she lends new beauty and light to this role. I most certainly will be including this book in future Baby Shower gift baskets, and very much look forward to more writing by the wonderful, and always inspiring Lauren Wayne.

About the author

Lauren Wayne lives and writes in the Pacific Northwestern USA, with her husband, Sam, and their two sweet boys: four-year-old Mikko (almost five, he would tell you!) and ten-month-old baby Alrik (who persistently makes the concerned face you see in the picture at right). She has been writing and publishing poetry for twenty-five years, but parenting has added even more inspiration. Poetry allows her to be honest about her emotional journey and to show an image, pin down a feeling, in a way that other writing does not. Lauren blogs at Hobo Mama about natural and attachment parenting, and gives a behind-the-scenes look at writing at LaurenWayne.com. She co-hosts the monthly Carnival of Natural Parenting and is a cofounder of Natural Parents Network, a site that brings together attachment parents interested in a natural lifestyle. Lauren and Mikko grace the book's cover — that's Lauren and Mikko breastfeeding in public on a Seattle beach when Mikko was just a few months old.

BUY IT!

You can purchase your own copy of Poetry of a Hobo Mama at Amazon and CreateSpace. It's available internationally and on Kindle through Amazon. The list price is $11.99 for the paperback and $9.99 for the ebook. Just for our readers, Lauren is offering a 20% discount on all book orders through CreateSpace only. (Amazon unfortunately won't allow coupon codes.) Enter code SAP84AYJ during the ordering process.

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win one of seven copies of Poetry of a Hobo Mama, enter by leaving a comment and using the Rafflecopter system below. Contest is open WORLDWIDE.

MANDATORY ENTRY: Share one of your favorite parenting moments.

We will draw one winner for each blog, so we'll also ask which blog you're entering from. Leave a valid email address so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses in Rafflecopter are not made publicly visible. Please leave the same valid email address in your mandatory comment so we can verify entries. Since this is a joint giveaway, the Rafflecopter form is the same across each site. You may enter at one site only, but please do visit and enjoy all the sites! BONUS ENTRIES: See the Rafflecopter entry system for bonus entries to increase your chance of winning after completing the mandatory entry. All bonus entries are entered into Rafflecopter. Give it a try, and email or leave a comment if you have any questions!

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