Dragonfly Tomorrows & Dog-eared Yesterdays is D.L. Lang’s 9th poetry collection. It is comprised of over 100 pages of inspirational, personal, fictional, and political poetry. Dragonfly Tomorrows & Dog-eared Yesterdays contains a handful of award-winning poems. Please click to read all the award-winning poems. Thank you to the 2017 Alameda County Fair for awarding “Expectations of a Future” a Silver Award. The following poems which appear in this book won awards in creative writing at the 2017 Marin County Fair:

• “The Sixties”, First Place in Flashback to the 60’s Poetry
• “Lift Off!”, First Place in Fair Themed Poetry
• “Street Mouse”, Second Place in Any other Haiku
• “Sally”, Third Place in My Pet

My deepest gratitude to the judges.   Smashwords e-book edition: 9780463169421 Smashwords makes ebooks compatible with all major e-reading devices in .mobi, .epub, .pdf, .lrf, .pdb, and plain text formats. The ebook will also soon be available through Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, and Kobo. Also available to libraries through OverDrive, Baker & Taylor Axis 360, Tolino, Gardners (Askews & Holts and Browns Books for Students), Bibliotheca CloudLibrary, Odilo and Califa’s Enki Read all of the poems posted on the blog from Dragonfly Tomorrows & Dog-eared Yesterdays. Local bookstores and libraries often provide venues for poets and local authors, and many of them have invited me to read over the years, so when possible, please shop local! Any bookstore should be able to special order it for you using the ISBN, so please utilize your local independent bookshop. A huge thanks to local photographer, Jessica Brown, who shot the cover image for this book! A penguin superhero in a pose of strength with a sign that says “Save the Humans!” Jessica Brown brought this vision to life, shooting the cover photo and author photo with me in costume on a very humid August 3rd, 2017 at the Mare Island Nature Preserve in Vallejo. Excerpt from the foreword:

Dragonfly Tomorrows & Dog-eared Yesterdays is my 9^th poetry collection comprised of poems that were written between December 2016 and June 2017. The title came about as I was stopped at a red light. A local restaurant had a sign on the corner that said, “Catfish Today,” so as a way of passing the time I broke down those words and came up with additional phrases that contained a compound word with an animal and a time period. My aim with this book was to try to largely be uplifting and distracting as an antidote to the often heartbreaking chaos of the world today, so there are intentionally less topical poems than in previous collections. My two personal favorites of this variety are “Where are the Heroes?” and “Affirmations of a Dream” which close out the book. “Cats on Caravan” and “IWWD” refer to my experience of the Women’s March and Strike. As I was preparing my entries for area fairs this year, I wrote “Lift Off!” describing the experience of the fair. “The Sixties” was written to fit the theme of the Marin County Fair that is honoring the 50^th anniversary of the Summer of Love. I was not alive in those years, obviously, but tried to write from the perspective of someone who was. It is one period in American history that continues to fascinate me. I’m quite pleased that both were awarded blue ribbons.   I also spent a lot of time reminiscing about my childhood haunt in Enid, Oklahoma, a field down by the railroad tracks that’s now called Oakwood Nature Park, so “Blanton-Kiowa Line” captures the history of that area.  I’ve developed an affinity for train songs, so my husband challenged me to write “Hanukah Train” as we found ourselves listening to old folk songs this past Hanukah. This volume brings the total of my published poems to 918. While it will be the first book released after being named the 2^nd Poet Laureate of Vallejo, California, poems written during that tenure will be released in future books. This milestone provides a natural closing point for this book. Thanks for reading!

Complete list of poems included in this volume: Expectations of a Future Wildflowers Dog-eared Yesterdays Balcony Dreams Celestial Scenes A Pillow for the Heart There are… Holy Stumblings Spring in the City Choose to Be Parallels And If They Can, Why Can’t We? At the Intersection There’s a Peace in Slowness How to Read Poetry The Seeker Happy Place Those of Gentle Hearts Traffic Jammer Birds in Harmony Each One of Us Dreams Demand Go Down Easy Yes A Circle of Dreams The Sixties Lift Off! Dixon May Fair Waterfront Observations Island Poem Generation Transformation All I’ve Got Left of You Time Overdrawn Bright Light Hanukah Train Blanton-Kiowa Line Enid Sunrise Praying for Rain April Foolery Anytime Hang On to Your Soul Sally The Talebearer Zing A Home One Two Somewhere Beyond Personal Evolution Like Broken Glass Moments Old Songs Sparked by Melody Renewed Awe As the Sun Street Mouse Class Participation Beachside A Napa Moment Mall Walker epic history poem Antisocial Media The Way to Contentment Humanity Brightest Greed’s Disconnect Although Ochlocracy Politics This Earth Day Stay Lit On Fear Lines Dear Land of the Free IWWD What if? Radioactive Returns Cats on Caravan New Old America Immigrants’ Truth What’s It Gonna Take? Not Your Problem? You Cannot See Through Gold Where are the Heroes? Affirmations of a Dream  

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