Synopsis, Origins

Before I knew this would be a chapbook, my writing journal was slowly filling with experimental stanzas and titles without content. Then word reached me about a chapbook contest and I figured that a title would give me a theme by which to tie 20 or so poems together, as beneath a standard.

I went through some songs on my computer's playlist and noticed one of my favorite Tom Waits songs, "Shiny Things." That made a great title, as well as used the word "Your" to pull in passers-by, but a split second after choosing the title, the cover image came to mind. My cousin, Elle Liamson, has a hobby of painting robots on canvas, and what better "shiny thing" to display than a robot walking along?

This led to an attempt to fulfill inspiration, and I wrote a rough poem called "Your Only Shiny Thing," except it ended up being about an old woman unwilling to help herself or acknowledge the warmth in her life. I wanted it to be about a robot who secretly loves his owner! But the theme meshed easily and convinced me: the chapbook would be about one-sided relationships. But there's more to the equation -- there has to be, or else I would just be writing angsty "me me me" poems and realize it before the journal was even shut.

No, other poets have been teaching me. Figures that the most vital poetry lessons would arrive after graduation!