Sean Taylor Announces New Poetry Collection, Brunch with the Obelisk

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Atlanta, Ga. — March, 2026 — Sean Taylor Announces New Poetry Collection, Brunch with the Obelisk

Acclaimed fiction writer and poet Sean Taylor unveils his newest poetry collection, Brunch with the Obelisk—a bold, unflinching exploration of the forces that have shaped both his voice and his worldview. With a blend of lyricism, candor, and razor-sharp introspection, this collection pulls readers into the complicated crossroads of personal history, politics, and the American mythos.

In Brunch with the Obelisk, Taylor grapples with the inheritance of a conservative religious upbringing, the illusions of nostalgia, and the widening divide between American ideals and realities. Through this deeply personal and often provocative work, he confronts a world that feels increasingly chaotic—and the role of poetry as a stabilizing, truth-telling force within it.

“Be warned. It’s probably not what you first think,” Taylor says of the collection, which draws inspiration from a strikingly diverse set of influences—ranging from Bob Dylan, Langston Hughes, e.e. cummings, and T.S. Eliot to Annie Dillard, Marilyn Monroe, and Susan B. Anthony. Their presence echoes throughout the book not as imitations, but as threads woven into a distinctive, evolving voice.

“As proud as I was for When We Had No Flag, my first book of poems, I think I’m even happier and prouder of this one," says Taylor. " I feel like my influences are becoming more a part of me rather than something I wear on my sleeve.”

Taylor does not shy away from the tensions at the heart of American life—the sometimes volatile interplay of politics and religion, the selective storytelling of national memory, and the lingering scars they leave behind. If that makes him an angry poet with an axe to grind, the author notes with self-awareness, he owns it completely.

“Poetry comes from a very personal place inside me, even more so than my fiction. I may use a lot of the same narrative-type tools in it, but the poems are often far closer to the surface truth than my stories are allowed to be.”

Currently available at www.taylorversebooks.com and on Amazon:
Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GT1G84ZN
Print: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GT87R1FH

For media inquiries, review copies, or interview requests, please contact:
www.taylorversebooks.com

About Sean Taylor:
Sean Taylor writes short poems, nonfiction, stories, novellas, novels, graphic novels, and comic books. In his writing life, he has directed the “lives” of zombies, superheroes, goddesses, dominatrices, Bad Girls, pulp heroes, for such diverse bosses as IDW Publishing, Gene Simmons, and The Oxygen Network. Visit him online at www.thetaylorverse.com and www.badgirlsgoodguys.com or his video writing tutorials at www.book-talk.us .

About Taylorverse Books:
Taylorverse Books brings readers exciting adventure stories, contemporary and charged poetry, and non-fiction books about writing and reading. For more information, visit www.taylorversebooks.com .

New Poetry for the Christmas

 

Far Away in a Manger

Hail Mary, full of grace

Did childbirth hurt on that first Christmas

Or was labor immaculate too

Free of contact

Free of pain?

Blessed art thou among women

If that were truly the case

Pray for us in our hour of death

Because we seem to be racing toward it

O come, O come Emmanuel

To ransom faith from religion

To remind those who claim to follow

That love still covers multitudes of sins

Until the Son of God appears

Not that they’d recognize you today

Because you’re not white, or Protestant,

Or born in the United States

Rejoice! Rejoice! And mourn in lonely exile

Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison!

Oh, the little town of Bethlehem

Seems light-years and centuries away

From our land of the free

Our home of brave believers

Who disregard and disrespect the stranger

Who mock and ignore the poor

Who hide our nation’s sins under a bushel

And tear them from the pages of school textbooks

How far away is that manger now

As we trade no crib for a golden ballroom

And worship a painted calf

Parading in the skin of a bull

The only lowing of cattle

Is the bellowing

From the pulpits of government

The baby is crying

We should all be crying

Blessed is the fruit of thy womb

Of all wombs: red, yellow, black, white

Both foreign and domestic

Created in the image of God

Endowed with inalienable rights

The stars look down where they lay

To see what? —

Hail Mary, full of grace

Remember us in this, the hour of our death

We do not live in the blessings of the immaculate

We live in the world of touch and pain

Where beings from man to woman and back again

Must bump against

The bulk of the other

All day, every day, and I imagine all that bumping

Must be what causes us to hate each other

Enough to put people in cages, enough to bomb innocents

Be near me, I pray, our King of Peace. Amen. Amen.

© 2025 Sean Taylor

Incarnate

 

They say the secret miracle of Christmas

Is Immanuel, God with us,

They say it is the Word becoming flesh

And dwelling among us.

I hear their words,

But I feel they miss the point:

We are already incarnate.

Here from the moment we stood upright,

The day we fashioned clubs,

The year we scribbled pictures onto cave walls.

God has always been with us

Because we were already here.

 

Some say the meaning of Christmas

Is the newborn king,

The Prince of Peace, the son given,

And yet again,

The words fail to reach

Our incarnate ears of flesh.

Lips praise peace, hands and wills abhor it,

A grand idea, but it’ll never work

In the real world of mucous and muscle.

A beautiful notion fluttering too high above the garbage

For us to attempt,

So we sing songs about it instead.

 

© 2025 Sean Taylor

Taylorverse Books releases Sean Taylor's first poetry-only collection -- WHEN WE HAD NO FLAG!

 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Atlanta, GA -- Taylorverse Books releases Sean Taylor's first poetry-only collection -- WHEN WE HAD NO FLAG!

​While the book contains mostly new poems from 2004 and 2005, it also collects several of his poems going all the way back to 1994. All poetry collected in the book has a certain, specific attitude summed up by the opening quotes from the book:

“The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.”
—George Orwell

“All poets, all writers are political. They either maintain the status quo, or they say, ‘Something’s wrong, let’s change it for the better.’”
—Sonia Sanchez

“All stories are political; they involve power that has structural underpinnings and material consequences.”
—Judy Rohrer

"Make no mistake," says Taylor, "these are politically charged poems. There's no way around them. While they may contain the language of pop culture and religion, all these poems work together make a statement."

With references as varied as Bob Dylan, Langston Hughes, Rita Hayworth, and Mae West (among others), this collection has been a long time coming. 

"Sometimes you can't help but stop and write because the world forces you to have something to say, something you feel is important. WHEN WE HAD NO FLAG is that something for me," says Taylor.

​

​Sean Taylor writes short stories, novellas, novels, graphic novels, and comic books (yes, Virginia, there is a difference between comic books and graphic novels, just like there's a difference between a short story and a novel). In his writing life, he has directed the “lives” of zombies, superheroes, goddesses, dominatrices, Bad Girls, pulp heroes, and yes, even frogs, for such diverse bosses as IDW Publishing, Gene Simmons, and The Oxygen Network. Visit him online at www.thetaylorverse.com and www.badgirlsgoodguys.com.

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Poetry Corner: I Am

In the hallway today I passed students,
Some afraid, others emboldened,
Once sung precious—In whose sight?—
All distracting themselves with trivialities.
“Did you hear about…?”
“Are you going to…?”
“Do we have practice…?
It kept them from noticing the dreams
Of existence, of acceptance,
Of being a part of the Grand Experiment,
Kicked along the dirty floors
As they scurried to class.

Driving to work today I watched the woman
Standing in the rain,
Holding the sign,
“Out of Work Please Help,” shivering, shimmering.
Mother, sister, daughter, aunt—perhaps
Saint, sinner, harlot, sacrifice,
Prophet, poet, priest, king—
Bosses watch clocks, and we can’t hesitate,
Not in the rain, nor in heavy traffic,
It’s easy to forget after all
When there’s a man with a sign
Two blocks closer to the office.

In my newsfeed today, opinion hurled like daggers,
“Not a woman”
“Biological male”
“Sports and bathrooms”
Rainbows and flags posted support
Allies brought hammers and words to build
A place to be secure, to exist,
To know who she is, was, will be, amen.
But the damage was done,
Hateful words have barbs
And even to pry them out
Leaves scars and bleeding.

I am not them.
But I am them.
I am he, she, they, all the pronouns.
They are always in me.
The him, the her, the them,
Flow like oxygen through my lungs,
Expressed outward in his, hers, theirs,
Collectively exhaled from my open mouth
To the ground below,
Picked up by some, ignored by others,
On the way to class, driving to work,
In the anonymity of virtual life.

I am that I am, one said.
Know that I am, said another.
I am too, I proclaimed.
To be one,
To be one another,
To be.

Sean Taylor © 2024

Visit my poetry.com site.

[Link] 16 Tips From Famous Authors for Writing Better Poetry

by Caitlin Schneider

The elusive art of poetry isn’t so hard to master if you know how to set the stage. In honor of World Poetry Day, here are a few handy rituals from some of history’s greatest poets.

1. MAKE TIME FOR TEATIME.

Samuel Johnson once said of himself: "[I am a] hardened and shameless tea-drinker, who has, for 20 years, diluted his meals with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose kettle has scarcely time to cool; who with tea amuses the evening, with tea solaces the midnight, and, with tea, welcomes the morning.” The end result was that he reportedly drank 25 cups in a single sitting.

2. GET REALLY AMPED.

Tea isn’t strong enough for everyone. W.H. Auden took more aggressive stimulants: amphetamines. Auden took a dose of Benzedrine every single morning, though his affinity for the chemicals is likely to blame for his heart failure at age 66.

3. PRACTICE YOUR ETERNAL REST.

Dame Edith Sitwell was known for delivering dramatics, the most notable of which might be her practice of lying in an open coffin to prep for writing.

Read the full article: https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/62431/16-famous-authors-tips-writing-better-poetry

The Dead Speak: Sean Taylor's Corpse Delivers the Eulogy in His New Collection!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Atlanta, GA (March 1, 2024) -- Comic and prose writer Sean Taylor introduces his newest collection of essays, short stories, and poems, THE CORPSE DELIVERS THE EULOGY AND OTHER WORKS. 

Designed as an introduction to Taylor's writing for new readers and a re-introduction to current readers, this collection features both old and new creations in a single volume. THE CORPSE DELIVERS THE EULOGY showcases new essays about the art of writing and reading, old and new poetry between 1992 and just last month, and stories that set him on the path to fiction writing, both literary shorts and even a superhero short from the days of Cyber Age Adventures magazine. 

"For those who only know my work from my comic book writing or those who only know me from my pulp adventures and superhero tales, this is the book to let you discover the writer I like to be when I'm writing for myself as the main audience," Taylor says. 

Readers can see in this collection how Taylor, who has written for such properties as Zombies Vs. Robots, The Bad Girls Club, The Black Bat, and the Golden Amazon, along with his own creations Fishnet Angel and private detective Rick Ruby (co-created with Bobby Nash), has grown, changed, and expanded as a writer. 

"I'm so excited to see this released," he says. "These are the words that shaped me as a storyteller and continue to shape me, and it's quite amazing to see them in print."

THE CORPSE DELIVERS THE EULOGY is available as a trade paperback for $9.99 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CWR21ZTB/), and already available as a Kindle eBook for $2.99 (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CVLH8MS3/), both from Amazon. 

Sean Taylor writes short stories, novellas, novels, graphic novels, and comic books (yes, Virginia, there is a difference between comic books and graphic novels, just like there's a difference between a short story and a novel). In his writing life, he has directed the “lives” of zombies, superheroes, goddesses, dominatrices, Bad Girls, pulp heroes, and yes, even frogs, for such diverse bosses as IDW Publishing, Gene Simmons, and The Oxygen Network. Visit him online at www.thetaylorverse.com and www.badgirlsgoodguys.com.

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