Beth MitchumCritiques

This is the completely authorized collection of the poetry of Beth Mitchum, published online under the pen name bethann. It is divided into five subjects or themes: wor(l)ds of love, metaphysical wor(l)ds, natural wor(l)ds, silly wor(l)ds, and wor(l)ds of loss and longing.

Wor(l)ds of Love, Loss, and Longing is a collection of original poems by author, poet, and singer/songwriter, Beth Mitchum. This collection includes many love poems found in her first poetry collection, bethwor(l)ds: 20 years of poetry, as well as dozens of totally new poems that were either missed in the first collection or have been written since the publication of her first book. All the poems here fall under the themes of love found, love lost, or inner longing. Beth Mitchum's poetry is very readable even to the person who never thought they understood or cared to read poetry. She hopes that you will discover a hidden love for poetry, a genre she considers to be micro short stories, both true and fictional. For her the point of poetry is to tell a story, or paint a picture in your mind, in as few words as necessary to achieve that task. She sometimes uses Haiku to condense her own poems into even smaller packages. A story, if told well, doesn't have to be 1000 pages or even 1000 words long.

A carefully selected array of blog and journal entries that depict different events in the author's life as they happened. They are true as far as memory can be trusted to relate events accurately and interpretations are allowed. Most of the entries were written soon after the occurrence, although a few are memories dredged up from the past. Some of the stories are humorous and some are self-indulgent, but all are told openly from one writer's perspective of looking at life through the smudged and sometimes misty windows of the soul. Many of the stories are about wildlife encounters. Some are pretty straightforward while others are told from a more mystical and archetypal perspective. All are based on real life encounters however.

“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” --Friedrich Nietzsche Seen Dancing is a collection of essays and stories as they occurred to a spiritual being having a human experience. When you walk a spiritual path, you may encounter people who do not understand you. That is their short-sightedness rather than your shortcoming. Their lack of spiritual experience in no way nullifies the bounty of yours. There are people engaged in spiritual discussions who have opinions and beliefs based in dogma, and then are there are people engaged in spiritual discussions who have experiences. Just because those experiences vary, it doesn't mean that they are contradictory. When beliefs are built upon dogma, conflict arises. When beliefs are built upon experiences, community arises. It is the author's hope that these stories and essays will build community.

"Your journals have answered a lot of my questions, but they've also generated more. I'm glad we have the rest of our lives to figure out the answers together." ‎"Love is something you stumble over, or falls on top of you, or chases you into unfamiliar territory. It isn't something you phone out for and have delivered to your door. It's more like a phantom train. You don't see it coming, but you know when it runs you over and leaves you bleeding on the tracks." Falling in love is a risky business. When the love you find is the forbidden kind, it becomes even more risky. Who says what kind of love should be forbidden? Even though times are changing, it is still sometimes very risky for same-sex couples to express their love. It can be downright dangerous in some parts of the world and even in some regions of this country. The Diary of Allie Katz is a story of love forbidden by our society. An age gap that would be irrelevant a few years in the future is much more distinct when lovers are young. When one is a student and the other a teacher, the forbidden aspect is more prominent. Given that it is love between two young women, the scandal deepens and threatens to drown the young lovers in despair while they battle with the reality of norms, mores, and discriminatory laws. But love, as risky as plucking a rose in the midst of thorns, is worth the risk when it is true.

"I heard someone gasp then blushed again when I realized it was me. She unbuttoned another button or two and let her blouse slide off her shoulders onto the floor. I stood there rooted to the carpet beneath my feet. Desire battled with despair. I had wanted Marie in a calm, detached sort of way for so long. I was afraid of releasing my detachment. Yet I knew that I really wanted to see the breasts that were awaiting me a mere yard away, if only I could convince my feet to move."

For months, Jill, a twenty-something lesbian, had been daydreaming about her sexy, Latina co-worker, Marie. Interesting things start to happen when her night dreaming begins to involve nocturnal trysts with her fantasy paramour. When the women discover they are having the same dreams, they decide to raise the stakes on their telepathically shared nightlife. The sparks start flying though when Marie's nocturnal passion overflows into her daytime relationship with her violent, sexually addicted husband.

In My Dreams illustrates the blurring of boundaries we experience when we enter the world of our dreams. It also reminds us that there are always consequences when we begin to act consciously on that inner world of the dreaming mind. Sometimes those consequences are harder than we could have anticipated.

“...I do believe in you, Ricky… It’s something that comes so easily to me.” “As though you’ve done it before?” “Exactly. You know, part of me is interested in learning more about my past lives, while another part of me is afraid how that will affect the choices I make in this life.” “Like having to decide whether to love me?” Lingering memories of their past life together leads a young couple to hunt for clues to explain the deep connection between them. When darkness cuts off their search and threatens to consume their souls, love and light find a way to unite them again. Ricky Boston is a budding young artist on his way to art school and a future illustrating fantasy novels when his life and that of his fiancé is cut short in a senseless act of violence and depravity. Blinded by the need to right the wrongs of the past, Ricky’s reincarnated soul battles recurring nightmares and feelings of grief and despair, until peace arrives at last in a most ironic and unexpected way.

Demeter’s Daughter is the third book in a contemporary series by Beth Mitchum. Each book is dedicated to a different Goddess. Although the Goddesses represented here are all ancient Greek Goddesses, there is no connection between the books and the land of Greece, except in a metaphorical sense. The books are dedicated to the spiritual energy these Goddesses can bring to our lives by helping us to become all that we are meant to be. Set in the late 1990’s on the cusp of the internet revolution, the series begins with Artemisian Artist, where we meet four women who become connected to each other in sometimes unexpected ways. In the first book, we see their lives through the eyes of Liz Higgins, an artist who is just beginning to find success in her work. In the second book, Gaia’s Guardian, we follow the thread from the perspective of Gerry Pearcy, a Lakeland police officer. In this third book, we follow the narrative from the perspective of Melissa Higgins, a student at the University of Central Florida and Liz’s younger sister. While attending college, Melissa deals with strong maternal urges and a sometimes confusing love life. Melissa’s life takes a puzzling metaphysical turn while she grapples with the sudden return of her mother, who vanished when Melissa was a toddler. The series reaches its exciting conclusion in Hestia’s Healer, which is told by Dr. Terri Jackson, a healer in more ways than one, and the fourth character in this extraordinary quartet of friends. Each one of the books focuses on one of the women and is narrated by that character—Liz, Gerry, Melissa, and Terri. Together they weave a tapestry of women’s empowerment through self-growth and strong relationships.

Artemisian Artist is the first in a series. They are contemporary stories dedicated to the spiritual energy these Goddesses can bring to our lives. All the books deal with the characters introduced in Artemisian Artist, with each succeeding novel focusing on one of the four women-Liz, Melissa, Terri, and Gerry. Together they weave a tapestry of women's empowerment through self growth and strong relationships. All the stories deal with real life crises and conflicts that impact these four ordinary women. In the first book, we get to know all the women involved through the eyes of Liz Higgins, a young artist, who is beginning to achieve success in her career of choice. One fateful day, her path crosses those of two very different women. She is drawn to both of them, but has to make a choice between them. There is no way to avoid hurting someone in her decision to be true to her heart.

Gaia's Guardian is the sequel to Artemisian Artist. These are contemporary stories dedicated to the spiritual energy these Goddesses can bring to our lives. In this second book, Gerry takes up the narration. Six months into their relationship, two women begin to realize how little they know about each other. They begin the task of finding and establishing common ground. When an assassin's bullet shatters their world, Liz and Gerry find themselves drawn together in an even deeper way. As they try to put their lives back together, they receive other life-changing news. Liz's mother, who has been missing for more than a decade, has been found.

This 1st paragraph of the story is critical to understanding that the protagonist, Rita, was already preparing herself for metamorphosis. She was ready for her life to be different than it had been up to this moment in time. What that difference would entail, she had no idea, but she knew that it was tied to the woman she meets on the beach.

Driftwood is a story with its own story behind it. The seed of the story was planted one day when I was walking on the Oregon Coast (just north of Cannon Beach, the setting for the novel). On this particular weekend trip to the beach, I picked up a well-tumbled small piece of driftwood. It was smooth and had interesting bends and twists in it. It had a story to tell me. Driftwood is that story.

Since it was first published in 2000, I've been contacted by people around the globe telling me that the story touched them deeply. People from all walks of life have been helped through their particular time of transition by reading this book. It has even launched a few people on their own journey of self-discovery.

Driftwood is a story about transformation. As humans, we all change and grow. If we don't grow, we wither and die. The consequences of changing are not always easy, and the ways in which we grow and change are infinite, but change is part of the human condition. Embracing life changes is what allows each of us to be transformed into the beautiful butterfly we are meant to be.