NORWAY – Greg Zemlansky’s first book is much more than a fulfilled dream. It is a compilation of the love and joy, pain and sorrow, tribulations and observations that have filled the last 25 years of his life.
In poetry form, he writes about personal experiences: the challenge of raising an autistic child, the pain of divorce, the death of his parents, the bond of friendship, the desire for a lover, even the misery of the crippling 1998 ice storm in Maine.
He writes about daily observations, including the disappointment he felt when he saw a young man disrespect a war veteran and the changes he saw in classmates at a high-school reunion.
And he writes about news events that evoke emotions, including the 2002 death of Red Sox player Ted Williams and the war deployment of American soldiers.
“Poetry relaxes me,” the 52 year-old Paris resident, who has been writing poems since childhood, said Friday. “I just love writing. Things come in my head and sometimes at 3 in the morning I have to get up and scribble it down.
“This is a dream come true. I still don’t believe it,” he said.
The book was released just before Christmas, and so far a little over two dozen copies have been sold. It isn’t available in bookstores yet, but Zemlansky plans to approach various bookstores including ones in Auburn, Rumford and Mexico about selling the book.
Currently, it can be purchased for $19.95 at WOXO radio station in Norway, where Zemlansky works as a morning radio personality and sports announcer, and at Dad’s Place on Route 26 in Norway, where his fiancee, Linda, is employed.
Zemlansky and his fiancee founded and own Island Tree Publishing, the company that published the book.
The couple decided to launch the company after a series of rejections by large publishing houses.
“I’ve been rejected many times,” he said. But he’s hoping that someday a larger company will become interested in his talent and buy his company and distribute his work.
He already has published pieces under his belt. He has written short stories for several magazines including Reader’s Digest and has landed some awards for his poetry.
He is also working on a children’s book, “The Littlest Snowflake,” which he hopes to publish later this year after he finds an illustrator.
But he considers “Life and Love Poems” his highest achievement so far. The poems are divided into eight categories: life poems, love poems, people poems, religion, nature, earth, seasons and Christmas. Each individual poem is a personal slice of Zemlansky’s life.
A poem he wrote about his father, Nickolai, who died in 1988, lies with him in his casket. A poem he wrote for his mother, Barbara, who died 11 years later, lies with her.
A poem about autism describes the challenge and sometimes heartache of raising his 8-year-old son, Harrison. “There is 25 years’ worth of poetry in the book,” he said.
His love of poetry was instilled by his father, who read poems to him and his sister as they grew up in Richmond. His father wrote poems as well, although none of his work was published.
Zemlansky said his poems are “from the heart.”
“It’s a book for the young and the old,” he said. “Even people who don’t enjoy poetry would enjoy this book, I believe, because it is poetry you can understand.”
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