Word Songs

About the Book

Knowing but not caring about the flaws in the script.
Feeling gripped by the crowd. Laughing out loud at the corn,
the actor winking, looking forlorn, mugging while seeming sad.
And I, one of the crowd, watching myself being glad.

Poetry can serve as a time-out from today’s frenetic existence and be a balm for the soul. In a collection of poems, stories, and song lyrics penned over a lifetime, Paul Selbst shares expressive insight into his journey through a myriad of diverse experiences.

From youthful passion and exuberance to mature reflection and insight, Selbst offers poems, song lyrics, and stories in verse that reflect on wisdom, joy, love, friendship, loss, and life itself. Within his diverse selection chosen from a larger body of work, Selbst explores the deeper thoughts, musings, and implications surrounding his observations and experiences, addresses the high, low, and searching spirit, reflects on both young and old love, and much more.

Word Songs is a collection of poems, stories, and songs that provides a doorway to fresh insights and understandings as well as comfort for anyone desiring to explore their own thoughts, feelings, and pleasures in life

About the Author

Although born in Brooklyn, NY, Paul Selbst and his family migrated to Monticello, NY when he was six. Monticello, nestled in the Shawangunk Mountains, is the hometown that he still enjoys revisiting. After a stint in the army, a life in Monticello, and a career as a pharmacist, he left for graduate school in New York City and stayed there. He met Kathleen Gustafson in Manhattan, married her, became a home owner of a town house in Brooklyn, had two children - Jessica and Burke, worked up to become the CEO of a hospital, and undertook additional academic degrees and careers. Kathy and Paul have lived in New Jersey, Maine, and Pennsylvania.
Paul holds a degree in Pharmacy from the University of Buffalo, a master’s in Hospital Administration from Columbia University, a masters in Public Administration from New York University, and a PhD in Public Policy from New York University. As these diverse degrees suggest, Paul has had careers in various fields: pharmacy, hospital management, a professorship in health care management, and another in politics and government. Although formally retired, Paul continues to regularly teach and lecture on various topics in political science.
One of Paul’s lifelong non-career interests has been in folk music. He continues to sing in various venues and accompany himself on guitar. Each year he’s taught a non-credit course in folk music, which has been quite popular. He also enjoys playing Renaissance and Baroque music in a recorder consort, and - of course - he writes poetry.