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Amanda Zylstra

Goodreads Author

Born

in Grand Rapids, MI, The United States

Website

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorAmandaZylstra/

Twitter

LuciferFlowers

Genre

Poetry, Memoir, Paranormal

Influences

Anne Rice, Leonard Cohen, Jim Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Ray Bradbury, ...more

Member Since

November 2017

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/luciferflower242

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Amanda Zylstra writes poetry and short stories. Most of her work is based on life experiences. She is a cat lover and tea addict. She also enjoys reading.

Amanda lives in Grand Rapids, Michigan with her boyfriend and son. She is owned by four cats and is also a caregiver to a feral colony of cats that hang out in her yard. Cat rescue is one of her passions when she is not writing or spending time with friends.

"Passing Skeletons", Amanda's first poetry collection was published on 10/13/2017. This collection has various themes including relationships, mental illness, addiction, and death. Each poem is filled with vivid descriptions, metaphors, and truth. This collection has poems that was written over the past 20 years.

Amanda is currently w ...more

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Combine Editions
Amanda Zylstra’s books

Average rating: 4.0 · 8 ratings · 3 reviews · 2 distinct works

	Passing Skeletons 3.86 avg rating — 7 ratings — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Peeling Sanity it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

4 posts
Amanda Zylstra's Blog

"Tacky Lamps and Stray Cats"

"Tacky Lamps and Stray Cats"

I watched Salvation Army clean out my neighbor’s home.
They load up furniture from the 70's, old records, and a collection of tacky lamps.
It's weird watching all of her belongings going to charity.
Why does this hit me in the heart?
Is it because we all someday will pass?
Our material possessions are all that will be left of us.

This woman was a mystery to me.
I have lived tw Read more of this blog post »

1 like · Like • 1 comment • flag

Published on June 06, 2018 17:52 • Tags: catpoetry, cats, darkpoetry, indiepoet, newbook, poems, poetry, selfpublished

View all 4 posts »

Amanda’s Quotes

“Relationships never break cleanly. Like a valuable vase, they are smashed and then glued back together, smashed and glued, smashed and glued until the pieces just don't fit together anymore.”
― Marilyn Manson, The Long Hard Road Out of Hell

176 likes

“Little kids shoot marbles
where the branches break the sun

into graceful shafts of light…
I just want to be pure.”
― Jim Carroll, The Basketball Diaries

tags: poignant

89 likes

“[Dean] “My dear fellow, who will let you?”

[Roark] “That’s not the point. The point is, who will stop me?”
― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

16455 likes

“I'm sorry little bird But that was the way you were made. There will always be distance. But we will make sure your gilded cage Is resplendent. You will live seperate, but we will keep you so busy That you don't know You're not free.”
― Rex Emerson Jackson, Pretty Good Year - A Bipolar Poetry Anthology

1 likes

“And the rest is rust and stardust.”
― Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

4855 likes

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Amanda’s Groups

Indie Book Collective — 2956 members — last activity Nov 08, 2025 02:37PM
A group of indie authors, helping each other out and bringing new books to the world

Indie Revolution Group — 244 members — last activity Dec 20, 2025 09:03AM
A place for anyone and everyone especially interested in promoting and discussing the work of indie authors and/or whatever else you like!

¡ POETRY ! — 22597 members — last activity Dec 19, 2025 04:08PM
No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read No pretensions: just poetry. Stop by, recommend books, offer up poems (excerpted), tempt us, taunt us, tell us what to read and where to go (to read it!) Goodreads honors wordsmiths: poets and poetry promoted and prompted here. ~~~ "Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits." -- Carl Sandburg “God has a brown voice, as soft and full as beer.” —Anne Sexton On Clouds – “…what primitive tastes the ancients must have had if their poets were inspired by those absurd, untidy clumps of mist, idiotically jostling one another about…” —Yevgeny Zamyatin “If the poet wants to be a poet, the poet must force the poet to revise. If the poet doesn’t wish to revise, let the poet abandon poetry and take up stamp-collecting or real estate.” —Donald Hall “Poetry is a rich, full-bodied whistle, cracked ice crunching in pails, the night that numbs the leaf, the duel of two nightingales, the sweet pea that has run wild, Creation’s tears in shoulder blades.” —Boris Pasternak “Wanted: a needle swift enough to sew this poem into a blanket.” —Charles Simic “Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.” —Gustave Flaubert “Poetry is not an expression of the party line. It’s that time of night, lying in bed, thinking what you really think, making the private world public, that’s what the poet does.” —Allen Ginsberg. ~~~~~ Amy King, Moderator Amy King is the recipient of the 2015 Winner of the WNBA Award (Women’s National Book Association). Her latest collection, The Missing Museum, is a winner of the 2015 Tarpaulin Sky Book Prize. She serves on the executive board of VIDA: Women in Literary Arts and is co-editing with Heidi Lynn Staples the anthology, Big Energy Poets of the Anthropocene: When Ecopoets Think Climate Change. She is also co-editing the anthology, Bettering American Poetry 2015, and is an Associate Professor of Creative Writing at SUNY Nassau Community College. ...more

The Poetry Spot — 610 members — last activity Nov 18, 2025 12:27PM
This group is for poets, published poets, and lovers of poetry. Do you have a published poetry book? Promote it here! Are you looking for reviews? Are ...more

A Place for Poets — 455 members — last activity May 15, 2021 02:36AM
This group is for those who believe in the cross-cultural necessity and permanence of poetry. Share and discuss your favourite poets and the writing p ...more

Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie — 925 members — last activity Oct 24, 2025 06:14PM
A group for indie writers that want help writing and marketing their book. Friendly discussions and helpful advice encouraged. Bookwhacks are okay if ...more

Poetry Readers Challenge — 647 members — last activity Dec 19, 2025 11:20AM
Let's talk about poetry books. This group's members read poetry collections, with the goal of reviewing twenty in a year. C'mon. Do it. It's good for ...more

Books & Writers — 17 members — last activity Nov 08, 2017 07:39AM
Welcome to Books & Writers! This group is for writers and readers. We are going to select a new book to read and have discussions about it every month ...more

The Well in the Garden Poetry Group — 63 members — last activity Dec 18, 2023 06:29AM
The group is for sharing our poetry with each other. I encourage you to share any poetry you wish and I may occasionally issue a challenge but I warn ...more

The Gothic Poets Society — 396 members — last activity Dec 31, 2024 07:03PM
Wits, Words & Spirits! Who Are We? We are a group of like minded individuals who haunt dark halls and cemeteries, armed with pens, books and black li ...more

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Amanda Zylstra’s Followers (123)

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