By Monique Balas
News-Chronicle
Love doesn't always look the way you think it should.
That's what author Lyn Weldon is trying to tell people in her new book, "Love is Unlimited: A Book of Poems for People in Special Relationships."
Weldon was at Oneida Casino on Sunday signing copies of her new book, but she took time to explain some of her inspiration for writing her poems about unconventional relationships.
"This book is for people society rejects," said Weldon, who moved to Green Bay a month ago. "The whole premise of this book is, no matter what somebody does in life, somebody loves them. No matter what they look like."
Weldon's book addresses nearly every imaginable form of unusual relationship, from multiracial couples to those who are physically disabled to pairs who have significant age differences.
The only topic she does not address in the 27 poems is adultery, which she doesn't think is wrong, she said.
Taking material from her personal experiences as well as that of loved ones, Weldon continues to pose the question she asks in her poem, "Who Says Society is Right?" throughout all of her other poems as well.
As examples for her inspiration, she cited a husband and wife who were friends of her mother's that "shared one leg between them" as a result of illness; her sister's struggle with socioeconomic class difference when she dated a much wealthier man; a friend with a mixed-race child; and numerous other "underdogs" she has known.
Weldon, who is black, also draws from her own experience being married to an American Indian-Caucasian man.
She currently teaches beginning computer skills at Oneida Community Education Center. Before taking an early retirement to write her book, she was an art teacher in Cincinnati.
FYI:
Weldon's book is not yet sold in area bookstores. To order a copy, call Vantage Press Publishers, 1-800-882-3273.