Vanishing Point concerns memory, cognition, history, and morality, as experienced through the process of aging and as seen largely through a seriocomic lens. The range is wide, from arrestingly dark to downright hilarious—sometimes both at once—and all stages in-between. The poet Jim Daniels has said about this book, “With profound wit and humility, with a purity and clarity of language that defines our best poetry, [Trowbridge] takes us on a wild ride and gives us our money’s worth.” The last section contains poems from Trowbridge’s graphic chapbook Oldguy: Superhero, with several new poems added to that series.
Poetry. In FEALTY, the world quickly reveals itself as more complex and mysterious than we imagined. In poems surreal, feral, visceral, and yet tender, moving, and wise, Ricky Ray guides us through themes of love, death, animism, fidelity, belonging, and care. There is something of the ancients in his consciousness, which continually reminds us that we not only inhabit the earth, but are movements of the earth itself. Ray's connection to creatures great and small feels elemental; dog and dandelion stand beside man and mountain in the light. His eco-poetics, reminiscent of Wendell Berry and Joy Harjo, displays the dark passion of duende and the rhythmic swing of jazz manouche. All told, Ricky Ray is a modern-day mystic, and FEALTY is a series of startling visions capable of inducing a more intimate kinship with the world.
Why SIX? Because the collection is composed of six poems. And because the perspective in this collection shifts like a kaleidoscope, each image viewable from six possible angles. And because these poems, like the prevalent hexagons of the natural world—honeycombs, for instance—derive strength from their compression and their accumulation. “I call six times just to be sure you heard,” this speaker announces on the first page. These poems are also the six calls—calls to attention, calls to action, calls to account for something of our own. The speaker in SIX is insistent, scrupulous, and unflinching as she plumbs six essential aspects of human experience that have shaped us all: art, language, desire, vocation, faith, and life-changing love.
“I don't know what others do when their world collapses, but I know what a poet does. She writes it. Andrea Hollander's radiant new collection, Blue Mistaken for Sky, is a brave and unsentimental retelling of time held in abeyance, where ‘silence and darkness entered / together,’ and of betrayals—not just of love, but sometimes of life itself. What does she teach us but that it takes a long time of swimming ‘in place against / furiously moving water’ to be able to finally reclaim one's own life. This collection is so beautiful, it hurts.”
Recently nominated for a Pushcart Prize, "Laura Mazza-Dixon's Forged by Joy is a test of light against time, from innocence to loss, a spiritual autobiography seen first through a girl's eyes that behold wonder in everything, including stones - 'sea-polished ovals, green trapezoids laced with gold' - and forged through a life of art and love and loss, arriving at the question, 'Can joy weigh more than grief?' These are graceful, softly cadenced poems of belief carried against the final darkness we all face." Doug Anderson, poet and author of Blues for Unemployed Secret Police
In her stunning ninth collection of poetry, In June the Labyrinth, Cynthia Hogue tells a deeply personal lyric of love and loss through a mythic story. This book-length serial poem follows Elle, a dying woman, as she travels a trans-historical, trans-geographical terrain on a quest to investigate the labyrinth not only as myth and symbol, but something akin to the “labyrinth of the broken heart.” At the heart of Elle’s individual story is the earnest female pilgrim’s journey, full of disappointment but also hard-won wisdom and courage—inspired by Hogue’s own composited experience with loss, in particular the death of her mother. Rooted in the idea of the labyrinth as a symbol for life, as in the great Gothic cathedrals of Europe that Hogue would visit the summer of her mother’s death, these poems above all distill, fracture, recompose, and tell only partially?literally in parts but also in loving detail?the story of a life.
In her splendid fourth collection, poet Ellen Rachlin explores what she calls the "Permeable Divide"--the breach between the living and a loved one lost to death, the gap between confidence and hesitation, the gulf between banking and art, and perhaps most devastatingly, the chasm between freedom and habit. Rachlin combines her deliciously unique talents and background to speak about the differences between money and value. She crafts aphoristic and well-aimed poems that explode when we least expect them to--into a tender understanding of the rifts in our world. You will be catapulted from line to line, moved and inspired.
There is no fooling grief, Ellen Rachlin wisely writes, in her elegant, clear-eyed book, Permeable Divide. These are incorruptible poems of life's inevitable losses that always harbor emotional barter. Bad weather is useless as sorrow, the poet insists; but sorrow, without self-pity, is what Rachlin recognizes-- honestly, calmly, and compassionately -- as part and parcel of our sentient human design.
In her stunning new book, Ellen Rachlin explores, as if from a philosopher's point of view, the world around her. Reality, at times, is observed from a distance--a traveler contemplates the landscape and reckons, "The natural world is never enough." These are gems of poems which seek clarity while catching flashes of light.
Part of being a good squatter is learning to inhabit any space, to find a home in anything. The poems of GUTTER, Lauren Brazeal's debut collection, do just this: inhabiting each form given, whether game card pieces, checklists, stolen police evidence, and letters, or redactions, sestinas and sonnets. The story, told from the perspective of a young girl surviving as a squatter on the streets of Los Angeles and based on the author's own experience with homelessness as a teenager, bounces in time and perspective from the not-yet-homeless child, to the panhandling sprite, to the mournful survivor. More than the narrative of a single person, GUTTER speaks to the struggles of those who have been cast aside as irrelevant or undesirable by mainstream society.
Full & Round is the debut collection from Toya Rochelle. The collection consists of 40 poems that highlight the "lived experience." The best that one can hope for is a life that is full of love, joy, and passion. And even with some ups and downs, the collective support from family and friends shapes and sustains us.
This book of poetry includes poems filled emotions. Some raw, others downright bitter, but all with feeling. "In Her Feelings" will make you laugh, cry, wonder and take you on a journey through thirty-five poetic expressions of love, heartache, betrayal, friendship and more.
Love Without Borders: A poetry collection from the heart, is a compilation of poems on faith, hope, love, and life. It is Volume Three in the Without Borders Inspirational Series, and includes a bonus section of additional poetry written by Virginia Martin’s family and friends. Poetry is an uplifting and inspiring illustration of what makes us come alive. Virginia believes that love connects us all, and invites readers to open their hearts to a new experience in reading the written word.
"DeWitt Clinton’s poems in At the End of the War layer ancient, sacred ritual and texts with contemporary life and language. Clinton’s chiseled poems bespeak a consciousness trying to come to terms with history, specifically the horrific atrocities of WWII and the Holocaust. There’s a communal “we” in many of the poems of a people searching for an identity, a marginalized culture trying to define and reinvent itself on the historical stage. At the End of the War offers a poetic coming to terms with history, a Taoist way to emerge on the other side of atrocities—and speaks poetically for the self and contemporary society." -Krysia Jopek, author of Maps and Shadows, Aquila Polonica
"In DeWitt Clinton’s newest volume of poetry, he writes elegies to the past and present, poems that are lovely and compelling, but “always humble, always/ written in memory.” In sometimes long lyric-narratives, he interprets Biblical stories and honors the Holocaust, artists, and other poets, often in poems written in another’s voice, which allows readers another perspective. These are poems of searching and discovery, of consequences and coming-to-terms, of family, friendship, connections—some strong, some tentative. He writes, “Perhaps that’s all we can do—wonder and wonder some more.” -Karla Huston, Wisconsin Poet Laureate 2017-2018 and author of A Theory of Lipstick, Main Street Rag
"And, of course, a natural inquiry is made: whose children will you be mourning as you still love? How many can you mourn all at once and is there an end? Will the condolence for us all ever rest outside the comma? I tug the reader, yes, place them befuddled in what befuddles me. Some days, this work was the only body with which I would feel safe to watch the rooms inside me be processed, accessed, revisited; if it too carries endless oscillating rooms, a black tesseract might be another attempt at the human's time here."
"Deb Jannerson's Thanks for Nothing is a jewel-toned, kaleidoscopic rendering of living among contemporary America's unkindnesses. Out of pain, Jannerson creates a strange and elemental tableau. Structural inequities, phony concern, and the speaker herself morph into sinister dioramas pasted together from tainted childhood memories and the always-distressing news. The collection's images traverse seamlessly among nature, pop-culture, mythos, and political critique. Jannerson's alliterative and idiosyncratic rendering of firsts--persons, touches, tries--fun-houses the collection's physics, welcoming readers in the experience of emerging, dizzy but comfortable, from a legacy of hurt." -Jessica Morey-Collins, poet and Pushcart nominee
“Crisosto Apache’s collection is mesmerizing for its experimental formal variations. Inspired by Dine’ weaving methods, Apache creates ornate formal compositions coupled with a recursive reading experience. Ranging from fragmentation to prose block, formal considerations reflect the content selected for each poem. “K’us tadini tsaabi’ +2: [38 Necks +2]” discusses the hanging of 38 Dakota men upon the orders of Abraham Lincoln, with each stanza using indentation to pace the poem counting up until reaching the number 38... With the use of Apache Language (Nde Bizaa) & Navajo Language (Dine Bizaad) Apache creates a cascading resonance where the reader is asked to separate themselves from what they know of Native American history, and consider the Indigenous experience in America through Apache’s experiences on the reservation and in urban settings. Through these locations we are exposed to meditations on sexuality, Native American identity, and historical trauma... GENESIS delivers an experience that is both kinetic and visceral.” -Santee Frazier
“Gestation to birth of new generation, this book gives monumental range to the genesis of identity and charts the pathway to soul of self. A long-awaited phenomenal debut.” -Allison Adelle Hedge Coke
“Entirely new, experimental, and worth the effort of reading. Passionate in places, contemplative in others, he travels from that ancient past toward the distant universe.”-Linda Hogan
A journey in poetic form through the labyrinth of illusions prevalent in the everyday world of the passing, to the power and light that cannot be destroyed by anything in this realm of temporality.
From the early interweave of working-class life and intellectual and cultural erudition in poems such as “Letter from Bernard Malamud,” “Surplus Jeep,” and “Elmo,” through a glimpse of Polish women tending the graves in Gryzantyny, all the way to the hypnotic and heart-breaking “Ginsburg’s Harmonium,” Leonard Kress provides a feast of compressed, intelligent writing presented with highly polished craft — personal narratives full of colorful observations and surprising insights as well as touches of humor. The past is not even the past; whether it’s the Cold War or the Iliad, Kress makes it provocatively modern and alive. —Oriana Ivy, author of April Snow (2011 New Women’s Voices Prize Winner), and From the New World
An army surplus jeep whose ride is as “choppy” as the final movement of Shostakovich’s 6th symphony? A memory of driving deep in Pennsylvania coal country to woo a girl whose miner father groaned “black piss” at the urinal, while the polka-dancing daughter would “sweat herself slippery, too slick to hold on to, changing her outfit, her partner with each set”? Getting a letter from Bernard Malamud, or reading Isaac Babel’s The Red Calvary alongside a co-worker perpetually hung-over from Mad Dog 20/20? Or, how about a poem titled “Notes for a Poem: The Liquidation of History,” one of the best long-poems I have ever encountered, tracing a forced march through the kaleidoscopic landscape of 20th century Poland, equal parts intelligentsia, alcohol, and ethnic complexity? —Daniel Bourne, author of Where No One Spoke the Language and The Household Gods, editor of Artful Dodge
Welcome to Los Alamos, where the big-brained boys and girls are at it again. But atoms have become passé: now it's the Higgs boson, which they are using to develop a clean, efficient weapon of mini-destruction, mysteriously dropping bodies and groups of bodies into junior black holes within a fifty mile radius. Moreover, they're accomplishing this perfidy in comic rhyming quatrains. Can an intrepid group of six amateur do- gooders resolve the mystery and prevent the unleashing of this new WMD? With the help of several Doberman pinschers, a versificative Kentucky writer and his vivacious muse, Herr Morguemeister, and Verdi's Otello, a resolution seems just possible.
Los Angeles poet Peggy Dobreer's second full-length collection of poetry, Drop and Dazzle, has been described as a tennis match played with snow globes or a game of poker dealt with tarot cards. There are only winners, and with every win comes a loss. It’s all in how you spin the tail on the last man skirting the shore, or the first woman to float face up. The book convenes a conspiracy of hearts; a colony of voices that cannot seem to make up their minds. Swayed by superstition, the vicissitudes of longing, and the need to find a way home, these characters call out and question love with all its obvious juxtapositions: history, family, politics, gender, superstition, promise, and loss. They are relentless in their desire to find meaning, and connection on their various escapades. What else could love be, but the something that can, or not, exist in all things and every place at once? Dobreer’s language is precise and inventive. She knits syntax like others knit rainbow booties for babies on miniature needles. Following threads of assonance and alliteration, rhythms and story, she varies poetic styles throughout the book and creates a lyrical world that is part jazz, part classics, part pedestrian interference, and all parts love.
“Reflections of Life, A Collection of Poetry, Prose and Images,” is the debut literary work from new author and poet Mel Brown McGinnis. This compilation takes you on a journey of love, loss and triumph! "Reflections" is a collection of inspirational poetry, prose and pictures from all over the world taken by the author during her travels, including selections from the author’s photo collection "Natural Elements." The poetry, prose and images work together to tell stories of empowering women, finding love after heartbreak, advocating against domestic violence, navigating the political landscape, creating pathways to success from humble beginnings, reveling in a love of sports, and paying tribute to a musical legend! "Reflections" strives to start the conversation about topics that touch our lives. The end of each chapter contains a list of questions designed to allow the reader to reflect on the topic and encourage action in incorporating plans and healthy behaviors into everyday life and lifestyle changes. This journey may be your story, it may be your mother’s story, or your brother’s story, or your child’s story or your best friend’s story. No matter whose story it may be, "Reflections" touches on something for everyone!
Pat Durmon has been writing poetry since 2005. As an award-winning poet, former mental health counselor, and teacher, she has the knack of leading us to our deepest places and bringing us back refreshed and whole, with new insights into the various aspects of our complex, interrelated, and often mystifying lives. Her new collection considers and honors the significant stages women pass through. The poems speak of nature and its steadfastness. They speak of women who are awake to a difficult world. The first poem in the collection gives the overall picture of a girl/woman walking between vast eternities, between her beginning and her end on earth. It is a journey of growth. It is a story of women.
At first, when I think about What I would do If I didn't have one Or, I didn't have two If I had to discover The world differently With my arms or my feet It would still be an incredible journey for me I would learn everything with the same curiosity
