MBR: The Poetry Shelf
Midwest Book Review
The Love Poems Of Ahmad Shamlu
Firoozeh Papan-Matin
Ibex Publishing
PO Box 30087, Bethseda, MA 20824
1588140377 $32.00 www.ibexpublishers.com
The Love Poems Of Ahmad Shamlu by Firoozeh Papan-Matin is an erudite
translation by Arthur Lane (Professor Emeritus of English, California
State University, Northridge) of one of Iran's most influential
literary figure, showcasing great works of poetic rhetoric. Epitaph:
Nothing active in the leaving/No Stillness in the staying.//Branches
would not detach from the root;/the tattling wind/revealed no worthy
secret/to the leaves.//The maiden of my love/is an exotic mother./The
speeding star/on its despairing route/revolves in an eternal orbit.
Lasting: Poems On Aging
Meg Files
Pima Press
2202 W. Anklam Road, Tucson, AZ 85709-0170
1931638039 $18.00 www.amazon.com
Lasting: Poems On Aging, deftly edited by Meg Files, is an encouraging
collection of poetic interpretations and depictions of aging and the
nearing of death. As a remarkable understanding of life and one's past,
Lasting is an artistic review of many excellent poets' work, and is a
uniquely engaging read. Headset (in memory of my mother) Rachmaninoff's
Second is upon me;/ I conjure all the opera music you knew,//how lush
your contralto heart, how fine your gloss/of Kansas City piano music;
how swift your frock//at the Comus; I watch you cutting papa's/hair;
there ain't no hair like his under those deft fingers.//"Write nothing
down," you said;/no notes fine enough, not even ashes.
My Picnic With Lolita
Jack Conway
North County Press
North Main Street, Assonet, MA 02702
0961716762 $8.00 www.amazon.com
My Picnic With Lolita And Other Poems by Jack Conway is an eclectic and
interesting collection of selected poetry written by the famed author
of nonfiction. Readers explore the mind and thoughts of Conway as the
poetic rhetoric progresses in My Picnic With Lolita. The Curator: She
is the curator/in the museum/of her own endless disappointments./After
a lifetime,/she has quite a collection.
The Places As Preludes
Gustaf Sobin
Tailsman House Publishers
PO Box 3157, Jersey City NJ 07303-3157
1584980400 $14.95 www.amazon.com
One of the most significant poets of his generation, the late Gustaf
Sobin's verse was enigmatic, unique, thought-provoking, and memorable.
Pro Lyrica: ...three pebbles/make a path. the least breeze, though,
would/tatter the/wafted strands of/this tenuous syntax, dissipate all
sense of the comm-//mensurate. wedge, then, to/what if not//these very
knuckles. for only there, in taut accretions, might the moon, in all
its/octaves, come to/quaver.
Optic Nerve
Janet Sternburg
Red Hen Press
PO Box 3537 Granada Hills, CA 91394
1597090190 $16.95 www.redhen.org
Optic Nerve by Janet Sternburg is an personal collection of life
experience poetry which takes a unique focus on the everything that
humans encounter each day we face the world. A Life In Earrings (stanza
9): I only have one./I keep thinking I'll open/an old pocketbook/and
there will be its mate./I miss it.//Then again,/I only have one
breast,/and it's adequate for living.
Poetry
Elizabeth Dandy
Vantage Press
419 Park Ave, South, New York, NY 10016
0533151236 $10.95 amazon.com
Poetry by Elizabeth Dandy is a highly intimate, eclectic, and
recommended collection of some of her most personal poetry. Pure
Presence: Psychics/and clairvoyants/May foresee the future/But the
religious man can sense/The great import of the present moment,/This is
an extreme achievement,/The religious man knows/God is in
the/Present!//Deft Shrinks/drag forth the past,/Man's Past is their
Focus--/All things have a Future and Past,/But so different it is with
the Lord/Who has no Past and no Future,/As have created things,/For God
is pure/Presence!
Restarting The World
Leonard Nathan
Orchises Press
PO Box 20602 Alexandria, VA 22320-1602
1932535066 $14.95 www.amazon.com
Restarting The World is an eclectic and enlightening collection
showcasing some of the best of Leonard Nathan's verse. As renowned and
esteemed poet, Nathan inevitably introduces thought provoking and
intriguing lines in virtually every poem of this impressive anthology
of his work. Duet: You say you saw the god/the very day I saw you/as if
for the first time.//You talked--half-sang--all the way home/through
the vineyards. "Beautiful,"/you cried, "like summer lightening."//I
half-sang nothing.
Granny Squares
Linda M. Hamel
Vantage Press
419 Park Avenue South, NY, NY 10016
0533150914 $17.95 www.amazon.com
Granny Squares is a debut compendium of poetry by Linda M. Hamel whose
verse is lyrical, deeply personal, and self-evidently heartfelt.
Friends: Give me friends, lots of friends./Lots of fun that never
ends./Friends who like to stylish dance./Friends who like to find
romance./Sing with me along the way./There are lots of games to
play./Share the love from high above./Come and fly just like a
dove./There are many places we could go./Like a carnival or a picture
show./Miniature golf is such a blast./The days just seem to go so
fast./We'll make more friends along the way./In my heart you'll always
stay.
Through Thunder
Tav Sparks
Hanford Mead Publishers
PO Box 8051, Santa Cruz, CA 95061
1592750028 $17.95 1-831-459-6855 www.handfordmead.com
Through Thunder:an Epic Poem Of Death And Rebirth by Tav Sparks
compiles the clarity of mind, the beauty of life and the truth of
nature into a requiem of growth and wisdom. Through Thunder creates the
essence of a graphic, sensual, and grave collective degradation that
inhibits and engages us all. Spark's beautiful work, Through Thunder,
is highly recommended to general readers, poets, philosophers and
spiritualists for its unique diligence in wording and meaning. Walk
from the Tomb: I never looked back,/Left off ploughing in the
crossfield/For the last time./I won't be nailed again.//I'll bury
softly this solider maimed,/Stooped and caped./He stood forever on the
plain of pities,/But now he cannot cry./Meaning has gone out of him/As
spirit leaves the corpse./I have already mourned,/Been the weeping
itself./For this sad one I weep no more.
Another River
Pat Schneider
Amherst Writers & Artists Press
PO Box 1076, Amherst MS, 01004
0941895300 $18.00 www.amherstwriters.com
Another River: New And Selected Poems by Pat Schneider is a highly
recommended collection of profoundly memorable poetry. Pat Schneider
gently and lyrically depicts the situations and times highly personal
and intimate to herself, giving a glimpse of the poet's deep truths and
self realizations. River: A delicate fuzz of fog/like mold, or
moss,/all across the river/in this early light./Another day, I
might/have still been sleeping.//What a pity. How the stars/and seas
and rivers/in their fragile lace of fog/go on without us/morning after
morning,/year after year./And we disappear.
The Winds Of A Much Colder Fall
Robert P. Franza
Vantage Press
419 Park Avenue South, New York 10016
0533147077 $8.95 1-212-736-1767
The Winds Of A Much Colder Fall by Robert P. Franza is an inspirational
collection of personal poetry both meaningful and touching. In Winter
Still: Embers through wine, distortion reminds/The lovelorn and the
lonely./Disperse now sweet past, from this empty glass./I had but the
room for on only.//A cold night's rest, a deep drawn breath,/A last Log
on the fire./A padded quilt, in winter still./A heart warm with desire.
Only The Sea Keeps
Judith R. Robinson et al
Bayeux Arts
119 Stratton Crescent SW, Calagary, Canada, T3H 1T7
1896209696 $19.95 1-403-249-2477 www.bayeuxpoetry.com
Only The Sea Keeps: Poetry Of The Tsunami, collaboratively edited by
Judith R. Robinson, Joan E. Bauer and Sankar Roy, is a collection of
poetry inspired by the tragedy and sorrow caused by the tsunami
worldwide. Deeply moving and intimate, Only The Sea Keeps gives the
reader the gift of knowing, feeling and becoming a part of the tragedy.
Faithfully recommended for all who feel the repercussions of the
tsunami's strike. Sonnet After The Tsunami: Oh the sea will return and
sing out/our names from the leagues below;/claim its face here -- /nose
to the horizon,/its lips of mud,/foaming eyes.//Pa and Ma are in the
heavens./They re safe. Neighbors and/animals gone,/birds so quiet
what's speech/for? A throaty sound of this/one pebble on the
beach.//Roll it again,/roll. -- Alamgir Hashmi
Surfings
Will Inman
Howling Dog Press
PO Box 853 Berthoud, CO 80513-0853
writingda...@msn.com
1882863690 $TBA www.howlingdogpress.com
Surfings by Will Inman is an introductory compilation of a fine-tuned
poet's resplendent works. The reader will feel the influence that so
many others have to the truly majestic poetry Inman tactfully presents.
As so many readers and fans have anticipated the release of Surfings,
so many more have yet to discover and become fans of the fulfilling
poet Will Inman's works. Strongly recommended to all lovers of poetry
and general readers. Last Chant for Pablo Neruda: Our brother who turns
this earth,/speak in my living tongue/with sperm and maggots and
sprouting grain,/with heartbeats via angry copper and hornet
moons,/with twin earthquakes in Washington and Santiago/shaking loose
those dread-kin juntas' jaws/from our common flesh. North and South,/O
inseminate our song with fresh joy/and our anger with refining
death/and our hunger with waking bread,/you whose magic cantos
struck/jewels to life in throats and ears,/O Yes, I laugh, my Brother,
for all the junta fires/can only scorch your songs into our throats!
The World Always Knew
Diamond Crystal Hayes
American Literary Press
8019 Belair Road, Route 10, Baltimore, MD 21236
www.americanliterarypress.com
1561678333 $9.95 1-800-873-2003
The World Always Knew is the highly intimate and philosophical poetry
of the talented and able Diamond Crystal Hayes. Uncut: For to me.../you
are an uncut diamond/sitting still in the surface of the earth,/which
only beautify itself/and its surroundings.//It gives a shine that no
one else can give/or have a clue how it starts or ends.//Everything
that passes you by glows/as if higher power touched it.//The smile that
comes with all that you give,/no one can afford the price or the cost.
Parallel Play
Stephen Burt
Graywolf Press
2402 University Avenue, Suite 203, Saint Paul, MN 55114
www.graywolfpress.org
1555974376 $14.00 1-651-641-0077
The term "parallel play" in childhood development refers to when two
children are placed together yet play separately, without interacting.
Parallel Play is an anthology of poetry reflecting on the tendency
adults, lovers, friends, travelers, and others withdrawn into their
personal existences, sometimes influencing one another but not
necessarily acknowledging one another. The variant styles of free verse
meander across the intricacies of human consciousness, even - or
especially - when wholly self-absorbed. A haunting scrutiny of
isolation, whether by need, choice, or accident. Over Long Island: A
swept rock garden. With an enormous rake / The lines of pebbles - roofs
- have been made clear: / Their parallels leave rivulets, and bare /
Calm soil along one edge, the Sound. Severe, / Like any rock garden in
winter; so try to make // Its scale, its thumbprint creeks and
springtail lakes / Bespeak / Not how smooth stones or snowflakes look
alike / But what they thought they found when they came here: / Clean
sidewalks. "Freedom from want. Freedom from fear."
White Sea
Cleopatra Mathis
Sarabande Books
2234 Dundee Road, Suite 200, Louisville, KY 40205
www.sarabandebooks.org
1932511172 $13.95 1-800-283-3572
White Sea is an elegant body of poetry that lingers on the tenuous
connections between the living world and the hereafter, by
award-winning poet Cleopatra Mathis. The varied free verse expresses
emotion, human will in the face of endless entropy, respect for the
sincerity of animals, and quiet contemplation of the serenity of death.
An unforgettable and haunting collection. In Woods: Blind, I was
nowhere inside, / drawn past the verge of woods / in the fallen night,
blank / haze hanging / a hand over my eyes. / Blind night, no moon /
white as a shout, a startled / shake to keep me / out of woods - no owl
this time / sweeping before me. Fall's quiet / old now: the waving
leaves, the fine / flying needles of the pines / dead and given to
ground. / Every outline had filled in, / paid back its black / refusal,
and I almost didn't see. / I was walking the silencing woods / when
wilds woke, took hold / to turn me, something far and fast / lit the
dark way back.
The Beautiful Lesson Of The I
Frances Bret
Utah State University Press
78 Old Marin Hill, Logan, UT 843227800
0874216168 $15.95 usu.edu/usupress.com
A highly recommend read, Frances Brent presents an intriguing
collection of her greatest poems in The Beautiful Lesson Of The I. In
this deftly written body of verse, the reader will find words of
compelling guidance, thought evoking wisdom, and an intricate map of
Frances Brets' encouraging mind. Undo: I drew a finger through the air
with its memory objects--/there's nothing/but there is. I lean-ed the
gray word/against the wall with the clock//and the dark compositions of
Prohibition and Desire,/space between thought going off/and coming
back--//Undo--/choppy feelings of the heart--/so much hope/as the
bubble floats.
On Borrowed Time
Naomi Goodman
Fithan Press
PO Box 2790, McKinley, CA 95519
1564744515 $12.00 danielpublishing.com
Strongly recommended reading, On Borrowed Time: Poems Of Two Centuries
is the eclectic and highly praised work of Naomi Goodman. This
compilation of Goodman's poetry is the very definition of life and the
persistence of death, therein. For Later Friendship: One needs to know
the references/Who? Where? When?/What?/Even Which? as in the/Journalism
leads./Old friends know:/We can talk of our dead/With pleasure and
nostalgia,/With those who were witnesses./They Understand./New friends
ask:/Explaining, explaining is hard.
Myths Of Electricity
Keven Meaux
Texas Review Press
English Dept, Sam Huston State Univ.
Huntsville, TX 77341-2146
1881515737 $8.95 www.amazon.com
Very strongly recommended and iconoclastic, Myths Of Electricity an
intuitive and insightful assemble of Kevin Meaux's highly praised and
eclectic poetry. As Myths Of Electricity covers many varying subjects
throughout the selective poems of Kevin Meaux, readers will feel the
passion of the poet. The Young Magician And His Wife (after a
photograph of the author's parents, newly married): If one can believe
such things,/the afternoon blushes/with summer's articulate
brilliance/as my dad levitates my mom.//His hands are poised inches
above her,/His eyes are close in concentration/as if this were no
trick/but a delicate task.//She's weightless and smiling./Between her
back and the ground/there is nothing but sunlight.//They're too
young/to know what they're doing./Soon she will settle into soft
grass/or it will rise to meet her./And so he concentrates/on his hands,
his wife,/the bright sunlight.
Blue Feast
Shawna Lemay
Newest Press
201-8540-109 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 1E6
1896300944 $12.95 newestpress.com
Highly recommended to the general reader and poetry lover for its
clever indulgence into the English language, Blue Feast is an eloquent
collection of poems from the intimate collection of Shawna Lemay,
taking deep examination of motherhood, marriage, and the prosaic nature
of everyday life. Lemay deftly carries the engagement of the mundane by
latently writing of profoundly personal truths and histories. This Joy
That Hovers Within: There is this joy that hovers within./ I'm ashamed
to say I hardly own it.//All the other flotsam/in this whirlwind of my
own making/am I intimate with.//I won't own joy.//But I know that in
the early mornings/it moves closer/needing only strong coffee/a long
gaze into darkness/one dangling thought/containing no words, no words
at all.
Starred Wire
Ange Mlinko
Coffee House Press
27 N. Fourth St., Minneapolis, MN 55401
www.coffeehousepress.org
1566891779 $15.00 1-800-283-3572
Starred Wire is a collection of poetry written to the beat of a
different drummer. Taking liberties with rhymes, anagrams, puns,
palindromes, free-verse, stream-of-consciousness, and other techniques,
each work has a different natural rhythm, and all leave a vibrant
imprint on the senses. Poems to provoke impetuous inspiration, Starred
Wire is a delightfully unpredictable experience. Everything's
Carousing: Even the Baroque gets lost in it. / Grass vests the dirt
lest wind, twanging the skyscrapers // that merely sleeve the
elevators, as we go sleeveless / except for the atmosphere, file it
under "oceans." // Recalling the equations derived for ballistics- /
aiming cannonballs is not like squaring lintels, // and skyscrapers are
all lintel. / There isn't a straight line amidst all these that never
meet; // I will write away for it. A sound that breaks / "the record
and the tie with the most singles in a season." // Sparrows petulantly,
like petals, adding subtracting / to crumb-strewn cafe tables, then
boarding the ferries.
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