Sharon's Bookshelf
MWBOOKREVW
Power Lines: Celtic Prayers About Work
David Adam
Morehouse Publishing/Trinity Press International
4775 Linglestown Road, Harrisburg, PA 17112
0-8192-1838-3 $10.95 1-800-877-0012 www.morehousegroup.com
Based on the model of the ancient Celts, David Adam's Power Lines provides
contemporary prayers that convert common features of the workday into
opportunities for prayer. Power Lines incudes prayers for the various times of
the day, as well as for emotional responses to work. Of particular interest is
the chapter devoted to those who live and work in cities. A Voice in the Night:
Father Almighty, Lord of all,/Hear your loved one when I call.//Jesus all
loving, Savior of all,/Hear your loved one when I call.//Spirit all Powerful,
guide of all,/Hear your loved one when I call./Trinity all blessed, ruler of
all,/Hear your loved one when I call.
The Smile of the Acrobat
Audrey Wilson
Prospect Press
PO Box 162, Sistersville, WV 26175
1-892668-20-3 $8.95 1-304-652-1148 Sist...@aol.com
This rich and vibrant collection spans a gamut of poet Audrey Wilson's
interests, ranging places, times, and opportunities both missed and realized.
Daylight Saving: Turn back the clock/another summer gone/and time unnoticed
long/among his sliding leaves/stands sentinel again.//Accompanied by bells/each
hour used to strike his tread/through crowded day, in darkened night/but clocks
no longer tick/when minutes fall ways/and digits do not trace his path/as dials
used to do/yet twice a year/at spring and fall/when tampering with time/his
presence felt.
Remembering Armageddon: Reflections on a Century of War
R. Bedord Watkins
Little Leaf Press, Inc.
PO Box 187, Milaca, MN 56353
1-893385-03-5 $14.95 1-877-548-2431 www.maxminn.com/littleleaf
Remembering Armageddon expresses through poetry the poignant story of America
at war in the twentieth century with images that resonate with veterans and
non-veterans alike. At the Somme: This field is rife with flowers now,/more
fertile than when weary men/in muddy puttees paced the slimy duckboards/tracing
endless trenches lined with wire/and laced with hate, the haunting stench of
war./There gaunt men crouched in fear or dread,/or leaned a cautious head
against/the sodden, sandbagged walls/to peer across the savaged land/where dead
still lay,/or maybe to hear soft sobs of wounded,/still untended,/weeping in
their lonely dying,/lying where they fell that summer day./Deep below this
blossomed earth/their bleak bones lie in silent, mirthless shade./Forgotten now
the hellish din/of screaming shell and spinning spray of shrapnel/in the deadly
fire that fell from those indifferent skies./For with them lies no calm
repose,/no grace to face the requisites of death./Gone is their principled
conceit,/their firm defiance in defeat,/even their sweet life-giving
breath./The mawkish, unconsoling choir/of praise for noble sacrifice,/each
tiresome phrase of tribute or remorse/lies hushed upon their bloody bier,/now
buried in the near oblivion of the dreary sod./Nor can a mem'ried smile be
raised/except in grief/by those who loved them/and who gave them over to their
glory/and to God.
A Protocol For Touch
Constance Merritt
University of North Texas Press
PO Box 311336, Denton, TX 76203-1336
1-57441-083-0 $12.95 1-940-565-2142 www.unt.edu/untpress
A Protocol For Touch was awarded the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry and secured
Constance Merritt as a truly gifted poet with a recognition richly deserved.
Exile: The air is dry in the much-promised land,/And mountains whisper "this is
not your home":/Still nights entice me like a knowing hand,/And strangers'
hands have sometimes brushed my own./Yet milk, so sweet, turns rancid in my
mouth,/And I can name no answer to desire/Since God is everywhere and I'm
without./I taste the stone's sleek kiss, lie with each hour/And the dream of
taking up my staff and rod,/Or no longer lingering weary at the door/My hands
heavy with holy tears for God/Or some woman who always fails to come./But it's
hard to leave the vigil once begun,/And waiting soon becomes much more than
for.
Gatherin' Emily: Poems of the Heart
Jesse Wilder
Wind's Errand
6077 Far Hills Avenue, #279, Centerville, OH 45459
0-96772245-3-5 $15.00 1-937-299-6768 winds...@macconnect.com
Gatherin' Emily: Poems Of The Heart is a superbly moving collection of
forty-three unabashedly romantic poems by Jesse Wilder. Wilder's lyrical poetry
ranges from the passionate to the playful. Tell Me: Tell me what part of me
first caught your eye/that night when goodness found her home in me./What made
your heart perform a double-take/and keeps you captivate to this day?/Tell me
why I still paint your face a smile/with just the simplest whisper of your
name/Or when we trudge all bundled through the park,/Snow's perfect blanket
left in disarray./While silent flurries hug our quiet night/the fire pirouettes
to pass the time,/Until I sigh and steal a glimpse at you/ to always catch you
stealing one my way./Tell me that you'll know my words forever/and late at
night your curve will know my joy./Then right before sleep apprehends our
dreams/just tell me that your love is here to stay.
The Good Book Also Says...
Ben Milder
Time Being Books
10411 Clayton Road, Suites 201-203, Saint Louis, MO 63131
1-56809-061-7 $15.00 (pb) 1-56809-060-9 $25.00 (hc) 1-314-432-1771
Ben Milder's humorous poems collected in The Good Book Also Says... were each
inspired by verse of the New Testament. Humorous and wise, Milder's poetry is a
sheer delight to read. Or Put Up Your Dukes (Luke 6:29 "...To him who strikes
you on the cheek, offer him the other also...": To turn the other cheek is what
the Books of Luke advises --/A noble thought which could be fraught with
terrible surprises./When you have turned the other cheek and find your jaw is
broken./The Good Book has some more advice that's equally outspoken.//Your
primal instinct's apt to be an urge that's understandable:/To find the fiend
and square accounts by fracturing each mandible./If so, go right ahead 'cause
in the Good Book it is written/"Eye for eye, tooth for tooth," so smite back
when you are smitten.//A dilemma here confronts you: should you now put up your
dukes?/Are some lessons in the Bible superseded by Luke's?/Must you turn the
other cheek when you are set on by some villain?/Although the Bible says so,
I'm not sure that I'd be willin'.
Untidy Candles: An Anthology of Maine Poets
Julie Zimmerman, editor
Biddle Publishing Company
PO Box 1305, Brunswick, ME 04011
1-879418-17-7 $10.00 1-207-833-5013
Untidy Candles: An Anthology Of Maine Poets showcases some of the best and the
brightest of poets who participated in the Maine Writers and Publishers
Alliance workshops or retreats and reveal the variety, beauty, and range of
contemporary poetry in Maine. For Lucy: Bone fragments/of jaw/thigh/and
finger/do not reveal/the heart of my ancient ancestor/in Olduvai George./ Where
were you going?/Had you lost a child in birth,/loved a dancing man,/sung to the
morning light?/Were you tired of your journey,/afraid you'd lost your
way,/grateful for the death that came/in the plain/between here and
there?/Covered by earth for the millennia/you appear again, too soon,/my
mother,/to raise simple questions. -- Susan Nichols
Two Sister
Sheila Wade & Maureen Brown
TowleHouse Publishing
1312 Bell Grimes Lane, Nashville, TN 37207
0-9668774-0-3 $12.95 1-615-612-3005 1-615-612-0067 VerM...@aol.com
Two Sister is a unique volume of poetry where the sisters Sheila Wade and
Maureen Brown collaborate to present a compelling memoir in the form of candid,
revealing, and inspiring biographical verse that tells of their upbringing,
marked by poverty of spirit as well as substance. The sisters deal with
emotional issues ranging from personal security to self-esteem to coming out of
poverty and rising a prosperity of spirit. Growing Up Too Fast: When I was so
very young,/Into adulthood I was flung./To grow up very quickly,/Even though I
was often sickly.//My family was dirt poor,/Our house was an eyesore./Our
clothes and hair were unclean,/Life in many ways was very mean.//My father had
never learned to read,/Yet he was a good man, everyone agreed./He worked so
hard at his trade,/We never lived on welfare aid.//Many bills were left
unpaid,/Of a better life he always prayed./Until he own life finally did
fade,/And at peace at rest he was finally laid.
Misterioso
Sascha Feinstein
Copper Canyon Press
PO Box 271, Pt. Townsend, WA 98368
1-55659-136-5 $14.00 (pb) 1-55659-145-4 $22.00 (hc)
www.coppercanyonpress.org
Sascha Feinsteni's poetry is steeped in the biographies, history, and sounds of
jazz music, using a distinctly American idiom to explore personal
relationships. Singapore, July 4th: Banyan roots almost reach/the river where
small boats/putter to shore before dark./The Red House,/best chili crab in
town/and your friends reach for sweetness,/picking apart claws, hard
shells,/sucking legs that burn the throat./If Louis Armstrong were alive/we'd
celebrate his eighty-ninth birthday,/his chili voice singing/Stars Fell on
Alabama./No reason to miss the States/but I do. Tonight, back home,/when the
sun begins to set on Cranes Beach,/the old mansion in the dunes/will send off
Roman candles./To Dixieland and Southern blues/floating across the
seascape.,/men in tuxedos will put down their Scotch,/hold their wives by the
waist - /the way I'd want to be with you.,/until my black suit faded into
night,/your white dress only a vague glow/under chandeliers of bursting sky.
Before It's Light: New Poems
Lyn Lifshin
Black Sparrow Press
24 Tenth Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95401
1-57423-114-6 $16.00 (pb) 1-57423-115-4 $27.50 (hc) 1-707-579-4011
Lyn Lifshin is an impressive talent whose poetry ranges from simple mood pieces
to complex narrative imaging. Before It's Light: New Poems is an impressive
anthology that clearly documents her as a major talent. At The Pond Early:
night grass steams./Mourning doves in/the fog, a few feathers//on the lawn
though no/gees for two days./Only the heron like//a slate candle, a drift/wood
stick and my/17 year old cat, a//cloth mouse in her jaws muffing a shriek,/cuts
the sleeve//of quiet
Marrow Of Flame: Poems of the Spiritual Journey
Dorothy Walters
Hohm Press
PO Box 2501, Prescott, AZ 86302
0-934252-96-3 $12.00 1-800-381-2700
Marrow Of Flame superbly debuts the poetry of Dorothy Walters in a compilation
of 105 new poems documenting and celebrating her talents at revealing deep and
enduring spiritual truths and metaphysical observations. The God's Abode: Some
say the god lies coiled/at the base/of the slender tree,/serpent waiting
to/raise his head.//Other seek/rapture in the belly,/hands curving over
navel.//Still others/would find a quiet opening/into heart or
forehead,/imploring gift of compassion,/jewel of knowing.//The god is/all
around us,/and in us.//As light pours through water,/she enters us.//We are her
translucent vessel,/container and contained.
Michelangelo's Call
Sy Hakim
Century Press
PO Box 298, Thomaston, ME 04861
0-913054-17-8 $12.95
Sy Hakim is an American artist and poet who has lived much of his life in Ital.
His memorable poetry is often enhanced with classical illusions. Hakim's poems
are a kind of "verse paintings" that illuminate in the mind's eye with vivid
and memorable imagery. Before The Storm: Minutes:/the air goes
grey/tangible/heavy with moisture/while away/the darkening clouds roil/a tumult
of energy/released, unconfined/and rained/upon distances/obscured.../Held in
abeyance/by distance and space/the storm gathers,/re-enforces, and
advances./One watches the spectacle,/the grace,/with dread/and joy,/and
recognizes the fear,/only partly glad/that there is such a force -/a proof
beyond//the capabilities of men.//Minutes:/The white water churns ahead,/turns
the city stream,/liberated, untamed/beyond its confines/into an angry rush./The
bushes bend,/rivulets gathering, forming/into new racing
stream,/uncontrolled,/running destructive rivers -/beyond the farmers's
need,/the cannibal banks,/irrigation control.
Sharon Stuart
Reviewer
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