"A MAP / AS SMALL AS / ASTRONAUTS"

Occasionally, I blurb.  My latest Relished W(h)ines update includes reading two manuscripts for which I provided blurbs.  (Other past blurbs are accessible at my prior blog.)  Here are the (unedited) blurbies for two wonderful poets’ forthcoming books:

On A’s Visuality by Anne Gorrick:

Some poems are written slant. They surfaced because their poets didn’t have an idea they imposed on the poem to develop.  They surfaced because the poets respected the raw material — words — enough to get out of the way to let the words speak for themselves.   When the approach works, language becomes poetry by, in part, transcending the limits of the poets’ conscious imaginations.  Such has resulted from Anne Gorrick’s A’s Visuality which presents a section of poems translated from prior positionings as visual art and a second section of poems taking off from the found language of a website’s description of paint colors. The first section, Folios, is rife with surfaced wisdom: “a  map / as small as / astronauts” where guidance (map) is not the astronaut’s limits (knowledge) but the astronauts’ task (and desire) to explore or expand the limits of what’s known.  In the second section Chromatic Sweep, never has color become so palpable (at times even edible or radioactive): “when black and white mix, there is a lower sound”  or “red play back our own choking.”  Gorrick trusted the words (“No editorial / preoccupied with”) and their reciprocation are lush poems that thoughtfully invite.

On MEANS by Lars Palm:

Lars Palm rolls with song titles and makes dissonance harmonize: “i / will not be food / for your cats” he stresses, before suggesting instead “that old school nazi / who took your / house keys / & forged them / into a statue / depicting surreal sex.”  These are brief poems with huge expanses — what a discerning mind sees and sings after he “reel[s in] lines” to “see what’s on / the hook.” All to the heavy beat of one subversive enough to proclaim: “i live in / towns or cities / not countries."

Entonces, here’s moi latest List below.  As ever, please note that in the Publications section, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for GalateaResurrects!  More info on that HERE.

PUBLICATIONS

LOVE POEMS FROM GOD: TWELVE SACRED VOICES FROM THE EAST AND WEST featuring Rabia, St. Francis of Assisi, Rumi, Meister Eckhart, St. Thomas Aquinas, Hafiz, St. Catherine of Siena, Kabir, Mira, St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross and Tukaram, edited by Daniel Ladinsky. (My favorites are the contributions of Meister Eckhart, Hafiz, St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Avila.)

THE ECLECTIC WORLD, poems by Mark Young (stellar. LinkedIn Poetry Recommendation #120) 

*  END OF THE SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY, poem by Sarah Vap (intelligent. LPR #121)

OTHERWISE, MY LIFE IS ORDINARY, poems and essay by Bobby Byrd (interesting enough to have become my first review for next issue of Galatea Resurrects)

A’S VISUALITY, poems by Anne Gorrick (in manuscript. See above blurb)

MEANS, poems by Lars Palm (in manuscript. See above blurb)

GOSSAMER LID, poems and visual poetry (in manuscript) by Andrew Brenza (pleasing effects here)

*  A PRINCESS MAGIC PRESTO SPELL, poems by Lisa Jarnot and images by Emilie Clark (wonderfully effective collaboration between poet and artist)

FISHING ON THE POLE STAR, poems by Paul Pines (deft and lovingly done)

*  GREEN IS FOR WORLD, poems by Juliana Leslie

A STRANGER’S TABLE, poems by Anne Brooke

NEVER, poems by Jorie Graham

*  ELISE COWEN: POEMS AND FRAGMENTS, Edited by Tony Trigilio

*  HER HUMAN COSTUME, poems by Cynthia Marie Hoffman

*  GEPHYROMANIA, poems by TC Tolbert

*  STICK-UP, poems by Paul David Adkins

*  ]EXCLOSURES[, poems by Emily Abendroth

POEMS FROM REDRESS by Hannah Zeavin

*  HOW TO BE ANOTHER, poems by Susan Lewis

*  STATE OF THE UNION, poems by Susan Lewis

SALU-SALO: IN CONVERSATION WITH FILIPINOS, AN ANTHOLOGY OF PHILIPPINE-AUSTRALIAN WRITINGS edited by Jose Wendell Capili and John Cheeseman

*  VERSE, literary journal edited by Brian Henry and Andrew Zawacki

THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS / EL ESPIRITU DE LOS SANTOS (literary & art journal of St. Helena High School) edited by Peeka Zimmerman (my son’s got a poem innit!)

ILLEGAL: REFLECTIONS OF AN UNDOCUMENTED IMMIGRANT by Jose Angel N.

THE SECRET RESCUE: AN UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICAN NURSES AND MEDICS BEHIND NAZI LINES, history by Cate Lineberry

GRANDMA GATEWOOD’S WALK: THE INSPIRING STORY OF THE WOMAN WHO SAVED THE APPALACHIAN TRAIL, journalism by Ben Montgomery

COMING CLEAN, memoir by Kimberly Rae Miller

CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET MASTER BAKER: ONE WOMAN’S SWEET JOURNEY FROM UNHAPPY HOLLYWOOD EXECUTIVE TO CONTENTED COUNTRY BAKER, memoir by Gesine Bullock-Prado

A MOVEABLE THIRST; TALES AND TASTES FROM A SEASON IN NAPA WINE COUNTRY WITH REVIEWS OF 141 NAPA TASTING ROOMS by Rick Kushman and Hank Beal

SECOND CHANCE DOG, memoir by Jon Katz

A STREET CAT NAMED BOB AND HOW HE SAVED MY LIFE, memoir by James Bowen

HUNGER, novel by Elise Blackwell

RUNNER, novel by Patrick Lee

CITY OF THE SUN, novel by David Levien

WINES

Sohomare Kimoto Junmai Daiginjo (best sake I’ve ever tasted)

2012 Frogs leap zinfandel

2011 Smokescreen pinot noir

2002 Hutton Vale Grenache Mataro Eden Valley

2011 Foley Johnson Sta Rita Hills chardonnay

2009 Merus ALTVS cabernet

2009 Merus cabernet

2010 Merus cabernet

2005 Joh. Jos. Prum Wehlener Sonnenhur Auslese

2011 Frederic Esmonin Ruchottes-Chambertin Grand Cru

2002 Hundred Acres cabernet NV

2010 Altamura NV

2013 Altamura rose

2010 Rombauer merlot Carneros

2009 Puerto Salinas Alicante

2011 Cairdean Vineyard sauvignon blanc NV
2010 Cairdean Vineyards Farmers Cab