Eileen R. Tabios is a poet working in multiple genres and in-between. She also loves books by writing, reading, publishing, critiquing, romancing and advocating for them. This blog will feature her bibliophilic activities with posts on current book engagements and links to her books and projects related to books.

Wednesday, July 28, 2021

HOTEL PACOIMA by MICHAEL CAYLO-BARADI

Some poets lurk—simmer—under the radar. But when their poems are so good, they come to my attention even as I remain as reticent about my recognition as they are about pushing themselves into the spotlight. That’s what’s great about a book—a book can give (me) the opportunity to sing praise on their behalf. I do that for Michael Caylo-Baradi’s debut (I assume it’s his debut) poetry collection, HOTEL PACOIMA. I read it and was stunned, but in a way I’d anticipated. He solidly grasps the ineffable: masterful at not just objectifying but eroticizing language into flesh itself, sagacious when it comes to observing culture, easily offers a textured diction that often lapses into the delicious, and (and this is difficult to articulate) proffers a sense of some rapprochement with life, such that it ultimately makes sense that he offers Anita Brookner through an epigraph including “…at last I understand that acceptance is all. I succumb to the genius of the place, and know true felicity. The sun is God. Of the rest it is wiser not to know, or not yet to know.” Dear Reader, I counsel you RUN to get this book.


A Sample Poem:





Sunday, July 25, 2021

DOVELION ON "DIVERSE TV" EUROPE!

 "Writings on the Wall" Europe at DiverseTV

Alexandro Botelho reads an excerpt from "The Return of DoveLion," the primary poem featured in DOVELION: A Fairy Tale for Our Times (AC Books, New York, 2021), for "LIVE: Writings on the Wall Europe" (the poem is read at about 40:30).

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Friday, July 23, 2021

THE SILENCE IS DEAFENING

  I'm delighted to share the 2021 release of my new tiny book, The Silence is Deafening


The Silence is Deafening by Eileen Tabios

(Eileen’sTinyBooks (Victoria Library), Saint Helena, CA, 2021. 1/1)

Size: 1.25” x 1.75”

Here are other images of the deafening book:





The Silence is Deafening uses a hand-made leather bound journal by Ginger at JustJournalIt. Materials: leather, cotton thread, and Arches 90lb cold pressed cotton watercolor paper. Ginger used the long stitch method to affix the paper to the spine.

I held on to Ginger's blank journal for nearly a year before coming across a Facebook post by Chile-based artist Felipe Cussen:

Felipe's post on Fra Elbertus' Essay on Silence inspired me to turn the blank journal into a blank-paged miniature book to become, as well, part of my Bibliotheca Invisibilis Project. Thanks to Felipe for permission to present his original post.



Tuesday, July 20, 2021

MY FIRST FRENCH TRANSLATION IS A BOOK!

I'm grateful to translator Samuel Rochery and publisher Serie Discrete (Bordeaux, France) for releasing my first French book: LA VIE EROTIQUE DE L'ART !


Ordering and other information at the Publisher's Book Page.

Merci, Universe!



Saturday, July 10, 2021

"CHAOS PAMPLONA" IN YOUNTVILLE ART WALK!

The lovely town of Yountville had its Art Walk today and I was able to see my poem in the company of the sculpture that inspired it. Said sculpture was made by Jedd Novatt, and my poem shares its title with his sculpture: “Chaos Pamplona.” The ekphrastic poem project of poets writing “after” one of the sculptures dotting Yountville’s landscape is the brain child of Napa Valley Poet Laureate Marianne Lyon, and I’m grateful Marianne asked me to participate. Here are some photos and it was a lovely day for taking them! I also share another ekphrastic example of a Macaw sculpture  and the poem it inspired from Cathy Carsell. 

(Click on images to enlarge)