A Review of Assumption and Other Stories by Daniel A. Olivas
With stories ripped from the headlines, and the everyday lives of citizens
in the Chicano community, Daniel A. Olivas has brought to the reader yet
another incredible read. The Mexican American community has a very bright
star to follow. The stories on different ways a community deal with
homosexuality and lesbianism stir a neighborhood to its core and excite the
reader with hope. Mr. Olivas doesn't shy away from any subject and only
seems to grow with each book. I will treasure this book and more
importantly, I will share it with others.
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Bilingual Press
Hispanic Research Center
Arizona State University
P.O. Box 872702
Tempe, Arizona 85287-2702
(480) 965-3867
---
A Review of Full Circle by Elizabeth Thomas
If you have ever been a teacher or taught a workshop, read your poetry or
fiction in a classroom of students you will understand the poem, Night.
Elizabeth Thomas it seems is one of those teachers you keep in touch with in
years to come and hope to someday emulate. Writing of her experiences we
follow a wonderfully sympathetic life as it unfolds. Full Circle reiterates
the importance of love, compassion and the sobriety that comes from loss. An
excerpt from Night,
"His vest opens as his boots dig the floor
and I can see the writing on his shirt.
It says, "Misfit".
Here in this room though
We both know
He belongs."
Full Circle reminds me of a song by Ryan Adams, The Rescue Blues. As the
song builds you feel the hope and love. It's a beautiful song from a very
talented songwriter. Full Circle is by a very talented writer who spreads
her own voice of hope throughout the readers open arms.
The cost of this book is: $10.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Hanover Press, Ltd.
P.O. Box 596
Newton, CT 06470-0596
www.hanover-press.com
---
A Review of Crazy Quilt by Vivian Shipley
I've read and reviewed a couple hundred books since I have been a part of
the Muse Apprentice Guild. You'd think that the books would have all run
together by now and that I would be sick of doing what I do, for free. You'd
be wrong. Every time I think of a writer trying to get their first book
noticed by a major magazine or online journal it fuels my determination.
Every good book has at least one poem that contains a surprise for me. In
Crazy Quilt by Vivian Shipley, the poem is entitled, Perennial. An excerpt,
"Taking a widow to find notebooks in her husband's in her husband's
breastpocket, giving her poems she could dry in the sun, to soothe her,
would you say how ink if not his breathwords have been saved?"
There is compassion in the writing of Vivian Shipley and that is quite
important isn't it? The series of poems entitled, Excerpts from T.S. Eliot's
Birthday Letters to Ezra Pound in St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the
Criminally Insane. There are ten poems in the series and they are truly
inspired. I honestly don't believe you can be a serious student of poetry
and not have a love or at least a respect for the writings of Ezra Pound.
Vivian Shipley is respectful and I am grateful to her sending her book to
the MAG.
The cost of this book is: $12.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Hanover Press, Ltd.
P.O. Box 596
Newton, CT 06470-0596
ISBN 1-887012-19-2
---
A Review of Letters To Unfinished J. by Shelia E. Murphy
To be a writer you have to have a love for the blank page. Once you have
disgraced it with your words, its beauty is lost. But there are some that
can enable that faded beauty to rise and arouse. That kind of writer is
Shelia Murphy. In her new book, Letters to Unfinished J., the perennially
sublime Murphy continues her challenge to the rest of the world, just try
and catch up to me. Here is an excerpt:
"Murmur something in a conversation as a sleeve echoes the skin. Like the
mine of ivy waiting to be breast fed. Would a whisper (farmlight) obligate
our first sensation privy to the nest. Be kind to what you own."
Shelia E. Murphy doesn't imagine a different world and she doesn't take to
another consciousness, she just pounds away at the reality we all know and
re-awakens us to the brightly lit figures in a dreamy line-up in a cold
station room. We are all behind that one-way mirror trusting our faiths to
poor eyesight and publication. Shelia E. Murphy is as real as it gets. As
Jake Berry sings in his song, Curtain of Flames, "At night I beg forgiveness
from my vain retreats." We are all cast upon the waters peering over the
barrel at the deep Canadian waters below.
The cost of this book is: $10.95
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Green Integer
Distributed in the United States by Consortium Book
Sales and Distribution, 1045 Westgate Drive, Suite 90
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114-1065
www.greeninteger.com
---
A Review of Nudity: a Chapbook by Michael Landrio
Michael Landrio is a young writer, young to me anyway, he's twenty-six years
of age and suffers from bi-polar disorder. Why do I mention this? Have you
ever suffered from bi-polar disorder? If not, and I haven't either, so we
have no idea what it takes for this young man to write now do we? No. I
suffer from epilepsy and headaches that can be blinding so I know a bit of
what it takes to create art in a different state than most. Michael Landrio
writes:
"Kick your feet,
Don't go down,
Keep head above,
You can make it,
You can beat this,
This is battle of brain,
Removal of stain,
Cleansing of blood,
Victory over people cruel,
Digging for,
And touching of jewel,
There's sharks in the water,
But she's waitin' for you
Somewhere on the shore,
What else could you want?
What more?"
There are always sharks in the water and on land. The fish goes bloody with
each moment of disability. The water just changes hue. Michael Landrio
writes with an experience and he lets in on just a bit of the stigma, only
in cinematic terms does he open the discussion and that is where he leaves
us, in the aisle.
---
A Review of Miraculous Air by C.M. Mayo
You may have never read a book quite like Miraculous Air. The absolute
delight C.M. Mayo takes in painting the precise picture for the reader, the
uncanny ability of the writing, all of this comes together in a piece of
work that moves you as well as educates. Mexico, a land long thought to be
vagrant and bleak comes alive in Miraculous Air as the hidden jewel in a
coastline of sea and mystery. You could call it master storytelling if it
was a story but this is journalism in the tradition that you may have
thought was dead long ago. C.M. Mayo begins her book with a quote by John
Steinbeck from The Log from the Sea of Cortez, "The very air here is
miraculous." I couldn't agree more.
The cost of this book is: $24.95
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
The University of Utah Press
ISBN 0-87480-740-9
---
A Review of Bedford by Pat Lawrence
Bedford looks at first like a diary spruced up for a grade but then you open
it, you read it, and you find that it is so much more for the work. Pat
Lawrence, like Richard Laskowski, is another bright grubby star reflecting
off a publisher's windshield. You'll find in any bookstore just what you
would expect in the way of young writers. You know the kind of book of which
I speak. The cover is either an artsy photo or a portrait of a heroin chic.
What you find inside is a fifty-year old publishers idea of a book for this
generation. Well, that is NOT what you will find in Bedford. An excerpt from
Chapter 7:
"Fault number one was that he was unpredictable (which could be translated
"unreliable") and fault 2 was that he oscillated between being either a
little too oblivious, though unreliably (surprise) one or the other. Of this
last one "observant" came through mostly in his journals, which I was still
reading just to keep fucking abreast of the situation. Finding out that he
knew about me, because I hadn't paid attention to myself and the way I had
changed since puberty."
This is a very revealing and intimate passage. You would think a more mature
writer would have written his, but then again what the hell does age have to
do with it? Finally, who wouldn't want to read a novel that includes an
apparition of Amiri Baraka?
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Six Gallery Press
1095 Bond St.
Apt. 3
Macon, GA 31210
www.sixgallerypress.com
---
A Review of This Place by Vera Gelvin
Someone once told me that my poetry just "didn't do anything for him." When
I first heard this, my first thought was to agree. Of course the writing
didn't do anything for him because it wasn't written for him. It was never
my intention to move him, I write for myself. This I take it is the option
that Vera Gelvin has chosen also. I must say that the writing here does
nothing for me either. I recognize the work that has been done and true
there are a line here and there that spark the imagination but they burn
swiftly out and will leave you out in the cold. Too concise and perfect it
seems to me that the poems presented here would do well with a bit of
reckless abandon, a controlled response that could only be subdued by the
writer pausing for a moment. A gift wrapped in far too many bows will only
get in the way of unwrapping the prize.
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Cave In The Sky Press
P.O. Box 659
Montclair, NJ 07042
---
A Review of The Blues Is A Feeling; Voices & Visions of African-American
Blues musicians - Photographs and Interviews by James Fraher
The Blues Is A Feeling is the first of its kind that I have seen. It's a
brilliant time capsule for the Blues tradition in America. In his
introduction William H. Wiggins, Jr. writes, "Fraher's study gives one of
the most balanced portrayals of these American folk musicians. His images
and selected quotes personalize the talented men and women entrusted with
the cultural responsibility of keeping the blues tradition alive." Featuring
Blues legends such as Bukka White, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, Johnny
Shines, Pinetop Perkins and the incredible Koko Taylor The Blues Is A
Feeling also spotlights many great artists you may or not have heard of.
James Fraher proves himself to be an extraordinary photographer, interviewer
and his incomparability of putting together such a wide-reaching project.
The legendary Hubert Sumlin is quoted as saying, "Guys out there made me
cry, man.'cause I know they was telling me the truth. And they sang it with
a feeling, man. Played with a feeling. You say, hey, this is it, man. This
is what I was born with." We were all born with the blues. James Fraher
gives us photographs of those who make the music for a soundtrack of their
and our lives.
The cost of this book is: $40.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
www.bogfire.com for a signed copy
---
A Review of Spelling Crows of Winter by Michael Paul Ladanyi
Spelling Crows of Winter is yet another release from the Pudding House
Publications. I have reviewed several of their collections and each has been
delightful in its own way. The third poem in this collection immediately
caught my attention as I read through the book. The poem is entitled,
Fourteen. Here is a brief excerpt,
"he laid there for three days,
his sister wondering if he were dead,
thinking him dead, finally believing
him dead, before asking herself if
the police would question her upon
finding the body, the first few days
he screamed of ants eating his skin"
So you see as I did, there is something going on here, the feel of a
documentary, the feel for the context and a storyteller's aberration for the
juice of forbidden fruit. In the poem Longing Volumes, Mr. Ladanyi writes,
"There is no quiet
where you are. The tall glass
and metal behemoths that surround you,
sign of nothing but things that are
crippled or dying. Tortured asphalt
screaming beneath stretching cars,
seas of swirling blue faces,
including yours, that ponder
upside-down memories of wrists cut
along the vein, hands that butcher in
dirty shadows of garbage can alleys,
where toothless and frayed beggars
are forced to exist"
Michael Paul Landanyi crafts with a hand routinely focused on the truth in
the mirror while still capturing the images outside his window. A true
writer.
The cost of this book is: $8.95
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Pudding House Publications
81 Shadymere Lane
Columbus Ohio 43213
www.puddinghouse.com
---
A Review of Jones by Charlie Newman
Jones an extension of the text by Charlie Newman, recorded on Compact Disc
the poetry of Charlie Newman bursts to life in musical structures, words
(words echoing), and the silence between the breaths that a book can never
penetrate or illuminate. The text concerns itself with the body and the
mind, the surroundings of the poet, and the patience the reader does not
always contain, within themselves.
This Compact Disc recording can be acquired by contacting:
Unit N
711 W. Main St.
Louisville, KY 40202
---
A Review of James Penha: Greatest Hits 1975-2000
"When his nose was gone
After his eyes had popped out,
They pushed his puttied skin
From the bone
With their shoes
And pissed the blaze out
Before it spread far enough
To kill him. That's
When they took the picture
I saw silently
And heard his scream"
- From the poem, La Secuela by James Penha
It 's easy to shy away from reality. It is even easier to not write about
it. It is unbelievably easy to just write about the mist outside your door
and how it cuddles around the pepper plant outside your window. But even the
pepper plant could be sinister. The mist? Should I even begin? This is the
second in the series of Greatest Hits books I have reviewed from Pudding
House Publications. The first by Shelia E. Murphy was brilliant.This edition
by James Penha is just as startling. Anyone can say a book is a greatest
hits. To prove yourself worthy is quite special. Before the poem September
1, 1914 The Last Passenger Pigeon Receives A Guest, Penha quotes W. H.
Auden. The quote is as follows, "Ironic points of light flash out wherever
the Just exchange their messages." In this book points of light spray their
essence about wherever the just could read these messages. These messages
are indeed the greatest hits.
The cost of this book is: $8.95
You can acquire this book by contacting:
Pudding House Publications
60 North Main Street
Johnstown Ohio 43031
740-967-6060
www.puddinghouse.com
---
A Review of @phabet by Donato Mancini
@phabet is a collection of graphic art with words. Each page features a
letter from the alphabet accompanied by a brief interpretaion of the letter.
For instance the letter b is, to be. C is, to come. N is, no/not/negation.
On second thought perhaps Mr. Mancini is attempting to re-write the alphabet
through art and poetry. I ask you, quite honestly...what is wrong with that?
The cost of this book (I believe) is $4.00
You can acquire this book by contacting:
Above/Ground Press
c/o Rob Mclennan
rr#1 Maxville
Ontario Koc 1 to
---
A Review of Unknown Origins by Charlie Newman
Charlie Newman writes with a manic quality that challenges the reader to
make sense of it all. The poetry rambles, turns, intersects, and voyages off
to the center of the punctuation. As Newman writes in the Notes section,
".these pieces mean whatever you think they mean. Frankly, I don't trust
meaning very much. I prefer feeling to meaning." Who can argue with this
explanation? Feeling the meaning is what we all do isn't it?
You may acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Wasteland Press
www.wastelandpress.com
Louisville, KY USA
---
A Review of Obeying The Call by Ray Liversidge
As the language of man intertwines with popular culture and back again, as
the silt of humanity clings to every piece of trash thrown into the infested
waters of our feeble environment isn't it good to know that there are
writers like Ray Liversidge here to help us remember to take a break and
just glance over the surface of the water and see that it ca be okay with
hard work and simple belief. The poem, Not Waving,
Not Waving
She enters the wat-
er. Waves curl like rice-paper
In the pale moonlight
The poet Ian McBryde describes Mr. Liversidge poetry this way, "Liversidge
takes us through life, love, loss and sex, and deep down into the complex
tunnels of the human heart." Reviewing books can bring you to many places,
some good and some bad. You can sometimes offend or disappoint, entertain or
please, but you can never please everyone all the time. All I can do is try
and read the books you the writer sends to me and give my opinion. I like
this book, Obeying The Call by Ray Liversidge and I hope if you have a
chance to read a copy that you will too.
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Ginninderra Press
P.O. Box 53 Charnwood ACT 2615
www.ginninderrapress.com.au
---
A Review of About Face by Robert Edward Levin and Steve J. Weiss
If you could stroke the feelings of charity as it was hurled into the abyss
would you actually care if it were torn apart when it lodges itself out of
reach? Would you lie there listening as it slam against bone and skin? No.
That is the feeling I got when I read About Face by Robert Edward Levin and
Steve J. Weiss. About Face is just not worth the effort. Remember when I
have said that I wish more writers would collaborate? You weren't listening
were you? This is a valid attempt at capturing a scene in time that plays
out in front of family members and those streets where the flashes of light
in the window are not from the television screen. This is a story of
betrayal, abuse, and the growing and ever persistent problem of racial
temperament. To a method actor you would need to meet the person you were
portraying and get to know their way of speaking. Perhaps Mr. Levin and Mr.
Weiss know their characters well, perhaps not. I can't recommend this novel
to you, but you might recommend it to someone else. Why listen to me when
you have your own opinion?
You may acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
www.illumnia.com
---
A Review of Je Suis Cadien by Jean Arceneaux, translated by Sheryl St. Germain
Published by the incomparable Cross-Cultural Communications, this chapbook features the work of the Cajun writer, Jean Arceneaux. The essence of this book is in this passage,
Why write?
No one will read it.
You waste your time
Spitting in the wind.
Poetry's a grand thing,
Not for children
Not illiterates.
Nor the uncultured.
They have nothing to say.
And, what's worse,
Even if they did
They'd have nothing to say it in English.
But there's a change in the barn.
There is some new hay."
Haven't we all as writers felt the same way? This is just priceless writing from a section of American society that we should not only honor but also publish extensively. Travelers through Louisiana more than likely say how quaint and move on never realizing or wanting to ignore the fact that this language, and it is a language, a culture is much older, and more esteemed than they care to realize. Mr. Arceneaux, a pseudonym but nevertheless a brilliant one at that, writes,
"I find myself at the threshold of the future
feet on the ground,
warmed by the heat of the sun
that shines again between the clouds."
At the threshold is a very precise way of putting it. This writing could explode if read by a mass audience. Sheryl St. Germain writes in her Translator's Note, "To translate a poem from French into English that takes as its subject matter the near disappearance and oppression of the French language by the English language is a difficult and, perhaps, a foolish task. Nonetheless, I have attempted to do just that because I feel that among some of the people who most need to hear what Jean Arceneaux has to say are English-speaking people, including those of Cajun descent who have lost their mother language." It is my hope that through the pages of the Muse Apprentice Guild that this writing will gain an even bigger arena of readers. Librarians take note of the Cross-Cultural catalog.
The cost of this book is: $20.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Cross-Cultural Communications
239 Wynsum Avenue
Merrick, New York 11566-4725
U.S.A.
---
A Review of Equivalence by Shin Yu Pai
In my most quite moments I wish I could write this good. The writing of Shin Yu Pai is just as tender and brightly astute as the rainfall reflecting off the sun. The imagination it takes to conceive of these frail but hauntingly familiar images bring to mind a sage wandering across the screen of a documentary screened for a crowd of survivors.
From the back cover of the book:
"Drawing its name from photographer Alfred Stieglitz's series of cloud images, the poems in this collection explore connections and correspondences between poetry and the visual arts, Eastern and Western cultures, tradition and modernity, perpetual migration and the sense of home."
I think of the sobering line of Robert Creeley, "I want nothing more than home." I consider the life I have led and my striving to live in the Buddhist way. I think of the calming aura I felt about me when I first watched the film, Mindwalk. Shin Yu Pai writes in the poem, Jump;
"The true self revealed
while the mind meditates
upon the act of jumping"
At once passionate and at times weary, Equivalence heralds the warmest regards and the closeness of a lover staring lovingly through a window as they watch their loved one dream, smiling.
The cost of this book is: $14.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
La Alameda Press
9636 Guadalupe Trail NW
Albuquerque, NM 87114
---
A Review of Selected Writings by Cedar Sigo
"I refuse
To find you alone
Under falling petals"
- Cedar Sigo
To categorize a book of poetry is to advance upon a step you don't intend to make. You can say in your opinion what you think and what you believe but someone is going to have a completely different perspective. The writing of Cedar Sigo is at first an exploration into the generally accepted poetry from a writer not in the mainstream but then something happens and you find yourself in the poem, My First Sacred Music. In the poem he writes,
"She drops but one of its hairs
upon the bone floor
It begins to curl"
It's easy to see there is madness on display here and it's a madness found in the driveway of the best of homes. An actor dresses for a performance and begins with the opening line he just improvised before walking on stage. He repeats the line until the crowd heads for the door. Then he begins the play as it was written. That is the feeling you get from reading this book. You'll not get what you were expecting but if you stick around the text will entertain.
The cost of this book is: $7.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Ugly Duckling Presse Book
112 Pioneer Street
Red Hook, Brooklyn
New York, New York 11231
www.uglyducklingpresse.org
---
A Review of Short Poems, City Poems 1944-1998 by Leo Connellan
"Under the definition of patron he had written "a wretch who supports with indolence, and is paid with flattery."
- Simon Winchester, The Professor And The Madman
Leo Connellan writes us into a room where he has the keys. He writes in the poem, Closed Wake;
"My foot smacked rivers,
and I paddled canoes on pure water,
before defecating boats, until
animals would not come to drink"
Leo Connellan presents us with a body of work from years of toiling away at his art. Like a prisoner poets are, shoveling all day unmentionable indiscretions and retiring to our homes to conceive and receive the blessing of creativity. Creativity isn't always the way in which we would aspire but it does come. Richard Wilbur writes of Connellan, "Connellan's poems are vivid, harsh, spare, surely cadenced and colloquially eloquent." I wouldn't go that far in my opinion but the poetry is an entertaining read. You could do much worse I suppose; you could forge through the respective shelves of what the mainstream booksellers describe as poetry.
The cost of this book is: $10.00
You can acquire a copy of this book by contacting:
Hanover Press
P.O. BOX 596
Newton, CT 06470-0596
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