Feeding My Heart To The Wind: Selected Short Poems. 1999-2005 Michael Kriesel. $6. (http://www.sunnyoutside.com/ )


Dave McNamara, the founder of the Somerville independent press “sunnyoutside,” is not only an editor but a very serious designer of books. The look of the book is almost as important as the contents. McNamara writes of the design of “Feeding My Heart… “ The cover text was set by hand in Alternate Gothic No. 2, along with a linocut by Adrian Rodriquez…” And so on. But it’s all over my head.

However…these short poems by Kriesel are accessible, tightly written, economical and well-constructed. Kriesel, seems to have studied the short form and serves it to us on a fully fleshed plate. Here is an inspired little ditty “ Cabbage Moths.”

Walking
Past the garden

Startled
By confetti

Rising
Up


And in “American Haiku” I can’t but stop thinking about our debacle in Iraq:

Bull frogs
Stop
To ponder
That last
Cherry bomb


This is another tasty poetic morsel from the folks at “sunnyoutside”

Doug Holder/ Ibbetson Update/ Aug 2006