Front Cover for Ibbetson 31

Here is the front cover for the new issue of Ibbetson Street due out in June. The front

and back cover are by Provincetown artist Louie Doucette‏.

( Click on pic to enlarge)

Ibbetson Street 31 out in June!

                                            

                                                          IBBETSON STREET

 Ibbetson 31  should be out in June with an exclusive poetry feature and interview with Marge Piercy conducted by Emily Pineau. Lawrence Kessenich, our managing editor and a former editor with Houghton Mifflin, has an essay on Anne Sexton, and of  course we have a wonderful lineup of poets. Look for us at Porter Square Books, Harvard Bookstore, and the Grolier Poetry Bookshop, as well as online. 


**** Ibbetson Street is affiliated with Endicott College in Beverly, Mass.  http://endicott.edu/

Best--Doug Holder/Ibbetson Street Press     http://ibbetsonpress.com

***All Ibbetson Books and Journals can be purchased online at  http://lulu.com/ibbetsonpress   and through the publisher directly.

Ibbetson Street Press
25 School St.
Somerville, Mass.
02143

Ibbetson 31 Contributors

Kathleen Aguero

Prema Bangera

Jennifer Barber

Barbara Bialick

Abigail Bottome

Dorian Brooks

Jessie Brown

Jeanne Cariati

Mia Cartmill 

Laura Cherry

Martha Christiana

Charles Coe

Sam Cornish

Krikor Der Hohannesian

Diana Der Hovanessian

Richard Dinges, Jr.

Clifford Paul Fetters

John Flynn

Freddy Frankel

Ed Galing      

Harris Gardner

Danielle Georges                      

Patricia L. Hamilton

John Hodgen

Robert K. Johnson

Lawrence Kessenich

Miriam Levine

Lyn Lifshin

Marie-Elizabeth Mali

.J W. Major

Jennifer Matthews

Bernadette McBride

Triona McMorrow

Julian A. Miller

Gloria Mindock                          

Thomas O’Leary

January O’Neil

Mark Pawlak

Ralph Pennel

Marilène Phipps-Kettlewell

Marge Piercy

Emily Pineau

Dennis Rhodes

Margaret A. Robinson 

Russell Rowland

Rene Schwiesow

Lainie Senechal


Zvi A. Sesling

Branton Shearer

Wendell Smith

Manson Solomon

Laurie Soriano

Kathleen Spivack

Bert Stern 

Kim Triedman

Sheila Mullen Twyman

Susan C. Waters   

Alice Weiss

Allen C. West

Richard Wilhelm

Shifting Gears Remembering Miles by K. Peddlar Bridges aka…The Roadpoet

Shifting Gears

Remembering Miles

by K. Peddlar Bridges aka…The Roadpoet

Column Shifts Press

Softbound, 165 pages, $16.95

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Can a biker write?  K. Peddlar Bridges, aka The Roadpoet, sure can. He pours memories and dreams into a cauldron, stirs with a big wooden spoon  (or is it an old floor shift) and serves up some wonderful writing, an eclectic mix of poetry, reminisces, stories and photographs, mostly of old (antique?) cars. And I’m into the car thing because I too have always loved the cars of the 1950s and ‘60s. Even a few in the following decades. I’ve owned a 1955 Mercury, 1962 Impala, 1965 Comet, 1968 Mustang, 1971 Monte Carlo and a super hot 1988 Olds Cutlass Calais Quad 4, FE3. Even the Caddy CTS was quick car.  Anyway, this is about Bikerpoet and his book, so let’s get to it. One of my favorite pieces in this volume is Old White Station Wagon:

OLD WHITE STATION WAGON

OLD WHITE STATION WAGON –

with tired by faithful engine

resting beneath

a rusted pitted hood.

OLD WHITE STATION WAGON –

with an odometer that lies

and with foot worn pedals

that betray your age.

OLD WHITE STATION WAGON –

with ripped and torn seat covers

that tell the tales of the burdens

of your years.

OLD WHITE STATION WAGON –

like an old dog lost control of itself,

hissing radiator, dripping old pan,

seeping transmission case,

always an aggravating trail left

behind

The stories are a bit long to reprint in this review, but suffice it to say that they are well worth the read. I especially like the commentary on the ‘50s cars. When reading Shifting Gears I will make three promises: 1. you will enjoy the poetry and stories, 2. you will be transported back to yesteryear and the cars that legends are made of and 3. you will want to reread the book.  I can also promise you will learn some automotive history in the process.

And finally, some words about K. Peddlar Bridges. The book says he is a Bikerpoet, writer and former Connecticut Bike Week and Super Sunday Expo (R) Poet Laureate.

He has also been a columnist and senior columnist for the Connecticut Cruise News, Motorcyclegoodies.com, The Motorcyclists’Post and The Chop-Shop Custom News Letter. In addition he has been published in numerous publication.  Although the book I received to review is an Editor’s manuscript copy, I would venture that there will be very few changes and for anyone who even remotely likes autos, Shifting Gears, Remembering Miles is a book well worth a read. It does what pop car magazine cannot do, it brings nostalgia and first person love of autos to its pages.

_____________________________________

Zvi A. Sesling is author of King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street, 2010), Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva, 2011) and the soon to be published Fire Tongue (Cervena Barva). He is Editor of Muddy River Poetry Review and Bagel Bards Anthology #7.

Just Beautiful by Tim Suermondt

Just Beautiful

by Tim Suermondt

NYQ Books

New York, NY

Softbound, 105 pages, $14.95

Review by Zvi A. Sesling

Bittersweet humor should be kept in a poet’s back pocket or purse and pulled out whenever necessary. In this new volume of Tim Suermondt’s poetry there is the bittersweet and the humor and sometimes a combination of both. Take for example

the following poem.

Winning the Pulitzer

Don’t laugh.

I have the chops.

I have the poems.

If I can outlast

the academic mumbo jumbo

I’ll have a legitimate shot,

a puncher’s chance.

At the awards ceremony

I’ll thank everyone

who helped me, give the Bronx cheer

to everyone who never did

and return to my study to write the next poem

like I always have and wanted to

oh those many years in the wilderness.

As you read his poems you might think, “Light, fluffy.”  But a second reading reveals a deeper context to the poems that deal with everyday life, jealousy, love, fame, and almost always, humor. 

Looking Forward Boldly

Almost all my friends

have become blackbirds.

            --Eugen Jebeleanu

A few will become hawks and eagles –

the one who owes me money will become

a buzzard if he doesn’t pay—standard

punishment. I expect my wife and I will

become kingfishers, diving I the deep waters,

we and hungry every day, pecking ourselves

clean on the most beautiful beaches.

The three parts of the book you can see Suermondt moving, that is, motion is as important as humor and beauty.  And that is what Just Beautiful is really about: the everyday beauty of life, of people, of living. But what I like most is his easy slide-it-in-there sense of humor that leaves you saying to yourself, “Oh, that’s good.”   Perhaps you have a silent chuckle, reread the poem and move on. That is what it is all about, past, present and future and the final poem, The Present and the Future, tells you what you have thinking all along.

 Suermondt has published two chapbooks and with this volume, two full length collections of poems.  He has been published in numerous magazines and journals, as well as online. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, poet Pui Ying Wong.

_____________________________________

Zvi A. Sesling is author of King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street, 2010), Across Stones of Bad Dreams (Cervena Barva, 2011) and the soon to be published Fire Tongue (Cervena Barva). He is Editor of Muddy River Poetry Review and Bagel Bards Anthology #7.