Seasons of Defiance by Lance Lee

Book Review: Seasons of Defiance by Lance Lee (2010); Birch Brook Press

Review by Reza Tokaloo



In his second book published by Birch Brook Press, Seasons of Defiance, Lance Lee offers another collection of nature based poetry. Vivid images of nature exchange metaphors with memories of his travels, family life, and his youth. The chaotic beauty of nature repeats throughout the collection in: lightning, thunder, from tumultuous seasons to calm scenes; dunes, beach sands, bending trees, and rivers. Animals play an essential role in creating imagery as well: ravens (“Les Corbeaux des Bonnieux”), horseshoe crabs (such as the one pictured on the books cover; rendered nicely in pen and ink), cardinals, and swooping and soaring sea birds. Mr. Lee carefully and eloquently uses this geography (flora and fauna) and documents their value in his examinations and travels through life.

There are signs within some of the poetry of familiar disruptions crackling and booming like the storms in nature we all have to endure. Nature’s storms and the storms of our personal lives as necessary evils which have to face: dissolving of a family, hardships, and loss.

In the poem “William James to a Friend in Trinity Church, Boston,” we get a decidedly New England feel from Mr. Lee as he attests to the Boston summer with the line, it is “better to fan myself in Boston’s humid air.” A clever metaphor is also (potentially?) slipped in to his poem “Mining Cornwall” as an ode to British literary history through “lanes that twist and leap” (a reference to Tristan’s Leap and the Cornish legend of Tristan?). I found this to be very clever if so.

In summation I found this recent collection by Lance Lee to be a very easy read. The poetry is written in a consistently steady form using great visual language. My only issue with this book is in its title. After reading the collection carefully, I was wondering where the Defiance was? Save for a poem about war and another entitled “Killer Bees” (a morbid piece and hardly a glowing review for these buggers by the author), much of the book is dedicated to his travels through various landscapes and memories. The passage of seasons mirrors the passage of time with reminders of life and death.

Poet Melissa Guillet: Poetry and Art Come Into Play

Melissa Guillet writes on her website:

"I have performed my work at libraries, coffee houses, and bars across the U.S. and Canada. I feel poetry should work on the page and aloud, and would describe it as narrative and often lyric. I have appeared on "Places", Youtube, CCTV, and other local access cable shows. My work has appeared or is forthcoming in Appleseeds, Ballard Street, Bloodroot Literary Magazine, Caduceus, The Cherry Blossom Review, GBSPA’s City Lights, Cyclamen & Sword, Dos Passos Review, Fearless Books, Imitation Fruit (winning poem), Lalitamba, Language and Culture, Lavanderia, Look! Up in the Sky!, New Muse, Nth Position, Public Republic, Sangam, Scrivener’s Pen, Seven Circle Press, Women. Period., six Poets’ Asylum anthologies, and several chapbooks. I am the chief editor and founder of Sacred Fools Press, which has produced three anthologies. I teach Interdisciplinary Arts in Rhode Island."

I talked with her on my Somerville Community Access TV show " Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer"

Doug Holder: You write that a poem should work aloud and on the page. Could a great poem on the page translate badly on the stage?

Melissa Guillet: Sometimes if you are doing a play on words or a pun--you might not get that hearing it. But I like my poems to be very lyrical, so I am always looking at sound. So the only way for me to be better is to read it out loud. When you hear it you get so much more out of it. When you read it sometimes you get something else. Sometimes you can only get the full meaning of a poem by reading it several times. But you also want it to be accessible so that is speaks to many people.

DH: You are the editor and founder of the Sacred Fools Press. Is a Sacred Fool the same as a Holy Fool?

MG: The title or name was inspired by a friend of mine Tony Brown. He used to host a poetry venue in which each month there was a different theme. One month it was the Sacred Fool. I thought that was an interesting concept. Sacred Fools break the rules; they make us look at each other and society; they makes us laugh or leave us aggravated. I used a logo for our press reminiscent of Don Quixote.

Our first anthology was about comic books. Everything to Peanuts to Superheros. Our next issue was Americana. I picked poems from the last fifty years of American history. And I called that "Appleseeds." That got me very interested in how society has changed in the past 50 years. We have come out of the Industrial revolution and have gone into consumerism. We are now in the consumer and computer era. Our new collection "Feast of Fools" deals with the clowns, the tricksters, etc... who break the laws, the rules--we either laugh and enjoy them or they annoy us. But they provide a mirror for society.

DH: How did the press start?

MG: I wanted to publish people both well-known and unknown-- I just wanted to get the work out there--I wanted to make people think about a certain theme,and open their minds to it. The first edition was collaborative, the second and third editions I did on my own.

DH: You teach interdisciplinary art in Rhode Island. What exactly is this course of study?

MG: The national standard of education rules have a number of guidelines. One is to integrate the arts with other subjects. This is what I felt drawn to and this what I did my Master's thesis on. I worked with other teachers and developed a textbook so they could learn about the arts through other subjects.

DH: How did you start out in the poetry scene?

MG: I started with open mics in Providence. I then became involved with the SLAM. I helped organize events--and one thing lead to the other.

DH You are an artist as well. Your work seems to be nature-based and abstract. How does this fit in with your writing?

MG: It fits because I feel that people interact with nature whether they know it or not. I recently did a series of prints that had bones weaved with trees. I am also an avid gardener. So poetry nature, and my art mix very well for me.


Aubade


There was no need

for Phoebus

to whisper in my ear when

the lark would do,

or the alarm, your way

of sighing as you turned,

the loudness of my dreams.


Rising, Phoebus wags his finger,

scolding our denial,

yet hopeful as a dog

sooner aware of day.


The dishes done,

the kids away,

our only charge was

to keep the sheets warm.


Nothing was to be done today.

We could just miss it entirely,

“X” it out on the calendar.


I reach for you blindly,

curled up and squinting.

The day has not begun yet.

We have all day to rise.



Sankofa


Sankofa:

Was that the metaphor looked for?

Almost a heart, divided

into two selves, medicinal snakes

spiraling in on themselves

for self-knowledge.


Then the triple-base, the three sides

to the story. The two facing snakes

that speak to each other

across the past.


High school was over,

and who would want to go back?

But in our busy, self-recoiling lives

the third wheel turns us back

and an internet spot pages old friends.


Cut off, your arm grew into its own

starfish, and you find, out

of that tiny sea, your friend

has become a starfish too.


You needed a Beowulf to slice off your arms,

to be faceless and bodiless and reach

past what everyone else had known,

only to grow everything back and reclaim

an identity to call your own.


In excavation, old photos define us,

yet we deny how we were.

We were never perfect.

We return to the source to fetch

the threads of our cocoons,

the molted shells of goofy haircuts

and all-important cliques.


High school was as far away as Africa,

as close as keys under your fingers.

Doors were closed on that life’s chapter,

but windows were open.


Friend, each of us is five parts of ourselves:

Future, Past, Present, Private, Public,

seeking same. Classified

by who we were, who we are, who we want to be.


Turn and take the egg off your back.

Neither one came first

when one needs the other to exist,

to exist one needs the other.

Review of two for a journey by Carol Frith

Review of two for a journey by Carol Frith, David Robert Books, Cincinnati, Ohio, 95 pages, $18, 2010

By Barbara Bialick

I first reviewed Carol Frith for her chapbook Looking for Montrose Street in 2009. I called it “a good and powerful little book”—This full-length collection is not only good, great and powerful, but highly ambitious with it’s mixture of deep, image-packed lyrical lines of free verse about her “journey” through life with her husband, poet Laverne Frith, and its amazing set of 15 sonnets interwoven together in “The Neighbor’s Rose.” There are other formal poems as well. However I have to admit I was frustrated toward the end of the book when she presented more sonnets and more sonnets. These weren’t as masterfully woven into the marital love story and should have been left out in my opinion. Too structured for the the “two-getherness” of the rest of the book, and dull in comparison.

I’ll just give some examples of good poetry… “It is morning. The wind is gone. Pink sailboats/flutter on the blue bay. There are wrecks/everywhere, you tell me, submerged and dangerous/I am confused by the flickering pink scribbled/in the sky and water: Little candles of paint…”

Or, “All day tomorrow, on a narrow path/near water, you will button/and unbutton your shirt, bringing/full sentences outside into/the air…”

And this lovely line: “We live inside of each other’s closed eyes.”

It is difficult to just pick a quote from the sonnets called “The Neighbor’s Rose.” Everything is interconnected: “the air begins to seethe inside the room…”. On the other hand, perhaps she caged the couple into this intense structure just when they were having marital structure problems. Between the “formal” and the “free” works in this book, I think a lot of poets would do well to read what Frith is doing. It is interesting and fresh.

Carol and Lavern Frith live in Sacramento, California where they edit the journal Ekphrasis, which publishes poems addressing works of art. Clearly someone would do well to write a poem about the work of art called two for a journey…

Nick Jehlen and The Davis Square Tiles Project

Nick Jehlen and The Davis Square Tiles Project

By Doug Holder

Nick Jehlen is a dyed–in-the-wool Somervillian. His mother is Pat Jehlen the state senator. He grew up here, graduated Somerville High, Tufts University, and currently lives in the Davis Square section of Somerville. He works as a graphic designer for a number of non-profits in the area.

Jehlen and Katie Hargrove, along with the collaboration of two social action consulting agencies: “The Action Mile” and “The Think Tank that is yet to be named” have developed: “The Davis Square Tile Project”.

According to the history provided on the project’s website:

“During the 1978-79 school year, Jackson Gregory and Joan Wye of the Belfast Bay Tile Works worked with children aged five to thirteen at Somerville's Powderhouse Community School to create 249 tiles that were later installed in the Davis Square T stop. These tiles, part of the Arts on the Line program that placed art in and around MBTA stations, present a unique opportunity to look back at how Somerville has changed since the opening of the Red Line extension in 1984.”

Jehlen feels that these small, square bursts of art can act as a catalyst for conversations about where the city was in 1984 when the Davis Square T Stop opened, to where it is now, and to where it will be with the new Green Line extension in Union Square.

Jehlen told me that he has mixed feelings about the Davis Square T. On one hand the new T stop revitalized a stagnant square, on the other it displaced a large community of folks who could no longer afford to live there. Jehlen bemoaned the fact that many of his contemporaries who produced these tiles cannot afford to live in Somerville now.

Jehlen and his band of cohorts, as well as interested volunteers, are collecting stories and anecdotes from the creators of these tiles. A few still live in Somerville, but most, like flighty spores are spread all around the country. By capturing their stories Jehlen hopes people will better understand the history of Somerville.

Jehlen said there will be a number of exhibits of the tiles around town:

“There will be an opening reception for the tiles at Diesel Cafe on
Friday, April 16th at 6pm. Diesel is hosting about 20 of the tiles,
and there will also be on display at Johnny D's, Redbones, Sessa's
Italian Specialties, Magpie, and Downtown Wine and Spirits starting
this week of April 4, 2010. The tiles will be on display until May 23rd.”

The tiles are depictions of things you might expect from kids. There are pictures of their homes, creature features of dinosaurs and such, and even renditions of science experiments, to name just a few themes.

Jehlen told me a poignant story about one of the tile makers Brian Davidson. Davidson was a student at the Powder House School and he made these wonderful and detailed models of buses, trains and train stations. He died at the tender age of 31 at the Alewife T station from a heart attack. His teachers wrote Jehlen to tell his story.

Jehlen, 38, said even though he has lived in places like Madison, Wisconsin, he has kept a well-heeled foot in Somerville. He said Somerville feels like, well, home. He concluded: “The pastures are not greener elsewhere.”

King of the Jungle. By Zvi A. Sesling 2010 review by Hugh Fox

King of the Jungle. By Zvi A. Sesling 2010; 73pp; Ibbetson Street Press,25 School Street, Somerville, MA02143.$15.00.


Low-key, meditative, deep insights, accessible,personal, revelatory, as you’re reading through King of the Jungle you are brought very intimately into Sesling’s inner world: “I am sitting in my old rocking chair/on my lap is a solid book, thick with words...//the moon is scimitar shaped//offering little light, just a big grin in the gaping mouth of the night sky...//I sit in the rocker and watch he imperceptible movement toward darkness//or light wndering if we or some other civilization has made a base by which/the evenual control of the Earth becomes a reality rather and the material of//science fiction.” (“Moonlight,” p.6)


Everyday beginnings that slowly turn into bibliophilic musings about ultimate realities, a strange combination of Low Key and Ultimate Key, a strong sense of aloneness that triggers deep musings on historical-philosophical realities: “Morning consists of lying in bed/with talk radio...//Weekends in bed with talk radio/listen, listen//No one to talk to.” (“As Good as Dead,” p.50).


A very satisfying combination of the everyday and historical here: “The dust of bones has mingled with/Sand, and the wind whistles a funereal/March of the ancients who rise from/Graves to tell their lives...//king and slave/Equal in a future neither would have dreamed.” (“Archaeology,” p.51).Playing with irony, ultimately Sesling is both a personal story-teller and a prophet who sees his own life/world in the context of all-time and all-place.

SOMERVILLE POET JADE SYLVAN: BRINGS NEW HOPE TO “BOOKS OF HOPE”

SOMERVILLE POET JADE SYLVAN: BRINGS NEW HOPE TO “BOOKS OF HOPE”

I have known poet Jade Sylvan casually over the years. I had the good fortune to publish her poetry in “Ibbetson Street” and the ” Lyrical Somerville” in The Somerville News. She is a dynamic reader and an arresting presence on stage. I have seen her strut her poetic stuff at Stone Soup Poetry at the Out of the Blue Gallery in Cambridge, and other venues. I have also followed her blog “The Broken Watch”, which traces the life of this young, "boheme" artist, as she makes her way in our city.

Sylvan, 27, (who has a new book of poetry out “The Spark Singer,”) is a corn-fed Midwesterner, but for the past three years she has lived in the Allston section of Boston, (which she said she outgrew), and most recently in Union Square and Davis Square in our beloved burg. She is a patron and a performer at many venues in Somerville, including the P.A Lounge., The Burren, Bloc 11, to name just a few. She finds that Somerville with its rich mother lode of artists feeds her creative fire.

Sylvan recently emailed me to tell me she has landed a plum job with Somerville’s “Book of Hope” program. The “ Books of Hope” project is a joint operation of the Somerville Arts Council and the Mystic Learning Center (Housed at the Mystic River Housing Project) The program was started in 1999 by Anika Nailah, who I had the privilege to interview on my Somerville Community Access TV show “Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.” Its mission is to allow young people to be involved in the writing, publishing, and marketing of their own books. They also have readings in area venues, and Sylvan and BOH have plans to expand that component. The current director Soul Brown writes of the organization:

“BOH has experienced an expansion this year with more youth involved. At one point the program peaked at 18 teens, ranging from high school freshman to college sophomores, representing Somerville and the neighboring communities of Medford, Malden and Everett.”

Sylvan told me over coffee at the Bloc 11 Café in Union Square that the kids in the program will be participating in a book tour starting May 13, at the main Branch of The Somerville Public Library. Brown and Sylvan have ambitions to have the BOH known statewide and nationally. The reading tour will take their young charges from Porter Square Books in Cambridge, to Providence, Rhode Island and as far away as Manchester, New Hampshire.

Sylvan told me that many of these young bards she works with are dealing with many issues that affect urban youth. Their poetry reflects their hardscrabble environs, but also more traditional teenage concerns: popularity, love, music, etc…

Sylvan has experience with adolescents, and brings empathy and creativity to the table.

Sylvan flashed a smile when I asked her if she plans to stay in Somerville, stating “As long as I am in Boston, I’m happy on this side.” Well, it’s good to have her on our side!

*************************************************************************************
For more info on Books of Hope or to make a donation go to: http://www.somervilleartscouncil.org/programs/artwow/booksofhope/

For more info on Jade go to http://jadesylvan.com

*************************************************************************************
Books of Hope
Book Tour 2010 Dates

Thursday, May 13 6:00 pm
Somerville Library (main)
Tour Kick Off / Release Party
Featuring BOH Founder & Author Anika Nailah,
Bestselling BOH Author RJL & BOH Alum

Thursday, May 20 7:00 pm
Art Is Life Itself
Haley House Bakery Café (Roxbury)
Reading & Book Signing
Hosted by Nina LaNegra
http://www.haleyhouse.org

Friday, May 21 0:00 pm
More Than Words Bookstore (Waltham)
Reading & Book Signing
Youth-run bookstore

Saturday, June 5 6:00 pm
Porter Square Books (Cambridge)
Reading & Book Signing

Tuesday, June 8 0:00 pm
Got Poetry Live (Providence RI)
Reading & Book Signing

Friday, June 11 7:00 pm
Slam Free or Die (Manchester NH)
Reading & Book Signing

Monday, June 21 0:00 pm
Stone Soup Poetry
Out of the Blue Cafe (Cambridge)
Reading & Book Signing

Review of KING OF THE JUNGLE by Zvi A. Sesling

Review of KING OF THE JUNGLE by Zvi A. Sesling, Ibbetson Street Press, Somerville, Massachusetts, 2010, 73 pages, $15

By Barbara Bialick

KING OF THE JUNGLE may be a first book, but it doesn’t read like one. It’s a book by an experienced, professional writer who’s got his own voice speaking out in every poem, and he should be considered worth reading by both small press fans and the mainstream. This may be because he got his first kiss in Youngstown, Ohio, which reminded him of a sweaty afternoon watching the Indians play baseball…but he didn’t stop there. “In the human species looks, money/and sometimes personality could get/a female to lay on her back, spread/her legs and say Enter my jungle/And what a jungle! The vines wrap/around you, the lions roar…”

He doesn’t stop there. He also reminds us of the Viet Nam War jungle, and about Jews forced to wear yellow stars in Hitler’s Germany. He keeps hinting at desert sands he doesn’t name, but he seems to describe Jewish immigrants who not only came to the U.S, but went to Israel.

Even the book itself is on slippery sensual paper including the cover, which features an original art work by Irene Koronas, artist and also poetry editor of the Wilderness House Literary Review. The picture makes me think of Sesling’s “word sheets hanging out to dry” or again, the desert sands of his poem “Pyramid”: “There among the flat sands/the color of a cat/the grey pyramid arises/…built by slaves forgotten/…crushed Hebrew bones…”

Before I even read the book I was intrigued with the word “jungle” on the cover and who could be king of it. I created a little word game: J for Jewish, U for universe or university, N for nazis, G for God or girls, L for life or life force, and E for earth. But he mentions neither university nor God in this book, except perhaps subtly as a lightening bolt that splits in halves the fruit tree “where a man and woman, naked, eat the fruit of the tree…”

Sesling’s poetry has been published widely. His work placed Third in the 2004 and First in the 2007 Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition. He’s also the editor of the Muddy River Poetry Review. There’s an intriguing introduction to the book by Boston Poet Laureate Sam Cornish, which declares Sesling “a buttoned-down Bukowski—direct, honest, male writing…” Who wouldn’t want to check this book out!

Phil Hasouris: A Poet whose balm is the written word.

Phil Hasouris: A Poet whose balm is the written word.

Like many people Phil Hasouris was a closet poet. Literally, stacks of his notebooks were packed in closets, draws, in the recesses of his fertile imagination. But Hasouris took it one step beyond. He started reading his poetry in public. And God darn it…people really started to listen! Since then he has been featured at many local and national venues. He was the founder of the performance group’ Spirituous”, which combined poetry, music and movement. He is also the founder of the Brockton Poetry Series, among other accomplishments. In 2007 his wife Linda suffered an anoxic brain injury which lead to his acclaimed book of poetry “Blow Out the Moon.” I talked with Hasoruis on my Somerville Community Access TV show “ Poet to Poet: Writer to Writer.”

Doug Holder: Phil it is evident you like to have poetry programs that are more than a poet getting up there and reading from his work.

Phil Hasouris: Poetry is expression. If you look at poets—no matter what language—their body language is very telling. Cambridge Populist Poet Jean-Dany-Joachim’s native language is not English. When he reads in English his body language is still; but when he reads in his native tongue his body rises and there is a smile on his face. Poetry to me is more than standing behind a podium, or just reading poetry.

DH: You are the founder of the Brockton Poetry Series. How did it start?

PH: I had been to many venues. Brockton was getting a pretty bad name. People would ask me: “Anybody killed lately? I would reply: “Not today.” So I wanted Brockton to get some recognition…positive recognition that is. I went to the Director of the Brockton Public Library and told her that I wanted to start a series. I wanted a poetry venue that paid the poets, and would not charge admission. I wanted it to provide refreshments and conversation. This was all done through the library. Eventually the series went into non-profit status—and they do their own thing now. I started it and it was my conception.

DH: Your poetry collection “Blow Out the Moon” deals with your wife’s catastrophic brain injury and subsequent death. Was the book a catharsis for you? Does pain bring out the best poetry?

PH: I don’t know if it is pain but whatever you hold in becomes toxic. One of the statistics I found through the Brain Injury Association—was that 40% of people caring for a loved one become sick themselves. This is through sleep deprivation, not taking care of themselves, etc… To me the book was a way of getting the toxicity out. I could express it through poetry. Right now I am in the process of running some workshops for the Brain Injury Association. What I tell people that attend is that you have to express yourself. Whether through writing or painting…it has to come out some way. I call writing poetry a “gift”

DH: When did you come out of the closet as a poet?

PH: I started reading in the 90’s. I was writing way before that. When I started I mumbled and fumbled—went through that stage. I became a slam poet on the Brockton Slam Team. I went to the nationals in Austin, Texas. My wife became ill, so I dropped out for a while.

DH: What poets are your influences?

PH: Charles Bukowski, Shel Silverstien, and songwriters like: Warren Zevon, Paul Simon. Never studied poetry in school—came to it on my own.

DH: In your poem “ Life Expectancy” you talk with your dead wife—in your mind. Will this be a recurrent theme in your work—of a dialogues with a ghost so to speak.

PH: Absolutely. Right now I am writing a series of poems titled” Poems from the Aftermath.” “Life Expectancy” was written before my wife became ill.

DH: Was your wife a poet?
PH: No but she had an interest in me, and so had an interest in my poetry.

DH: You are running workshops for the Brain Injury Association, right?

PH: Yes. I have nee invited to speak at the Brain Injury Association on the Cape. I have run caretaker workshops, and survivor support groups. I would like to expand on this.

For more info: hasouris.homestead.com/Home.html
*************************************************************************************


Life expectancy



Why did you call.
I needed to hear your sound.

In this moment of my existence
I sought familiarity
in this mind maze
ebb and flow of past, future
I desired your presence.

If you blow into the trunk of an elephant
it will never forget your scent,
in this intimate interaction
karma is forever joined,
and when one passes the other will grieve
trumpeting sorrow.

Life expectancy of an elephant, 70 years.

How long has it been since I’ve told you…
A few weeks, couple of months.

A blank stare, our lives splinter,
melt, spill into cracks
listen to voices inside
discard them at the push, pull of time
we hesitate, our true falling,
our words strain against empty air
and I’ve been meaning to tell you
I remember, our eyes
holding secrets,
we rush off
brush against each other
our lips flat
these predictable kisses
these monotone promises
“I love you”
“Love you too”
now we dance like ghosts,
In our separate ways
we came together
in our time together
we went our separate ways
push against empty air.

Pygmy goby fish are born,
struggle to survive, mature, mate,
lay their eggs defend their young, die,
full life
life fulfilled.

Life expectancy of pygmy goby fish,
a few weeks, couple of months.

What are you thinking.
Nothing.
Wait…
That’s not true,
why do candy bars always look bigger in vending machines.

Behind the glass we anticipate
eyes magnified
we pursue, stop at each slotted prize
consider, yank on lever
wait for tumble
wrap hands around.

j.g.h. moore wrote “Our walls were up and we knew it”
David R Surette wrote “Never miss anything, ever”
so where are we in between these lines
these walls and never miss
these pencil scratches that score our human frailty,
life expectancy of human frailty
unknown.

Are you there.
Yes, I was just thinking.

Zvi A. Sesling’s Poems King of the Jungle (Ibbetson Street Press)

Zvi A. Sesling’s Poems King of the Jungle
Published by Ibbetson St. Press


Brookline, MA poet Zvi A. Sesling’s debut book King of the Jungle has been released by Ibbetson St. Press. Doug Holder, publisher of Ibbetson St. said, “We are excited about this volume of poetry because it reveals the breadth of Sesling’s poetic abilities.”

Sesling, who has been published in more than 100 poetry journals, was cited as a “button down Bukowski” by Boston’s first Poet Laureate Sam Cornish in his introduction to the book. Cornish also notes, “As the title suggest, the writing is ironic and opinionated; therefore fresh and unpredictable.”

As the titles to the sections of the book hint, the variety of the poetry ranges from humorous to serious to macabre. He reflects on subjects such as what Louis XVI was thinking before his beheading, what people see in a mirror, a thought about composer Erik Satie’s sheets, to a poem based on a fortune in a Chinese fortune cookie.

He also remembers first kisses, first girlfriends and sex, as well as the agony of relationships gone awry. Sesling’s humor and seriousness are found throughout the books 64 poems, as are his thoughts on the war, the Holocaust and Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C.

His poems reflect his keen observations of people and relationships, as well as the joys and fears of life.

Sesling was awarded First Prize in the Reuben Rose International Poetry Competition and Third Place in 2004. In 2008 Sam Cornish selected him as New England/Pen’s “Discovery” reader. His chapbook, Across Stones of Bad Dreams will be published in 2010 by Cervena Barva Press.

Sesling resides in Brookline, MA where he lives with his wife Susan J. Dechter, Sesling holds a B.S. in Journalism from Boston University and a J.D. from Suffolk University. He has taught at Suffolk University, Emerson College and Boston University.


To order King of the Jungle go to: http://tinyurl.com/ygw83s3

Or Contact:

Ibbetson Street Press
25 School St.
Somerville, Ma.
02143
617-628-2313

Ploughshares Spring 2010 Reading Series (April 15).

Ploughshares and Emerson College welcome you to the Spring 2010 Reading Series (April 15, 2010)featuring Elizabeth Strout, guest editor of the Spring 2010 issue. There will be an open Q+A at 4pm, followed by an exclusive RSVP-only reading at 6pm.


Elizabeth Strout’s most recent work, Olive Kitteridge, won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize. She is the author of two previous novels, Abide With Me, and Amy and Isabelle, both New York Times bestsellers. She has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, the Orange Prize, and National Book Critics Circle Award. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Redbook, and various other publications. Born and raised in New England, Strout now teaches in a low-residency writing program at Queens University, Charlotte, N.C.

We're excited to hold this event in the newly remodeled Paramount Theatre, located at 559 Washington St. The nearest T stops are Downtown Crossing (Red and Orange Lines) and Boylston (Green Line). Parking is available at the Boston Common Garage on Charles Street between Boylston and Beacon Streets.




We hope to see you there!



The Ploughshares Staff

The Cambridge Populist Poetry Festival Sunday April 18th , 2010 12PM to 5:30PM

(Cambridge Populist Poet--Jean-Dany Joachim)


Poetry Festival

Sunday, April 18, 12 noon to 5 p.m.
Jill Brown-Rhone Park (formerly Lafayette Plaza)
across from Luna Café (403 Mass. Ave.) in Central Square

In celebration of National Poetry Month, Poet Populist Jean-Dany Joachim curates the 2010 Cambridge Poetry Festival. This FREE community event brings together professional and novice poets, writers, performers, and singer/songwriter musicians to share their work via an open-mic format. The festival offers to all attendees professional development "mini-workshops" on editing and presenting as well as an opportunity to connect with local bookstores, publishing companies and poetry groups. To learn more or to participate, e-mail poetpopulist@cambridgema.gov or call the Cambridge Arts Council at 617-349-4380.


1 12 - 1:00

Fred Marchant
Hannah Baker-Siroty
Luke Salisbury
Chris Brandt
Philip Burnham
Isabella Ruggerio Dumond
Gayle Roby

2 1:00 - 2:00

Mary Bodwell
Clara Guila Kessous
Peter Payack
Thomas Spear
Marilene Phipps-Kettlewell
Tehila Lieberman
Molly Lynn Watt

3 2:00 - 3:00

Doug Holder
Charles Coe
Lo Gallucio
Alan Soto Smith
Marcia Ross
Charlot Lucien
Danielle Georges


4 3:00 - 4:00

Gifrantz
Phillips Hassouris
Patrick Sylvain
Enzo Surin
Toni Bee
Liam Bodwell
Tontongi

5 4:00 - 5:300

Juan Cassillas
Giancarlo Buscaglia
Kristophe Diaz
Amy Grunder
Larry Stich
René Rodriguez Soriano
Leonardo Lin
Fred Brown
Dominique Batraville
Duckens Charitable

--
Life is Good!

Women Musicians Network 13th Annual Concert at the Berklee Performance Center March 4, 2010

Women Musicians Network 13th Annual Concert
at the Berklee Performance Center
March 4, 2010

Directed by Lucy Holstedt & Christiane Karam

By Reza Tokaloo


As a drummer and a music fan, I have been looking forward to this evening—and writing about it. I arrive at the event at 8:00 pm, 15 minutes before the opening act. My wife and I find two seats in the rapidly filling BPC. Looking around as the starting time approaches, the venue appears close to sold out.

At 8:15 Lucy Holstedt—our main emcee for the evening—walks onto the stage, along with fellow Berklee faculty member Christine Karam and student leader Arielle Schwalm. Lucy welcomes the audience, gives a brief overview of the W.M.N. group, and then the concert is off to a rousing start with a vibrant Brazilian act. Vocalist Tais Alvarenga and her Samba band have a hip-swaying intensity that fills the performance center.

This is just the first of 12 acts. Lucy Holstedt explained to me several days before that the W.M.N. “listening committee” received over 120 submissions last fall; this meant a long weekend of deciding which dozen would create the best, most diverse musical “set.” (Space constraints will prevent me from commenting on all the acts, but every one was first-rate—as evidenced by the applause that erupted frequently from the audience.)

Pianist Sonia Belousova, from St. Petersburg, Russia, is one of the crowd’s favorites. Her original “contemporary classical” piece Humouresque is an amazing demonstration of creativity, fun, passion and solo technical virtuosity.

Soon after, a rousing performance is turned in by Nadia Washington and her all-male band. Nadia mesmerizes the crowd with her composition When You Fall. Nadia’s silky voice has an amazing range. And what a great improvised segment between Nadia and her drummer! Great scat-vocalizing and stage presence make for a powerful song, and an equally strong crowd response.

Hanna Barakat’s Cycle takes us on a multi-faceted journey through her Lebanese identity, exploring both inner (personal) and outer (regional, Israeli-Palestinian) motifs in a piece that combines Middle Eastern rhythms and modern rock. Hanna’s group includes oud and quanun players, plus two backup singers. There is a strong peace message.

As the next act prepares to take the stage, Lucy announces that a special award is being given to Nabil and Joseph Sater, the “creative visionaries” responsible for the famous Middle East restaurants and nightclubs in Cambridge, as well as the extensive Center for Arts at the Armory, in Somerville.

A quick note on the history and mission of the W.M.N.: this student group, co-founded by Lucy Holstedt (also its faculty advisor) was created in response to a request by female students: as a minority at Berklee College of Music, they wanted a greater opportunity to perform. As the percentage of female students has increased, this annual concert has expanded to include a significant number of male performers. Still, the focus is on Berklee women—as composers, band leaders, bass players, lead guitarists, producers, and in other roles more often associated with men.

You don’t see lots of female drummers, for example, but Ayeisha Mathis is tremendous. I enjoy watching her as part of a group from City Music, the Berklee music education program that gives opportunities to public school students in the city. The group, Voices of Mercy, performs a gospel/spoken word piece inspired by the situation in Darfur (Sudan).

Another unique treat is the duo of Julgi Kang (violin) and Evan Veenstra (electric bass). Julgi and Evan playfully converse musically in the aptly titled Funky Caprice No. 24, Ms. Kang’s arrangement of a work by Paganini. Julgi’s violin takes on the serious voice, and Evan uses a slap bass technique in their quirky, virtuosic exchange.

Vocalist and songwriter Jill Peacock gives the evening some lyrical humor with her piece Embrace Technology, in which it quickly becomes clear that technology is the last thing she wishes to embrace. She has arranged a witty and well- written jazz study, with all members of her group giving very solid performances.

Indie-rock group Mrs. Danvers, led by singer/songwriter/guitarist Ann Driscoll, has gathered a solid cult following in the area after being together only about a year, and it sounds like a large number of their followers has turned out tonight. Mrs. Danvers presents solid instrumental chops and lots of classic rock moments in Driscoll’s What Did I Do.

The finale begins with Ayumi Ueda and her group Women of the World onstage, performing—with bassist Karien DeWaal—a song written by Karien and co-arranged with Ayumi. As Life Has a Cycle unfolds, two lines of Berklee women make their way down the aisles through the crowd and then up on stage to joining the others, forming an extended chorus. A very percussive piece, Cycle finally builds into the crescendo of the night, as all the evening’s prior performers come out and join in.

The Women Musicians Network 13th Annual Concert was a great event for Berklee and a treat for the surrounding community. The evening flowed extremely well and all of the acts moved steadily into each other with “tuning time” or other (typical) technical issues all but invisible. And it’s difficult to imagine a broader range of the musical spectrum being fit into an evening that lasted less than two hours.

You can get on the W.M.N. mailing list by going to thewmnclub@gmail.com. They may have more events before the next annual concert, which is always held in March.

THE BOSTON NATIONAL POETRY MONTH FESTIVAL April 10 and 11th 2010

CO-SPONSORS: Tapestry of Voices & Kaji Aso Studio in partnership with the Boston Public Library, SAVE the DATE, Saturday, April 10th 10:00 A.M.- 4:45 P.M. OPEN MIKE: 1:30 to 3:00P.M.; & Sunday, April 11th, 1:10 to 4:30P.M. The Festival will be held at the library’s main branch in Copley Square. FREE ADMISSION



56 Major and Emerging poets will each do a ten minute reading; ALSO



Featuring six extraordinarily talented prize winning high school students: from Boston Latin High School: Andy Vo and Justin Singletary, and Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah; Boston Arts Academy:Erica Telisnor and Osiris Morel; Gabriella Fee: Walnut Hill School for the Arts. These student stars will open the Festival at 10:00 A.M. SAM CORNISH, Boston’s current and first Poet Laureate will open the formal part of the Festival at 11:00 A.M. 55 additional major and emerging poets will follow with a



POETRY MARATHON



Some of the many luminaries include SAM CORNISH, Diana Der Hovanessian, Richard Wollman, Jennifer Barber, Afaa M. Weaver, Barbara Helfgott-Hyett, Alfred Nicole, Ellen Steinbaum, Doug Holder, Charles Coe, Kathleen Spivack, Ryk McIntyre, Elizabeth McKim, Regie O’Gibson, Kate Finnegan, Michael Bialis, Susan Donnelly,John Ziemba, (Kaji Aso Studio), Sandee Story, CD Collins, Marc Goldfinger, Gloria Mindock, Tim Gager, Diana Saenz, Stuart Peterfreund, Valerie Lawson, Tom Daley, Molly Watt, Ifeanyi Menkiti, Mark Pawlak, Lainie Senechal, Harris Gardner, Joanna Nealon, Richard Hoffman, Susan Donnelly, Irene Koronas, Robert K. Johnson, and a Plethora of other prize winning poets.



This Festival has it all: Professional published poets, celebrities, numerous prize winners, student participation, OPEN MIKE.

Even more, it is about community, neighborhoods, diversity, Boston, and Massachusetts. This popular tradition is one of the largest events in Boston’s Contribution to National Poetry Month. FREE ADMISSION !!!

FOR INFORMATION: Tapestry of Voices: 617-306-9484 or 617-723-3716

Library: 617-536-5400

Wheelchair accessible. Assistive listening devices available. To request a sign language interpreter, or for other special needs, call 617-536-7855(TTY) at least two weeks before the program date.
Harris Gardner





Boston National Poetry Month Festival
Poets’ Reading Schedule
Boston Public Library
Rabb Lecture Hall

Saturday, April 10, 2010
10:00 Boston Latin High School, Andy Vo
10:10 Boston Latin High School, Justin Singletary
10:20 Boston Latin High School, Emmanuel Oppong-Yeboah
10:30 Boston Arts Academy, Erica Tilesnor
10:40 Boston Arts Academy, Osiris Morel
10:50 Walnut Hill School for the Arts. Gabriella Fee
11:00 Sam Cornish (Boston Poet Laureate)
11:10 Robert J. Clawson
11:20 Regie Gibson
11:30 Joanna Nealon
11:40 Elizabeth McKim
11:50 Cathy Salmons
12:00 Carol Weston
12:10 Robert K. Johnson
12:20 Jeffrey Harrison
12:30 Tim Gager
12:40 Kaji Aso Studio: Kate Finnegan,
Michael Bialis, John Ziemba
12:50 Mark Pawlak
1:00 Lisa Beatman
1:10 Susan Donnelly
1:20 Coleen Houlihan
1:30 Philip E. Burnham, Jr.
1:30- 3:00 OPEN MIKE- Room 5-6
1:40 Frank Blessington
1:50 Valerie Lawson
2:00 Diana Saenz
2:10 C.D. Collins
2:20 Walter Howard
2:30 Ron Goba
2:40 Elizabeth Doran
2:50 Wendy Mnookin
3:00 Barbara Helfgott-Hyett
3:10 Jack Scully
3:20 Andy Levesque
3:30 Sandra Storey
3:40 Tomas O’Leary
3:50 Molly Bennett
4:00 Molly Watt
4:10 Jan Schreiber
4:20 Anne Elizabeth Tom
4:30 Gloria Mindock
4:40 Ryk McIntyre

SUNDAY, APRIL 11, 2010

1:10 Tom Daley
1:20 Ifeanyi Menkiti
1:30 Lo Galluccio
1:40 Ellen Steinbaum
1:50 Victor Howes
2:00 Rhina P. Espaillat
2:10 Diana DerHovanessian
2:20 Tino Villanueva
2:30 Doug Holder
2:40 Lainie Senechal
2:50 Harris Gardner
3:00 Stuart Peterfreund
3:10 Irene Koronas
3:20 Kathleen Spivack
3:30 Marc Goldfinger
3:40 Charles Coe
3:50 Isabella Nebel
4:00 Alfred Nicole
4:10 Richard Wollman
4:20 Jennifer Barber
4:30 Afaa M. Weaver

The Lines Are Not My Friends by Stacia M. Fleegal

The Lines Are Not My Friends
Poems by
Stacia M. Fleegal
Cervena Barva
W. Somerville MA 02144
Copyright © 2010 by Stacia M. Fleegal
28 pages, softbound

Review by Zvi A. Sesling


Cervena Barva Press, headed by poet Gloria Mindock has a habit of
publishing talented poets and writers whose work is exciting to read
if not provocative. Stacia M. Fleegal’s latest entry in the poetry oeuvre
is like a crossover SUV – both exciting and provocative. It is enjoyable
while making the reader think.

Ms. Fleegal has takes on people and life that one does not always see
from glassblowers to revolutionaries, the latter carrying allusions to
John Wayne, the Three Little Pigs, perhaps a touch of Dylan Thomas,
but you have to think and imagine to see these and that is what makes
some of the poems a joy.

In one poem Fleegal defends anger in the opening lines of In Defense of Anger:

america is the quietest land of all the lands. Our billboards
say yes for us, no to the opposite of what’s on them.

later she provides these lines:

They lost your number when they switched to Verizon.
You turned around and painted it in the sky, and not in blue,

These are lines many a poet would have liked to pen, and so
are the opening lines of In Defense of Antagonizing People:

In football, the tip of the nose tackle’s nose
is the starting point of a metaphor
about peace. Yes, the good game ass-slap
always involves taking sides.

Ah the imagery, picture Vince Wilfork, the New England Patriots’
nose take as a metaphor about peace! Or even better, slapping
a 315 pound man’s butt!

Then there are some other poems which are right up there for
seriousness, sarcasm and some feminist humor as in Elegy for
Hillary’s Campaign, June 4, 2008.

But my personal favorite in this tidy little volume is The Call, in
which Fleegal, trying to call God (with a capital G), encounters
the frustration of dealing with automated phone answering systems.

For those who enjoy poetry with wry humor, different takes and
serious thoughts, this is a collection for you.

Somerville’s Meghann Brideau: A Painter and Curator who goes underwater and to outer space.

Somerville’s Meghann Brideau: A Painter and Curator who goes underwater and to outer space.

By Doug Holder

Meghann Brideau paintings do not depict ordinary space. They deal with life in the depths of the ocean and the vast expanse of outer space. Brideau, 27, is a native of Manchester-by-the-Sea, Mass., and now a resident of Somerville. She is also a manager at the popular Bloc 11 Café in Union Square, and the curator for art exhibits at both Bloc 11 and the Diesel Café in Davis Square, Somerville. I talked with Brideau on a sunny and spring-like day at Bloc 11, (at my favorite table), next to the wall that displays the whimsical work of Somerville artist Sabina Kozak.

Brideau, a graduate of Syracuse University, told me that her own paintings are influenced by the artists Timothy Basil Ering and Leo Lionni, noted children's book illustrators. And indeed, Brideau’s paintings of an enigmatic octopus, her depiction of a starfish waving with long and languid arms, speak to the child in all of us.

Brideau, who previously lived and worked in London, England, finds that Somerville is just the right spot for a painter. She delights in the community of artists, and participates in the Somerville Arts Council’s Open Studios event every spring. She has a studio on Joy St., a stone’s throw from the café. The studio houses glassblowers, furniture restorers, photographers, etc…

Brideau used to be a teacher at Tufts New England Medical Center before she came to the café. When the old curator left for parts unknown management approached her about the curatorship. Since then Brideau has exhibited any number of Somerville artists. The list is long and includes Peter Bertand, who has beautiful and moody photographs of the old mills of Massachusetts. Other artists who have or will appear are: Torie Leigh and Ben Kauffman, to name just a few.

If you, dear reader, are a painter and want to exhibit at the Diesel or Bloc 11 be advised the waiting list is long. Brideau is not an elitist but she wants some degree of professionalism: a portfolio, framed and mounted works, and an exhibit or two under one’s belt.

Brideau is an unaffected artist. There does not seem to be any hint of the rarefied posturing one might associate with a curator, and other creatures of the arts milieu. Brideau embraces our rich artistic community, and it gives her a collective hug right back.

For more information about Brideau go to:

http://megbrideau.com

Jewish Book World ( Spring 2010): Review of Bert Stern's poetry collection "Steerage"

JEWISH BOOK WORLD (SPRING 2010)
POETRY

REVIEW: STEERAGE BY BERT STERN ( Ibbetson Street Press—2009)


Like children of the Holocaust, those whose parents suffered from pogroms or who were forced from their homeland because of religious persecution carry the scars forever. The cost of such escape never seems to leave Bert Stern, one example of an adult son who knows, as he states so directly in “Lotty is Born.” “…let him tell me if they can/if I am recompense for what they endured.” The remaining five parts of this notable collection might be described as an appreciation of beauty and fragility of life thereafter. In the title poem, Stern notes the full effect of such survival, “…he said what he hoped, / as if God gave us life/as we want it. But order is like houses children weave from grasses, twigs/and leaves.” Nature as it appears in upstate Buffalo, New York is a repeated mirror image of deep beauty and death, with the latter being existentially, not morbidly, depicted. One other outstanding poem is “Midrash: Abraham” in which after his son remains after the great sacrifice “…broken there, complete and alone, /bent by perfection.” Steerage is a celebration of new life forever reviewed by the past.

--Deborah Schoeneman

**** To order “Steerage” by Bert Stern go to Amazon.com

Somerville's Boston Review is a finalist for National Magazine Awards

Well-I was having breakfast at Bloc 11 in Union Square in Somerville, trying to dry off from another deluge when Will Fertman, PR man of The Boston Review dropped by my table to chat. He told me The Boston Review, located in the Paris of New England, has been named a finalist for the National Magazine Awards. I can remember 18 yrs. ago working as an editorial asst. with their slush pile at the Review's down-at-the-heels headquarters in Chinatown--Boston. Congrats!




"The prison's burning again"

That's how Tom Barry's in-depth investigation into private border prisons begins. It's a long article in a small magazine, far outside the New York-D.C. media axis. But since appearing in Boston Review's November issue, it's been reprinted online and featured on episodes of Fresh Air and Dan Rather Reports, pushing its audience into the millions. Now it's earned BR a spot as finalist for a prestigious National Magazine Award, and it's demonstrating how to make magazines work in the age of micro-blogs and mega-media.

As commercial outlets continue to cut back on long-form journalism, Boston Review's role as a nonprofit springboard is growing. "Texas" is typical of BR's approach-- giving an expert correspondent the editorial support and column inches (7,000 words) they need to build their case, pushing the story into mainstream coverage.

Says BR co-editor Deb Chasman, "Other media had reported fragments of the story, but Tom understood how policy affected the entire community, from immigrants to corporate boards to border-town politicians."

That commitment to depth put Boston Review on the NMA finalist list, alongside The New Yorker and National Geographic. The intellectual approach has been profitable for the magazine too, with circulation rising 15% on paper and 50% online since 2008. With the future uncertain for many print publications, BR has created a niche for itself, feeding both the twitchy constellation blogs and the content-hungry giants of the mainstream media the stories they can't find elsewhere.

The National Magazine Award winners will be announced on April 22. For more information, visit: http://asme.magazine.org/

To read Tom Barry's "A Death in Texas", visit: http://bostonreview.net/BR34.6/barry.php

Ibbetson Street Press: Publishing * Writing* Reading* Series

Ibbetson Street Press: Publishing * Writing* Series to be launched This July (2010)

(Newton Mass)





Doug Holder, founder of the Ibbetson Street Press and Arts Editor for the Somerville News, announced that an ongoing literary series titled the "Ibbetson Street Press Publishing* Writing* Reading* Series" will be launched at the Newton Campus of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston. Holder had a number of discussions with Silka Rothschild, the Arts Education Director of the JCC and others in the organization. Holder said: " Because of the reputation of the press and the poets involved with it, the JCC decided to include the Series as part of their program." During the month of July there will be a number of events including a workshop with novelist Luke Salisbury, and a poetry workshop with poets Harris Gardner, of Tapestry of Voices and Holder himself.

In the fall the plan is to have a self-publishing panel, a reading and discussion with notable Jewish poets, a morning with the grassroots poetry group the "Bagel Bards," and other events. Holder said: " It is very flattering to be approached by the JCC. It is a great feeling to be recognized by a great organization for the work Ibbetson Street has been doing in the community since 1998. I think the arts communities of Newton, Somerville and Boston need to come together and this is a great way to do it."


(Reading series at the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston*** Leventhal-Sidman JCC/Newton)

LEVENTHAL-SIDMAN JCC - NEWTON MA
Gosman Jewish Community Campus
333 Nahanton Street, Newton Center, MA 02459
Telephone: (617) 558-6522

The Leventhal-Sidman JCC is a branch of the Jewish Community Centers of Greater Boston. JCCGB is an agency of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies.


*************************************************************************************


The Art of the Novel with Luke Salisbury/ Thursday July 8, 2010/ 7 to 9PM


This course introduces students to the novel as a literary genre. Luke Salisbury, author of “Hollywood and Sunset,” and other works will help students acquire an understanding of ways of approaching, appreciating, and analyzing the novel. Salisbury is an award winning novelist, and is a Professor of Literature at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. “Hollywood and Sunset” will be the suggested text for the course. Thursday, July 8, 2010 7 to 9 p.m.




Ibbetson Street Press/ Tapestry of Voices Reading Series/ July 22, 2010/7to 9PM

Poets Harris Gardner, Zvi Sesling, Bert Stern, Ruth Baden and Fred Frankel will read poetry of Jewish themes, and of life, love, death, and eternity. These accomplished and much published poets will read from their recent collections. An Open Mike will follow so the audience can share their work. There will be a book table and light refreshments.



Poetry in the Write Mind. Poetry Workshop with Harris Gardner and Doug Holder. Thursday July 29, 2010 7 to 9PM.

Bring your poems and be in your "write" mind. Doug Holder, founder of the literary press "Ibbetson Street," and Director of the Newton Free Library Poetry Series and Harris Gardner, founder of the poetry outreach organization "Tapestry of Voices," and Director of the Boston National Poetry Festival at the Boston Public Library,
will lead a poetry workshop. Bring in three poems to be worked on, and make 10 copies of each.

Review of THE POET TREE by t. kilgore splake

Review of THE POET TREE by t. kilgore splake, Kamini Press, Ringvagen 8, 4th floor, SE-117 26 Stockholm, Sweden, 2010

By Barbara Bialick

Think of The Poet Tree as a little treasure you could write away to Sweden for, just for the experience of remembering those old countercultural days of the 60s and 70s, from the point of view of a so-called “small press icon.” splake is a poet’s poet from northern Michigan, who slaps images onto the page like paint, one image after the next. He doesn’t need grammar or even page numbers—the rhythm is inherent in the little poems in this 4 x 6 chapbook that lists 12 preceding “selected titles” published just since about the year 2000.

According to a google-found review of an earlier book, poet Charles P. Ries says splake didn’t write a poem until he was 44 years old, then “his work and name appeared everywhere.” In the bio of The Poet Tree (a pun with ‘the poetry’…), we learn splake was born Thomas Hugh Smith in 1935 in Three Rivers, Michigan. He “took an early retirement as a college professor to live in creative poverty and find his poetic voice…”

And, oh yes, the poetry: “demander drawings/lilliput poems/tibetan prayer flag colors/suffering autumn storms…”

“last Clarksville train” (think of The Monkees): “washing down aspirins/warm blue ribbon suds/damp gray first light/jerry lee’s cassettes silent…/yesterday wife saying ‘things got to change’…”

japhy ryder’s ghost: “escaping today’s/fun fun fun/dull mediocre people/satisfied to/talk talk talk/instead bardic spirit/wildly splashing/crossing brautigan creek/climbing pilgrimage/…writing love poem.”

To keep quoting from the poems. however, would be to give the whole book away. Suffice to consider that like in the poem “craig’s list dropout”, this book is like a “continuous kaleidoscope buzz.”

The publisher notes, “This first edition is limited to 150 copies, all signed by the author. Twenty-five special copies contain a water color by Henry Denander.”

microchondria: forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store. (Harvard Book Store http://www.harvard.com) $10. Review by Doug Holder

(Paige M. Gutenborg)

microchondria: forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store. (Harvard Book Store http://www.harvard.com) $10.

Review by Doug Holder

Marc Goldfinger,( the poetry editor of Spare Change News), at a recent meeting of Somerville’s Bagel Bards handed me a small anthology of short stories he was included in titled: “microchondria…” This is a collection of forty-two short stories collected by the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. According to the introduction to the book, on Feb. 1, 2010 a call was sent out by the book store that stated they would publish a book of original short stories. There was a deadline of Feb. 17, 2010.They got a slew of submissions from around the world. They edited the book and had it printed on March 1, 2010 from their newfangled in store, print-on-demand book machine “ Paige M. Gutenborg.”

The stories in this collection are very short, flash fiction; I presume. Marc Goldfinger’s story is a winner, titled: “Are you My Girl or What?” It is a litmus test of love that comes in the form of a cup of java thrown in a love object’s face.

Jennifer Carol Cook’s story “Falling” uses the backdrop of a snowy day as the setting for the dying embers of a love affair. In this passage the girl knows the dye-has-been-cast:

“ Her fingers grew numb around the half-formed snowball. She looked up again to a screeching sky. The black birds were falling and falling. They looked as though they were dying.”

There are a lot of solid, short reads in this book for your back pocket.

Recommended.