In musically charged lyrics, Christine DeSimone takes on the big questions: “Where is the life you want?” and “So how do you do it? Where do you go to begin again?” Her poems travel the globe looking for answers, from a diner in Chatsworth to a Lisbon night that “drops like an exiled heart,” from an “office with no windows,” to the Cliffs of Dover, from Billie Holiday’s deathbed to the “fluorescent gloom” of the Tenderloin. At each stop, DeSimone listens with “dog-whistled acumen / to find what the world is really saying,” rendering all she hears in stark, unflinching detail.— Cheryl Dumesnil, author of In Praise of Falling and Love Song for Baby XIn this, her first full-length collection, Christine DeSimone strikes gold! How Long The Night Is Sampler
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ISBN 978-1-929878-42-0 100 pages, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback
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ISBN 9780999778401 52 pgs. Perfect Bound
By Gil Hagen Hill
The past haunts these highly allusive poems, rich with thoughtful, precise images that convey “numinous ambiguities,” as in the title poem. A Circle of Bones is a welcome addition to 21st-century American poetry. — Clifton Snider
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ISBN 978-1-929878-17-8 106 pages, Trade Paperback
I first heard Mike Adams reading selections from Steel Valley on the Jane Crown Show (pod cast) in 2009. I was so enthralled with what I heard that I called in and offered to publish the manuscript! Thus Steel Valley was born. — RD Armstrong John Macker, a respected poet, reviewer and small press publisher (the Desert Shovel Review) wrote this about Steel Valley: "I love poetry that illuminates the soul’s travelogue. You can feel with all senses the steel wheels of Mike Adams’ Pennsylvania steel mill and railroad boyhood pulse in every word; his clear, generous breaths open the heart to the wide expanses of the poet writing down his life. These tough, tender-eyed poems and prose pieces are at once blue collar and bohemian, homages to the drinking and the working life juxtaposed against a long poem about cooking green chili. There are disappearing riprap trails and epic family narratives that haunt and exhilarate. It is hard to find a geography worth its weight in memory that doesn't resonate with the blood and spirit of its inhabitants. Mike, like Ed Abbey before him, left behind the Wobbly Joe bars, mills, hills and scarred valleys of Pennsylvania for the boisterous outback of the comparatively wide, wild open West. Steel Valley is fine writing, epic and intimate." – John macker
Sadly, on Sept. 28, 2013 we lost Mike to Cancer. He was a great man, both as poet and a human being, gentle & wise. He is sorely missed. Read a sample of Steel Valley here. -
ISBN 978-1-929878-44-4 120 pages, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback
Ann Curran has written a book like no other. With a reporter's eye and a poet's vision, she has created a new genre—a poetry of utter frankness. For grief, see the Kennedy poem. For candor, the poem to Maxine Kumin. For accuracy, her lines on "cagey" Seamus Heaney. Whether the subject is the million dollar sale of a bishop's mansion, the Warhol and Ginsberg myths or the "profound" jottings of Kay Ryan and other superficialists, this is poetry at war with fakery on all fronts, and it's as unignorable as it is rare. —Samuel Hazo, director, International Poetry Forum, professor emeritus, Duquesne University. The “me” of these poems celebrates “connecting.” Ann Curran identifies persons and associations that have places in her drama. The voice can be modest, sardonic, even outrageous. Never just chronicler and seasoned by her years as a reporter, no foolishness and no person goes unnoticed. The writer’s wit, balanced by tenderness, makes the reader look forward to each poem. You want to laugh, cry, applaud. You’ll love her authenticity. —Rosaly DeMaios Roffman, professor emerita, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
Me First Sampler -
ISBN 978-1-929878-80-2 128 pages, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback Normal
I first became aware of the poet normal through Lee Crabtree, then the Fug's keyboard man, in 1963 or '64, at the Peace Eye Bookstore on the Lower East Side. Thirty-five years later I became re-acquainted with his poems. I liked his honesty. I like the "jolt" of reality in these works, and the intensity of images such as the "devil hair of barbed wire',' and "diamonds of light beg forgiveness',' or "a parade of wrinkles." Go forth. normal.— Ed Sanders, poet, musician & activist "...normal is the voice of the homeless, the victimized, the disaffected and the disturbed. These are poems born of the street, of the vagabond heart, the true restless American spirit that Whitman spoke of when he heard America singing. Too often, now, we hear of singing like the dolphins in an Eliot poem, who do not sing for us. normal sings for us, that is, to the poet in us all and we should listen." — Alan Catlin
Hunger's Children Sampler -
By B. J. Buckley
ISBN 978-1-929878-74-1 100 pages; 6 X 9 inches; Trade Paperback Even a quick glance at YouTube will provide a number of videos demonstrating crows’ ability to solve problems, as well as crows’ ability to play. My favorite shows a crow sliding down a snowy roof, flying to the top again, and repeating the slide. The crow is clearly having a great time, clearly playing. There is no other purpose apparent in the activity. It is simply play. Recently wildlife biologists have begun to understand the inter-species cooperation that seems to exist between wolves and ravens. Ravens, it seems, will find a carcass and then lead wolves to it. The birds know that they cannot get through the tough skin of an elk, but that once the wolves have gotten through the skin, and eaten their fill, they will leave enough meat for the ravens. Biologists have seen ravens fly down into the middle of a litter of wolf pups playing outside their den. The raven will begin to play with the pups, throwing sticks for them or letting the pups chase him. This interaction demonstrates an intelligence and curiosity that extends well beyond instinctive, rote behavior for finding food and shelter. Beyond these specific examples, the Corvids, whether crows, ravens, or magpies, have all played significant roles in world folklore and myth. They are, by turns, bringers of wisdom, harbingers of both good and bad news, or tricksters who can aid a hero or unmask a villain. The rhyme at the beginning of this introduction is an Old English chant recited when seeing a flock of crows. The Norse god Odin had a raven as his companion, and the Haida of the American Pacific Northwest used ravens on their totem poles and created elaborate raven masks. B. J. Buckley’s poems in Corvidae allude to all these attributes and mythologies and more. These poems pay tribute to many of the ways the Corvids have interacted with humans. She uses chants, rhymes, poetic forms, and free verse to create mythology that is both old and familiar and, at the same time, stunningly original. Her poems speak to a reverence for not only the birds themselves but that which is numinous in human experience. Reading these poems changes how we see these beautiful birds, and changes how we see the mystical and spiritual in our lives. These poems should be savored. They should be read aloud to appreciate Buckley’s use of sound, and they could easily be part of personal spiritual practice, read by candlelight or read outdoors where our Corvid relatives may hear them, too, and both laugh in their mocking way and participate in the mystical as they fly across an open sky. An excerpt from the introduction by Jane Elkington Wohl, PhD. Look at a sample copy of Corvidae here -
112 pages; 6 X 9 Perfect Bound, Softcover ISBN 978-1-929878-50-5
By Rick Smith
Rick Smith's third book with Lummox Press represents a significant departure from his previous two titles, Hard Landing and The Wren Notebook. In those two books, Smith utilized the diminutive Wren as an archetypal character that represented both bird and human behavior. It was almost a spiritual journey at times...a wonder-filled travelogue with Wren. But things have taken a decidedly darker turn in this collection of poems...instead the wispy wren, fluttering around and having some feathery adventures, has been replaced by a mangy mutt prowling around the back alleys of a bad part of town looking to score some meth or chew on a leg...whichever comes first or seems the most interesting. While Whispering in a Mad Dog's Ear will surprise Smith fans with it's variety of subject matter; his mastery of the poem is still as strong and as true as it has ever been, in fact, in some cases his work is even stronger and more startling in its imagery and language. The only problem with this book is how he will top it in his next collection! Cover art by Llyn Foulkes, entitled Pop, 1985-1990 Layout design by Chris Yeseta -
By Ann Curran
The poems in Ann Curran’s Knitting the Andy Warhol Bridge flash with a quiet brilliance. An adroit wordsmith, Curran turns clever on its head; her poems can become deadly at the least provocation, not to mention funny, dark, illuminating, and often, heartbreakingly sad. Her poems celebrate life in all its sullied glory. No subject escapes her critical gaze: weddings, sports stadiums, parolees sharing a moment, adoption, racism, war, rumors, love, death. Even the penis is fair game for her wit. These poems sparkle with specifics; they dig deep, nudge the reader toward tolerance. “The New Pastor” “urges the faithful/ to open their hearts to different people: the food co-op kid with rings in his nose,/ lips and eyebrows, the Latino next door,/ college students with raucous beer parties,/ even the half-black U.S. president./ Put down the iPod, the Wi-Fi-fed notebook. / See the live people. …Deal with the real.” This timely, remarkable collection deals with the real in a profound and brand new way. It is a considerable achievement and a terrific read. — Alexis Rhone Fancher, poetry editor of Cultural Weekly, author of State of Grace: The Joshua Elegies, and How I Lost My Virginity to Michael Cohen and other Heart Stab Poems
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ISBN 978-0-9984580-5-2 6 X 9; 120 pages; Trade Paper
By Bill Gainer
Bill Gainer’s world is not a safe place, not for the old men, not for him. It’s a place of mysterious things, happenings, people, and times. It’s a place where the mysteries of old men are told, not with guilt, but as they happened. The Mysterious Book of Old Man Poems tells of a time mostly past, not forgotten, but hidden away in the hearts of old men, its magic intact.
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A collection of poetic "orphans." Poems that had fallen by the wayside because they didn't seem to be anything that anyone would want to have around (hence the "orphan"). The poetry in this collection hopscotches around encompassing the years 1993 to 2016. It represents the forgotten poems from four previous collections: Fire and Rain (Volumes 1 & 2), E/OR and the expurgated version, Living Among the Mangled. Remarkably, many of the poems are still relevant to the concerns that many of us have today. . . perhaps proving that RD is a savvy visionary or (more likely) that the story doesn't change, only the characters do.
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SBN: 978-1-929878-83-3 Pages:138 Publishing Date: Jan. 2012 Brigit Truex has lived in the four quarters of the States since beginning her writing career. In each locale she has also established workshops to help others hone their prose and poetry as well, but her primary focus is on poetry. Her mixed ethnic background (French Canadian-Abenak/Cree and Irish) has been a theme she continues to explore in her work, approaching it from various angles. The historic Wakamatsu Tea and Silk Colony was based in the nearby community of Gold Hill, a scant 10 miles from where she currently lives in the Sierra Nevada foothills of northern California. Its universal story of "stranger in a strange land" resonated with her as the tale evolved and grew from an initial single poem into this detailed book, the result of extensive research and truthful imaginings. The author has been published here and abroad in various literary journals and anthologies including Atlanta Review, Tule Review, Native Literatures, Yellow Medicine Review and others. She is a board member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers and Native Writers Circle of the Americas.
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ISBN: 978-1-929878-33-8 Pages:120 Publishing Date: Mar. 2012 Leonard J. Cirino passed away on March 10, 2012 He is greatly missed. Leonard J. Cirino (1943 - 2012) was the author of nineteen chapbooks and seventeen full-length collections of poetry since 1987 from numerous small presses. He lived in Springfield, Oregon, where he retired and worked full-time as a poet. His full-length collection, Chinese Masters, is from March Street Press, 2009. His 100 page collection, Omphalos: Poems 2007 was published in 2010 from Pygmy Forest Press. A 64 page selection, Tenebrion: Poems 2008 is from Cedar Hill Publications, in 2010. His 60 page collection, Triple Header is due from Cervena Barva Press, E. Somerville, MA in 2012. His collection, Homeland, Exile, Longing & Freedom was published by AA Press in 2011.
About the book: In the late 80’s some friends of mine traveled to Europe and left me with several anthology translations from the southern and eastern Europeans and my interest in poetry was restored. I had become very despondent with the quality of US poets since the deaths of Lowell, Berryman, Sexton, Theodore Roethke, and James Wright. Very few US poets spoke to me then and they still do not now. I think this is when I began to find my own voice mixed among the voices of many poets I could relate to – men and women who had been through either the Spanish Civil War or World War 2 – either under Nazi or Communist occupation. I still devote most of my reading, except for magazines, to poets in translation. I’d say that 75-80% of the poetry I read is in translation because I find people from around the world have far more to say than the poets in the US who are either self-described “outlaws” or belong to the privileged or academic classes and I don’t relate to either of them. As one of my poems says, “He was hard at work being unemployed,” and only in the last five years of working did I live above the poverty level. I always had food and shelter and enough street smarts to trade for used books and I didn’t want for much more than that. As far as where my writing is going I just keep on keeping on. I have received no awards or grants, won no contests, yet I am among the most devoted, well read, and hardest working poets in the US or anywhere. I don’t have many illusions about success—especially in today’s literary market—so I will go on in my suburban hermit mode and do the real work. Most likely I will keep on reading translations from all over the world and use the poets I read to “inspire” my own work. As this title says, I have become “The Instrument of Others.” — Leonard J. Cirino "Poets like Cirino, who trust in metaphor as a path to poetic and perhaps spiritual enlightenment, who follow European symbolist models in the attempt to de-familiarize the ordinary and expose its full dimensions, and who approach the world with a generosity of perception rather than an intellectual full-court press are not currently in fashion. The publishing world is only occasionally friendly to them." — William Doreski (from the preface)
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160 pages; 6 X 9 Perfect bound, Softcover ISBN 978-1-929878-49-9 For over 35 years Taylor Graham has been a volunteer search-and-rescue (SAR) dog handler. She and her husband have trained their German Shepherds to find missing people - in Alaska, rural Virginia, and California. She's a veteran of the 1985 Mexico City earthquake, the Berkeley-Oakland Hills firestorm, and other disasters, as well as hundreds of searches for lost hunters and hikers, elderly walkaways, victims of drowning, avalanche and homicide. For ten years she edited the National Association for Search and Rescue's SAR Dog ALERT newsletter. With her search dog, she spent two summers as a Forest Service volunteer ranger in the Mokelumne Wilderness. No longer on SAR callout, she still trains her dogs at least weekly; German Shepherds don't understand retirement.
For my husband, Hatch, who’s had dogs all his life; and for all the dogs who’ve shared our lives and taught us so much — Taylor Graham "If they don't allow dogs in heaven, then I don't want to go!" — Grandpa Armstrong
Look through a sampling of poems from this book. -
108 pages; 6 X 9 Trade Paper ISBN 978-1-929878-48-2
"Days and nights in Los Angeles, roots tugged out, wrung out, chatrooms, classrooms, malls, toilets, Help Wanted at the 7-Eleven, elusive boys, "urgent hunger," the American 20th century, loneliness and betrayal—these poems have begun to haunt me. Alex Frankel sings in a register almost beyond hearing, the pain is so keen, the writing so fine." — Alicia Ostriker, author of The Book of Seventy
Cover art by Luka Fisher -
190 pages; 6 X 9 sized Trade Paperback ISBN 978-1929878451
“In The Broken Lines, Judith Skillman distills the wisdom gained from her long successful career as a poet into a succinct [number of] pages that are remarkable for their liveliness and enthusiasm as well as for their accessibility. Aspiring poets should find the practical advice she offers not only helpful but inspiring. —Stephen Meats, Poetry Editor, The Midwest Quarterly.” “Another highlight is Judith Skillman’s [chapter] “Revising Your Poetry Manuscript for Theme.” Skillman’s advice and exercises will be helpful to poets wondering how to arrange disparate poems into a coherent manuscript for submission to a first book contest or publisher.” — excerpted from RATTLE Magazine’s review of Women on Poetry The goal of this book is to enable poets at all stages of development to move from their current stage or plateau to the next level in cultivating a unique voice and poetic music. This book encourages the student of poetry to entertain a kind of Zen consciousness, a “Beginner’s Mind”—for that is the only way to continue serenely in the business of writing poems. The work is cognizant of the fact that most often, if you ask a person why they write poetry, the answer will be “Because I have no choice.” This text can be used by a poet on his or her own, or it can become a tool in the classroom. Broken Lines contains chapters on theory and practice. Whether one is a beginning writer, has been writing for years and never taken a class, or has published work in journal and/or book form, Broken Lines includes content to propel the writing life forward. — Judith Skillman, author of Broken Lines
Broken Lines Sampler -
ISBN 978-1-929878-46-8 34 pages; 5.5 X 8.5; chapbook For over 35 years, Taylor Graham has been working with Search & Rescue (SAR) dogs. She has traveled far and wide searching for lost hikers in the wilderness, victims of earthquakes and sadly, dead bodies. Walking the Puppy contains poems written for/about her current dog, Loki. Even though Taylor has retired from active duty, Loki has not...as Taylor puts it, SAR dogs never retire, so they must be continuously trained and exercised. This chapbook was a precursor to a larger collection remembering all of Taylor's dogs and their adventures over the years, entitled What The Wind Says. If you love dogs, you're going to love these books. Walking The Puppy Sample
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ISBN 978-1-929878-42-0 160 PAGES, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback
"When I was a child I believed in visions. Even as an adult I kept insisting the impossible was acceptable. A tiger was in my grandmother's basement, the one I was fleeing from. In D.R. Wagner's collection, a reader wants to flee into his visions. Find that tiger. It is with the epitome of grace and magic that these poems align themselves with our inner kid, find such realities that only dream worlds can make true. Here darkness can be dazzling! The password is letting it happen. Wagner does this for us." — Ann Menebroker, poet "D.R. Wagner grinds a fine lens that reveals time, in all its bewildering mystery, as an ally, takes the fledged moment into his hands and breathes life into the stillborn. He can melt the barriers between heaven and earth with a turn of his eye, and perhaps, just perhaps, pull a car out of a ditch with a broken comb that he finds behind our left ear." — T. L. Kryss, poet
Breaking and Entering Sampler -
ISBN 978-1-929878-41-3 120 pages, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback
Songs of the Glue Machines is a collection of poetry detailing the working class within California’s San Joaquin Valley in the late Eighties and early Nineties. Nicholas Belardes’ raw lyricism offers a glimpse into the struggles of everyday blue-collar workers in a forgotten part of America. "Songs of the Glue Machines is part meditation, part lamentation, part gut-wrenching cry for a lost segment of humanity. Packing words drenched in sweat and blasted with furnace fury, Belardes' poems transform once invisible lives into true blood & bone beauty. Hard-worn and hopeless factory workers are elevated to saintly status." — RICH FERGUSON, author of 8th & Agony: Poems
Songs of the Glue Machines Sampler QUESTIONS? -
ISBN 978-1-929878-40-6 128 pages, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback
"I wrote her to honor her (the pronoun, the ‘used to’ parts in me), to try and de-toggle something in me, to uphold a previous (yet very necessary) identity while making space in me for new pronouns, new identities. The future tense of the present houses the past in a sweet casing. I want to honor the her in me: the her in her stilettos and pencil skirts, the her who begins to become the land of the Australian outback (with dreadlocks and bare feet), the her that is less her and more something else with that shaved head and those boxers, pants sagging into a plethora of pronouns. All of these deserve honor because all of them are true: all of these are me." — j/j hastain "One of poetry's most bedeviling challenges is to render the ineffable into language.The bolder poets face the difficulty of not only writing about the complex subjects but of writing about those liminal spaces in topics where language does not yet exist. j/j hastain has succeeded here as few yet have in being able to give voice to the unfolding/enfolding complexities of gender and identity." — Eloise Klein Healy, poet & first Poet Laureate of Los Angeles, CA
her Sampler -
ISBN 978-1929878-39-0 140 pages, 6 X 9, Trade Paperback 5150: A Memoir is no ordinary collection. It is a mixture of poetry and prose that explores her own personal journeys inside and outside of the psych ward. Dealing with issues such as sexuality, self-mutilation, eating disorders, substance abuse, and mental health, her book addresses a lot of issues that are seldom talked about (but need to be). She is currently on her way to recovery, and she hopes that by sharing her story with the world, she can help others in difficult times find the light and confidence within themselves to succeed in this difficult and fast paced world that we live in. The term 5150 refers to the section of the California Penal Code which deals with subjects who are, or may be, a danger to themselves because of mental disturbance. It allows law enforcement to hold a person for 72 hours for observation , to determine if they require a further, longer stay in the hospital (5250). "As a reader, I treasure your work; as a writer, I greatly admire your creativity and skill; as someone who also endures the temptations of addiction, I empathize with your daily challenges but, most of all, I respect the determination with which you have successfully worked to control those demons." — James Greco, fan & writer 5150 Sampler
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By Kyle Laws
ISBN 978-1-929878-73-4 106 pages; Perfect Bound; 6 X 9 inchesThese poems inhabit place—beginning on the Jersey shore; moving to southern Colorado, northern New Mexico, and the wild spaces between; returning to the fringes of seaside resorts by way of New Orleans—telling all the details; using words like paint; layering sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and finally touch; uniting ideas with lyricism to yield connections between past and present, ocean and desert, mountain and river, men and women; unafraid of the trouble and tangle to grow and thrive. “I too have memories of "the shore," so Wildwood brings a rush—like looking into someone else's old photo album— of vivid images, scents, and O, the sounds of voices. Watching the grownups, hearing the histories, and almost too quickly making one's own life story, Kyle Laws' poems move from the shore to other storied places: New Orleans, Taos, Pueblo, St. Augustine, and return full circle to the Cape May milieu she knows so well. They are a guided tour, not only of one family's personal struggle, but the universal quest for understanding how we grow and survive, with the grace to be alive to the world.” — Ruth Moon Kempher, Kings Estate Press
View a sampler of poems on ISSUU.COM Read an Interview with Kyle here. -
ISBN 978-1-929878-72-7 154 pages; Perfect Bound; 6 X 9 inches
Poetry Collection
The quiet confiding voice of radio sees us through our commutes, educates, and amuses us. We feel that we know the hosts on such shows as All Things Considered, RadioLab, This American Life, Prairie Home Companion, Snap Judgment, and that they could be friends, sharing our interests and sensibilities. For its part, Public television becomes a trusted sanctuary from crass commercials, laugh tracks, unfunny comedies rising in volume as they grow more empty in content. We start with shows like Sesame Street, Electric Company, Mr. Rogers, Reading Rainbow and continue on to Frontline, The Nightly News, and the many guilty pleasures of adult Anglophiles, such as Masterpiece Theater and Mystery. It shouldn’t surprise us then to see that so many have responded in kind, speaking back to the speakers, inspired by what they hear and see. What may be more surprising is that no one seems to have had the idea of gathering these works together into an anthology, though they have appeared here and there, in poetry collections and journals. For me, the greatest delight in receiving these pieces has been to recognize the stories I have heard on the radio, with the added dimension of another’s perception added in. This brings home the truth that each of us could start with the same raw material and yet produce finished products that resemble one another only in incidental ways. Our national tragedies and triumphs, the odd idiosyncratic stories of individuals, the stuff of our daily lives and explorations all appear here, care of the diligent reporters of our national media. It is wonderful to realize that in some sense we are all one, listening or watching alone in the dark, but part of a larger tribe. This may be the closest thing we can experience to unanimity and belonging in this fractured land. — Robbi Nester, editor (from the introduction)
This collection of poems by poets from all over the U.S. and from across the ocean was published by a new sub-division of the Lummox Press, Nine Toes Press, in April (National Poetry Month, btw). Featuring Poets: Martha O. Adams, RD Armstrong, Anne Baber, Sally Ball, Kris Bigalk, Lavina Blossom, Allen Braden, Kirstin Bratt, Julie Bruck, Mary Bullington, Sheryl Clough, Michael Colonnaise, Barbara Crooker, Donna Decker, Barbara Duffey, Blas Falconer, Jennifer Flescher, Rupert Fike, Deborah Gang,Howie Good, Rick Hamwi, Kenneth Hart, Juleigh Howard-Hobson, M.E. Hope, Kate Hutchinson, Luisa Igloria, Tim Kahl, Marie Kane, Deda Kavanagh, Elizabeth Kelikowske, Kathryn Kopple, Judy Kronenfeld, Jane Rosenberg LaForge, Ron Lavalette, Christina Lovin, Amy MacLennen, Joan Mazza, Kelly Nelson,Robbi Nester, Barbra Nightingale, Hal O’Leary, Susan Blackwell Ramsey, Penelope Schott, Brittney Scott, Patricia Scruggs, Martha Silano, M.E. Silverman, Susan Snowden, Nina Soifer, Onna Solomon, Robin Stratton, Lisa Stonestreet, Meryl Stratford, Marly Youmans, Kit Zak. View a sampler of poems on ISSUU.COM -
By Linda Lerner
ISBN 978-1-929878-51-2 32 PAGES; TRADE PAPER Linda Lerner, a small press veteran of numerous years, has
put together a volume of "nursery rhymes" with a distinctly modern interpretation. Along with the drawings of her friend and artist, Donna Kerness, Lerner takes on such classics as London Bridge is Falling Down, Ring Around the Rosy, Jack Sprat, Rip Van Winkle and Humpty Dumpty.
"Poet Linda Lerner pens modern day nursery rhymes, playful but with well-placed poetic barbs, thrown at our everyday insular lives, and the injustices that are ignored by us or experienced by us. Lerner gives us rhyme for our time."
Doug Holder/ Lecturer in Creative Writing/Endicott College/Beverly, MA
CONTENTS
We
What Just happened
Catch Me If You can
The Sound of London Bridges Falling in NYC
Ring Around the Rosy: A Danse Macabre
The Mother Who Gives Birth to a Poem
Remember, remember the Fifth of November
Stumbling on Jack’s Road
An Old Wives Tale or a Rip Van Winkle Story
When Every Color Became Red
Humpty Dumpty
Linda Lerner's Takes Guts & Years Sometimes was published by NYQ Books, June, 2011; she’s previously published thirteen collections of poetry and been nominated twice for a pushcart prize. Her poems have recently been in New Verse News, Gutter Eloquence, The Brooklyn Voice, Danse Macabre, Two Bridges, Presa, Fall, 2011 (featured poet) Lummox, Home Planet News, Big Hammer, and The Mom Egg; her essay "Land Grab: Putting Down Stakes" appeared in The Brooklyn Voice, March, 2013. Her next collection, Yes, the Ducks Were Real, will be published by NYQ Books.
Donna Kerness has been producing Art of various mediums over the years. Her inspirations have emerged from her past... She was a Dancer at the Henry Street Playhouse with Alwin Nikolais, and Murray Louis, a casual fellow poet and friend of Linda Lerner, and an Underground Cinema Super Star, in the movies of the Kuchar Brothers, during the Sixties in New York.
After relocating to San Antonio and raising a family, now is working with Sketching, Drawing, Painting and Multimedia Art which has been exhibited at the Highwire Gallery, in San Antonio, Texas.
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ISBN 9781929878710 48 pages; 5.5 X 8.5 inches, Perfect Bound
Poetry Collection
In late September, 2013, Mike Adams died, a victim of Cancer. He was too young, only in his early sixties. I'd known him for four years, though he claimed we'd met back in '06 in Las Vegas, NM. I don't remember that, but I do remember hearing him on the Jane Crown Show in '09. I liked what I heard...it's not often that you can judge a man by his words alone, and the sound of his voice; these days especially. Mike struck me as being someone i could trust. Sadly, there haven't been too many people in the past twenty years that I could say that about. Unchainable Spirit is a tribute chapbook about Mike, filled with poems by some of his poetic best friends, all of whom are master poets themselves and all paying homage to their fallen friend. Their poems reflect the respect that Mike deserved; they don't stray into emotive, confessional poetry but speak to the heart of the matter including the devastation left in the wake of his passing. Here's who was involved in this project: RD Armstrong, Jared Smith, Phil Woods, Jerry Smaldone, Deborah Kelly, Padma Thornlyre, Judyth Hill, Linn G. Baker, Roseanna Frechette, John Macker, Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, Art Goodtimes, Claire Mearns, Stewart Warren, G. Murray Thomas, Lawrence Gladeview, Jim Bernath, James Taylor III and Mike Adams, whose presence in our lives, inspired this. Mike Adams was many things to many people. He was a skilled writer and poet, mountain climber, wonderful husband, Fire-Giggler, environmentalist, practicing Buddhist, teacher and most importantly, he was one helluva friend! This one's for you, Mike...RD Armstrong, Editor & Publisher Preview this chapbook on issuu.com
