Review of Kiarah Hamilton's "this is what fifteen feels like"

Kiarah Hamilton, this is what fifteen feels like (KDP, 2024) 145 pages, poetry, $19.99 US. Order here.

Hamilton invites us to read this collection from the point of view of our 15-year-old selves so that's where I'm going to write this review from (mostly). I say "mostly" because I'm late Gen X and Hamilton is Gen Alpha, I believe, so our 15s are very different POVs. When I was 15, the internet was called "Prodigy", it was dial-up, extremely expensive, almost no one had it (almost no one had a PC), and social media didn't exist yet. Late Gen X are in general a nihilist group of people who believed the world would end before they finished college and as teenagers were criminals and gangsters who got away with everything precisely because they were the first generation with parents who divorced at high rates, worked two jobs, daycare didn't exist yet, and smartphones were sci-fi. It was ghetto. I'm sure it's extremely difficult for kids today too, just in very different ways. Same old threats with new avenues.

As a teenager, I was a moody goth but not goth, punk but not punk, (nowadays the term might be "emo") loner who wrote poetry and lurked in shadows and wore black as often as my mother would let me get away with it. Because if you wear black and stand very still, you can be as near to invisible as physics allows. Very handy for avoiding bullies. My poetry was similar to Hamilton's but much less innocent and light. I wrote about dark stuff. I wrote about stuff I lived with, violence and loneliness and darkness. And I found beauty in it. And, stereotypically for a teenage poet of my generation, I could quote Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" on cue (I can't anymore). None of my early poetry survives today.

Hamilton writes more as a teenager should, if there is such a thing. Her poetry is as light, innocent, and clean as her book cover. It's refreshing. She writes about the pressures social media puts on youth to have a certain appearance, which is something that certainly hasn't changed, although social media has prismed it uniquely. She writes about social anxiety, the stresses that hormonal changes bring, trying out different hobbies to find a few that'll stick as she works out who she is, and her crushes. All typical of the adolescent experience. And which certainly do help take you back to your own personal experiences.

There are some poems here that give you a window into Hamilton herself. She writes about moving around a lot and about her family dynamics. Another fun feature is that she includes a playlist of songs that you can look up on Spotify or YouTube. This places her 15 in a specific time frame - more so than the copyright notice will because not everyone reads a title page - but it also includes a whole other dimension to the book and a view into the poet's mind. I particularly liked this because when I write, I always have soundtracks in mind too. But since it never occurred to me that I could simply write up a playlist to include, I weave the songs into the poems and books themselves in ways I'm sure no one has caught on to, lol. Hamilton's playlist is an elegant solution to this conundrum. 

In summary, this is what 15 feels like. The poetry is not sophisticated. That's not what you're here for. But it is what you're here for. A walk down memory lane vicariously. A reminder that no matter how many years have passed, 15 is never very far away.

Review of Stephen Spanoudis' "Final Orbit: Not All Ghosts Are Human: The Autobiography of Mario Ng (The Republic of Dreams)"

 

Stephen Spanoudis, Final Orbit: Not All Ghosts Are Human: The Autobiography of Mario Ng (The Republic of Dreams) (The Other Pages.org, 2021) 215 pages, fiction, $9.99 US. Order here.

I am a poet and I read mostly poetry and nonfiction. In 2023, I decided to read more fiction. I want to learn how to write better prose to write the stories my grandparents wanted me to write. Better late after their deaths than never. And there is no better way to learn how to write than to read. And it seems the world is conspiring to help make that happen: I always wanted to join a book club and that happened in 2024. What is the group interested in reading? Fiction. And in 2023, Stephen Spanoudis gifted me (out of the blue) two of his novels.

Both these novels are part of a series. Final Orbit is the 8th book but is written as a prequel to the others. This review will focus on Final Orbit. A review of the second book is forthcoming.

Final Orbit took a while to get off the ground (pun intended). You had these two incredibly determined and intelligent people overcoming underprivileged backgrounds to succeed in challenging careers (astronaut and musician, respectively). They have fulfilling lives. Everything seems to be winding down to a kind of calmer precursor to retirement and I'm wondering "but am I only halfway through the book?" And then BOOM (literally), the real story kicks off. And takes your breath away, rips your heart out, and leaves you gasping and needing to take a walk around the room a few times. You're going to need to take a minute. That's just the first drop of this roller coaster.

This book is equal parts future dystopia, science fiction, drama, romance, psychological study, and inspirational fiction, with a bone thrown to the Harry Potter in the briefest way possible, and for once the U.S. is a side character in major "historical" events. It's popular today to categorize fiction as narrowly as possible for social media tags. But it's difficult to categorize this in any way more niche than simply "fiction" because it fits so many tags at once. 

I'm tempted to say there could be maybe a little too much happening here. It's a lot to process emotionally and mentally for an average reader. It's definitely written for an intelligent, quick-thinking type who will be mindful to shepherd themselves kindly through the emotional ups and downs. But there are valuable nuggets of wisdom one can carry forward into the real world as well.

Review of "Fill Me With Birds" by Scott Ferry and Daniel McGinn

Scott Ferry and Daniel McGinn, Fill Me With Birds (Meat for Tea Press, 2024) 104 pages, poetry, $16.95. Order here.

 

Those nights when you stay up past midnight and the conversations go silly and then profoundly deep, that's what this is.

 

Two mature men muse on everything from aging parents to children, to marriage, to health issues, to overcoming addiction, to God, to the changing of seasons, to resentment and forgiveness. The poems are written as if letters or emails going back and forth. But in my head cannon, they are sitting in a late-night living room in front of a fire passing a (legal) smoke between them.

 

At times, it can feel almost too intimate and honest for the reader to eavesdrop on politely. This is good stuff. 

 

Most of the lines I made note of were Scott Ferry's, I think, though I didn't track who wrote which line. If you want to know that, you can read it. But here are some of the lines that stood out to me:

 

"I know now it is too late for/ bargaining// the best I can manage/ is obsolescence"

 

"the face of god: is the inside of longing when there is no waiting left"

 

"Nerves are like brains,/ remember how we used to be? The body knows/ what is and isn't there."

 

"I lost the easy talk/ I did not want to impress anyone anymore"

 

"solve/ hate like a controlled burn/ near a freeway"

 

"I still have a fire a fire a fire"

 

On meditation, some of these poems are darker and heavier than they appear. The request to "fill me with birds" seems to be a wish for a lightening of the soul from the burdens voiced through these conversations. 

 

Introducing "Fingers/Dedos" Bilingual Selected Poems (English/Spanish) - Out Now!

 

Released yesterday and available via Amazon! "Fingers/Dedos" Selected Poems, bilingual (English/Spanish), $10.00 USD.

Sabne Raznik’s latest collection of poetry Fingers, Selected Poems / Dedos, Poemas Seleccionados contains four powerfully emotive poems (“The Bearded Prophet,” “Poetry,” “Through Our Skin,” and “Fingers”). The English original of each poem is followed by an illustration and then by a Spanish translation by María Del Castillo Sucerquia. It concludes with a photo of the author followed by a one-paragraph biography in English and then its Spanish translation. The four poems are extremely different thematically and make use of different poetic languages. The common denominator between them is an underlying existential anxiety resulting from the inability of human beings collectively to understand each other and set aside greed and self-interest, and individually, in the case of the poet, to find consummation in love, and to discover the language in words and images to capture and communicate the essence of her experience. The poet notes in “Bearded Prophet,” she finds herself in “the era of pain -stampeding pain,” one which paradoxically leads her to identify with the “dumb hillbilly,” the bearded prophet who wears a sign that says “The End of the World Is Near.” Impending doom is suggested by images of the destruction of the environment, the open gashes of Appalachian strip mines, trees stripped bear of life to a height of eight feet by herbicide, and the violent midwestern storms intensified by climate change. “Poetry,” the most abstract of the four poems, prescribes in the form of a series of commands (“arm yourself, “leave the figure,” “Virgin love grow bold” which do not lead to consummation; they prove impotent. “Through the Skin” evokes the locus of creativity, where books, and papers, paint and turpentine are present on a table along with cup and saucer, the place where the written word and the painted image are crafted. The poem leaves the reader with a sense of a purpose shared by the “us” of the poem: “to sketch an idea to live by.” The last poem “Fingers” evokes images of a painful, repeated sexual encounter described as a violation, “like cactus thorns raking down my shapeless lines,” but the violation seems not to result from the violent impulse of the other, rather from the inability of the speaking subject to make good on the promise to the self with the words “Never again, never again.” The four poems are satisfying both as individual compositions and as panels of a multi-media whole. –  Yndiana Montes Fogelquist and Jim Fogelquist, Appalachian Latinidad

Fingers/Dedos is a powerful chapbook with 4 elaborate poems in English, with the same poems being translated into Spanish. The poetry captures strong images and emotions: "You sat cross-legged in the grass/And the earth framed your face." I was pulled into these poems and transformed into a cocoon waiting to be released into something with such fingers that would "Feel the bone crack,/Grind against my teeth/As I scream [...]" and become new in the aftermath. – John Compton, the castration of a minor god and how we liberated what secrets we modified

Also, feel free to leave a review and/or stars on Amazon and Goodreads! Thank you! And enjoy!

Review: "Drinking Guinness With The Dead" by Justin Hamm

Justin Hamm, Drinking Guinness With The Dead (Spartan Press, 2022) 163 pages, poetry, $15.00. At Amazon.

Justin Hamm presents us with a selection of his poems from 2007 through 2021 in this amusingly titled volume. While Hamm is strongly based in the American mid-west (he lives in Mark Twain territory), he proves himself to be a strong poet of place wherever he is writing from. Even poems that address relationships and inner child work are firmly grounded in earth and to specific locations.

"The air in this place/ is ripe/ with some kind/ of weather."- from "Ohio County, Kentucky, 1985".

"They come from the mountain, he says,/ Their faces cold as the moon's." from "Stranger at the Only Fueling Station in Kingston, Arkansas".

"a night train torches/ through the dark stomach/ of the prairie" from "A Moment in Kansas"

Hamm is a man walking the planet and keenly aware of roots, of ground, of river, of tree-sway, of time, of turning-turning-turning in outerspace at all times. He never loses sight of it. He has a connectedness to all the moving machinery of nature and reminds us that it is machinery. He raises a toast to it - to history, to place, to time, to people past and present - and passes us the pint.

 

Book Review: E D Bird's "Bitter Sweet"

 

E D Bird, Bitter Sweet (Createspace, 2015) 358 pages, fiction, $13.00. On Amazon.

This is the sequel to E D Bird's Goldenviron which is also reviewed on this blog. As expected, it is another entertaining, rollicking "dude flick" of a book.

Better written than its predecessor, more gritty and graphic, this installment takes us from South Africa to Barbados as the lead character seeks revenge for the events of Goldenviron. Again we have an action-packed plot and the added complication of aliases to keep up with.

Some gimmicks are overused. There is an elephant, leopard, and lion attack. This is a bit much if the reader knows something about the actual behavior of wild animals and it all begins to feel like a cliched cop-out by the time it plays out.

Also, this is not a novel for the post-Me Too world. Again, here is your fair trigger warning. Sex is detailed and errs on the side of porn. The book is rather insensitive to the aftereffects of rape on a woman's psyche - especially that of multiple rapes. While there is an attempt to make the woman a strong character who rescues herself rather than waiting for her male partner to rescue her, it does fall short of real female understanding. Later in the book, a male character vomits after watching a bomb detonate and I at least couldn't help but think these two events juxtaposed against each other only served to highlight the lack of emotional depth regarding rape.

This is an easy read not meant for children. I sensed the author left things open for the possibility of a third installment.

Book Review: E D Bird's "Goldenviron"

 

E D Bird, Goldenviron (Createspace, 2016) 446 pages, fiction, £10.87. On Amazon.

E D Bird has written an entertaining, if clumsy, mystery novel set in South Africa. This is not the kind of mystery you read to exercise your powers of deduction, however. The reader isn't given the chance to solve the case. But we are along for a "dude flick" plot.

The title refers to a gold mining company at the heart of an alarming number of murders. The characters stumble through several adventures - a hot air balloon ride, an abandoned mine, a kidnapping, a hyena attack, and even an AIDS clinic straight out of Stephen King's imagination - in an attempt to unravel the knots. 

Those sensitive to themes of racism should avoid this book. The "good guys" do at times display a less than open mind and the "bad guys" are overt neo-nazis. There is even a smoking chimney. This is your fair trigger warning.

There are times when the author's clearly evident love of cars overshadows the story. But this is a somewhat fast-paced, action driven book that is sure to delight a readership that prefers an escape rather than a think. 

Book Review of T. Byron Kelly's "Poems"

T. Byron Kelly, Poems (Createspace, 2018) 119 pages, poetry, $9.00 USD. On Amazon.


To be honest, there's only so much religious poetry I can take, regardless of which faith. So if that's not your thing, Kelly isn't for you. Another annoying factor is that each poem is dated and often has multiple dates to point to revisions. While that is a valuable tool for a poet's personal manuscripts, it interrupts the flow when transferred to the published book.

But he can turn beautiful, evocative phrases. Kelly's poetry reads like impressionist paintings. For example:

I began by noticing your blue wish day and each black
or white faced cloud seemingly spoke with that other radiant
loving of the air. Transgressing doubt, a music that fills 
my evenings with gentle prayer, this consecration of your endless
gift, orange and gold leaves are lifted and the daydream
continues. How could I forget or be frightened where this
chance began our quiet walk together (though at first I
wanted to run). Dry grass insists it's Winter and the strangely
blithe gestures of women walking alone or perhaps lost
in their rush hour car seats. The completed reaches eternally 
toward the turning soul, where weakness had born belief of nothing,
an insanity of otherness, crashing against our desire for forever.

Where the poems avoid the trap of overt religiosity and devotion, there they are closest to the song of spiritual. There they invite you to dive in and give yourself over to this other-world of Kelly's imagination. There they are true poetry.

Now Available! "Renaissance"

Now available! "Renaissance: Visual Art 2005 - 2019" on Amazon.

and its companion, "Renaissance: Positivity Cards for an Uplifting Day" on Etsy.

Book Review of Rajia Hassib's "A Pure Heart"

LEGAL DISCLOSURE: I was given an advance reader's copy from which to write this review. I was not paid.

Rajia Hassib, A Pure Heart (Viking, 2019) 305 pages, fiction, $17.40 USD. On Amazon.


Some stories are not really about the character who seems the central one. For instance, Arthur Miller's The Crucible isn't so much about John Proctor or Abigail Williams as it is about Elizabeth Proctor. Rajia Hassib's A Pure Heart is similar. It isn't so much about Rose and her family dealing with the grief of losing Gameela to a terrorist attack as it is about Gameela. Gameela, the Pure Heart.

But what is more important than individual characters in this book is what Hassib does best: nuances.
The development and exploration of all the characters are superb. Among the subtleties addressed include differing cultures, differing belief systems, differing places, differing feelings, and differing modes of expression. She even explores how differences can exist in the same person at the same time. Hassib is a master of empathy.

Even the suicide bomber receives this treatment. His story is given in full - his is a full-fledged, complicated, and even relatable personality. If all of us were willing to look at everyone around us with similar context and empathy, violence would cease to exist.

Go read this book and make it part of who you are.

Book Review of "The Happy Mind"

LEGAL DISCLOSURE: I was given a review copy of this book. I was not paid for this review.

Kevin Horsley and Louis Fourie, The Happy Mind: A Simple Guide to Living a Happier Life Starting Today (TCK Publishing, 2017) 113 pages, self-help nonfiction, $17.19 US


Book available on Amazon, from TCK Publishing by Kevin Horsley (also on Twitter) and Louis Fourie. TCK Publishing is on Facebook.



"Simple" is the operative word in the title of this book. It is a handy little guidebook of reminders, cliches, and random quotes about how to train your thinking to a mindset of positivity. Many of the suggestions and principles are sound and beneficial. It's an easy, light read. You can breeze through it in an hour or two.

It is written to encourage interactivity. At several points, one is given a negative list and told to rewrite it as positive and then apply that positive list to one's life. Interactivity is a good idea. One is more likely to apply what one learns if one interacts with it on any level.

However, the sentences are usually written in the negative, not just the lists meant to be actively rewritten. The book seems more focussed on what happiness is not rather than what it is, what one should not do rather than what one should do. The negative perspective is subtle but it is pervasive. For a book meant to encourage positive thinking, that negative slant is directly counter to the message and the result is jarring.

Also, I understand that the authors wanted a light easy read, but the complete lack of references or even a bibliography at the end was a bad decision. If an author refers to a study in the text, that study should be referenced somewhere within the book. The total lack of anything to back up the statements within the text automatically discredits that text. It is possible to write a book with scholarly references to scientific and medical studies in a light simple way. This presentation leads me to believe the authors do not trust the readership's intelligence. Especially in the current climate of fake information, references are essential to back up any assertions.

In view of the shortcomings, I felt this book was written as a kind of children's handbook to happiness. (One could argue that the term "happiness" in this context is itself problematic and part of the culture that teaches us unhealthy thought patterns, but that's a whole other subject for a separate essay of its own.) It is helpful; the principles are sound and can be efficaciously applied. The attempt to include an element of interactivity is inspired if poorly executed. But it fails to implement many of its own suggestions in the way it is written and equally fails to back up its "facts" with appropriate references. In that way, perhaps, the authors erred toward writing too simply for this "simple guide".

Go Down the "Rabbit Hole"!

Introducing my third full-length poetry collection, "Rabbit Hole"!

It marries the found poem with Gertrude Stein and deconstructs existing language to riff on the concept of the deterioration of language as signifier. Just as at the beginning of the 20th century there was the development of a concept that was at the time called New Morality (sin is a fallacy; do whatever feels good to you), so here in the beginning of the 21st century there is developing a concept that language itself need have no concrete meaning. Facts are in the mind of the beholder. The very fabric of reality as it has been known is unraveling. How we as humans communicate with our world, with other humans, even ourselves is fundamentally shifting. The ability to think and reason is changing. And while all that is serious in nature with consequences that have yet to be determined, this collection approaches it in a fun, almost mocking manner. This is Alice in Wonderland with language itself - you are Alice. As the poet, I am the Chesire Cat, you could say.

In his introduction to the book, George Fillingham writes: ""I want the reader to imagine a dream, a dream of the sort that is not quite a nightmare where the dreamer wakes in terror but rather a dream where the dreamer is led on from curiosity to curiosity, image to image, and, confused perhaps but no less surprised by the images, wakes with a head scratch and begins the day, thinking about the world as a much stranger place than when the reader laid down to sleep ... [In the poems where the language is more] extreme . . . the deconstruction of language . . . [mirrors] the shattered state of language today and the impossibility to understand discourse of any kind anymore. It is as if language itself is designed to disguise meaning rather than convey it."

Are you brave enough to go down the "Rabbit Hole"?

Available today on Createspace; Amazon and other merchants and channels within the week.

Review: "The Architecture of Chance" by Christodoulos Makris

Christodoulos Makris, The Architecture of Chance, (Wurm Press, 2015) 108 pages, poetry, $19.00 U.S.

Christodoulos Makris has established himself as one of the most important experimental poets working in Ireland today. The Architecture of Chance is his latest offering.

This is an exciting collection. Makris is fearless in his experimentation and is pushing poetry into whole new forms and realms of being. Most notable in this regard is "Chances Are", which he calls a mass collaboration poem. It appears in the collection as its HTML code. This poem can be found in application at 3am Magazine. It is a poem composed of every tweet that uses the word "chance" and updates in real time. Another boundary exploder is "From Something to Nothing" in which he took an informational text on the International Monetary Fund website and cycled it through several languages back and forth on Google Translate and turned the results into a poem that reveals much about the dynamics of language in the age of the internet. Given that Makris hails from Cyprus and has spent time in the United Kingdom while being based in Ireland, this experiment could be read as a commentary on the migrant experience.

Many of these poems are also political in nature. In "16 X 16" he writes: "I would have been a completely different person without the politics and a completely different writer." This is evident in poems like "Metro Herald's Advertorial Windbags Let Loose, 28-31 May & 4-7 June 2013"(which, as the title suggests, is a composition of adverts and editorials from Dublin's Metro Herald newspaper), "Civilisation's Golden Dawn: A Slideshow"(which contains pieces of speeches made by members of Greece's Golden Dawn party, whom Makris describes as neo-fascist), and "Public Announcement" (composed from the signs hanging in the Skerries public library on a certain day).

Others are slightly more domestic. Some are composed from emails or tweets sent back and forth in collaboration. One is composed from bits of conversations overheard around Dublin on a particular day. My personal favourite is "Heaney after Rauschenberg", which takes all the four letter words from Seamus Heaney's first collection Death of a Naturalist and places them in order of appearance. While soothingly familiar in vocabulary, it decenters Heaney's careful poetics almost completely, as if Heaney fell into a black hole when he died and this is all that is left of him in the universe. In that sense, it serves as an eerie, aching tribute of sorts - even as it seeks to shatter the comfortable traditionalism of  Heaney's legacy. Here is a brief excerpt:

"sick home hard blow baby pram when came hand tell they were away held hand hers with next went into room time left four foot four foot year

grey only from cows into like away iron gate into bank with from snug rise dead eyes used soon this they cock from left hand came came down this sake spat take your time more hole tree wild more said into mare hill back like that were that time ones that back when

dark fill dead cold like they line from some keep full tall soon back fish load from surf bend turf fear make they like clay seed shot seem they show good from bark feel roots pits live live wild land root died when lain days long clay with eyes died hard bird huts guts from like were with hope like land pits into sore stop they flop down take fill then cold

west mayo crew they from when with eyes like bone skin rose fell like they kept with beef men's then poor make food they like dogs that been hard when they with they were hope less next like dark once port ship free tart from good swim sink with zeal were

from that held arms came with have them word dead till"

This is definitely a book which requires the reader to "do the work" (Anna Strong), but the rewards are substantial. The break with Romanticism and traditional verse that began with the Modernist movement at the turn of the 20th century is spinning into free fall out of control as we become firmly entrenched in the 21st (much like society in general) and, like other experimental writers like him, Makris is making sure this is well represented in today's poetry. Only, he may be doing it better than most.

You can buy it at Amazon.

Review: "In the Language of Miracles" by Rajia Hassib

Rajia Hassib, In the Language of Miracles, (Viking, 2015), 288 pages, fiction, $19.60 U.S.

Most of the reviews for this book talk about how this very domestic story mirrors the Muslim experience in America since 9/11. No doubt it does. But being someone who has experienced personal and family trauma, I read it less as a socio-political parable and more as the domestic microcosm of one family's troubles that it ultimately is.

The story begins one year after the family's eldest son kills his ex-girlfriend and then commits suicide. The pain is potent and real throughout this novel. Each character is struggling to cope with that horrific event and the ostracism that resulted from it in a different way according to each personality. The father throws himself into work, and being overly concerned with reputation, into somehow convincing the community to accept them again. The mother spends her days in the attic where she can still smell her lost son. The grandmother flies in from Egypt and takes over care of the household and the remaining children, trying desperately to protect them with superstitious rituals and other cultural customs.The daughter spends most of her time at another's house and immerses herself in her faith. The surviving son, who is the focus of the novel, attempts to erase his identity as much as possible and experiences a crisis of faith.

The most memorable chapter describes the mother's effort to get rid of her dead son's effects in the attic. It so perfectly parallels the actual experience of losing a child that the emotion smothered me, as it should. The climax of the story - at a memorial service held for the ex-girlfriend by her family - is chaotic and comical after all the weight of grief in the rest of the novel. Personally, the son's involvement in the scene read as out of place even though it was supposed to be his moment of clarity at last. I couldn't help but think that, instead of saving his family from embarrassment, he added to it. But perhaps that is secondary to his religious epiphany.

This book is a poignant portrait of tragedy and the fallout it leaves behind. The book goes through overwhelming emotional moments and moments of numbness. In the end, just as each family member found his/her own way through the initial shock and pain, they each find their own way to carry on and move forward into a future. It's true that - in an emotional way - one can never go back  home. Things shattered cannot be whole as they once were. But one can make a new home that is just as dear as the original one, albeit different. And the shattered thing can be glued together again. So what if the cracks show? It can still be useful, beautiful, and valued. That is what this family eventually realises.

"In the Language of Miracles" is one of the best novels I've read in the last five years.

You can buy it at Amazon.

National Poetry Month 2015 with Sabne Raznik: Three Giveaways

So we're well into National Poetry Month 2015 and it's an exciting one! I hope you'll spend some part of it with me. I have arranged for three contests this month as follows (pay attention to contest end dates and details, since they are not the same):

Goodreads Giveaway

The Goodreads Giveaway can be entered at the link above. There are two (2) copies of "Linger To Look" up for grabs, both signed and dated. The contest is run by Goodreads and the winners chosen randomly. Runs until April 30, 2015.

Amazon Giveaway

Same story here. Two (2) copies available, this time unsigned, since they will be shipped direct from Amazon. Runs until April 16, 2015.

#LTLSelfie Giveaway on Facebook

Post selfies of yourself with any or all of my books on my Facebook Page and use hashtag #LTLSelfie. I will collect these photos and upload them to their own photo album on my Facebook Page. The most creative shots will win hand-proofed and signed galley prints of "Linger To Look". The contest ends on April 30, 2015, but the selfies don't have to!

Happy National Poetry Month and have fun, everyone!

Book trailer for "Linger To Look"

Get your copy here now!

Second Collection "Linger To Look" Available Now

I am proud to announce: It's here! "Linger To Look"!

 

This new collection was 8 years in the making and it is now out in the world to grow into whatever it may become.

"Linger To Look" is a full-length collection of avant garde poetry.  It explores the idea that a poetry collection can follow a loose narrative, in this case the story of a doomed love. The narrative is not always chronological and follows a timeline as poetic as its individual pieces. It includes cover artwork by Diana Potts, photographs by Jan McCullough, and select sketches from the "Salome Series".

Available now here: https://www.createspace.com/4922940. Available at Amazon.com and Amazon Europe by the end of the week.

 

Sound Over Sense Isn't New

John Ashbury judged the 2013 Walt Whitman Award and it shows. If you like John Ashbury or most post modern poetry you will like Chris Hosea's Put Your Hands In. If you are looking for a fresh approach to poetry, however, this is not your book.

Put Your Hands In is clever and fun. But original it is not. This is a collection where meaning can be found if searched for, but meaning is less important than sound. These poems are meant to be read aloud and in one sitting, which puts it in a tradition stretching back to Gertrude Stein. Some poems are collage poems in that they borrow phrases from elsewhere - newspaper clippings, other poetry, random conversations - and then mix them up pell mell to come up with something other. Some are composed entirely of half-finished sentences, an approach that is fun for the writer and interesting for the reader. The prose poems are effective, yet the most clever and thought-provoking piece, for me, is "Black Steel" which harkens to concrete or visual poetry.

Hosea here presents to us a crash course in 20th century poetics. Perhaps in an effort to convince himself or the reader that these approaches are still relevant in America today, he has heavily laced them with 21st century references to the digital. The result seems forced - not quite pretentious, but at least a little desperate.

Still, it is a delight of sound. Rhythm and alliteration ask you to consider the sound of everyday, even sometimes vulgar, language over the sense. Revel in cacophony and noise. Just don't expect to hear anything new.

Buy Get Your Hands In at Amazon.

Legal Disclosure: I did not receive anything in exchange for this review nor have any affiliation with those involved in the book's making.

"Linger To Look" is Coming at Last!

Coming in March: "Linger To Look" is a semi-avant garde work which experiments with form and content, and plays with the idea that a poetry collection can loosely follow a narrative. It is a full color paperback, approximately 115 pages, and will be retailing on Amazon.com for $15 USD, £9.94, €13.29. Reserve your copy now by contacting me. Reserved copies will be mailed as soon as possible after release.

 

Edit: Release date is March 2, 2015!!

The Paradox of "Other"

The Hero of Blind Pig Island by Jimmy Olsen starts with a party and ends with a drowning, but don't let that sober fact discourage you.

Jimmy Olsen spent some months in the Dominican Republic and this collection of short stories has a strong autobiographical feel. Almost all of the wifely characters in the various stories are named Patricia, which greatly contributes to this feeling. The recurring theme of scuba diving does as well.

Some of the diving passages get rather technical in language and this slows down the narrative. I was reminded of Moby Dick in this regard, although the effect in Olsen's stories is nowhere near that extreme.

The beguiling aspect of this collection is its attempt to present third world life through the eyes of first world - but fully immersed - sojourners. This book tastes of salt and sweat. One literally feels the heat of the tropical city streets and feels the thirst caused by sea water. We visit teachers' parties, restaurants, rural villages, islands. We find ourselves caught up in the paradoxes of city squalor and yachts. We experience a hurricane that blows away McDonalds' golden arches and having to swim for miles in the open ocean hoping to survive to walk on land again. We also experience violence surrounding opportunities for promotion at a school and have an interesting encounter with two elderly Lutheran missionaries. When we close the book we feel sunburnt and bleached, thirsty, and ashamed of our abundance.

Olsen tries to give us all viewpoints. The underlying current of  these stories seems to be how humanity views "others". Sometimes we look at the privileged vacationers through the eyes of the natives; sometimes we are the foreigners contemplating the exotic. This book is opening a dialogue between the two, sometimes with greater success and sometimes with less. The dialog is always engaging and doesn't shy from a few hard questions. Olsen is at his best when he asks these questions and requires a response, but does so subtly.

The Hero of Blind Pig Island is entertaining, but wise enough not leave it at just that.

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