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XXV:1 |
LYNX
A Journal for Linking Poets |
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The sinking/shrinking/stinking economy has made itself visible in poetry books, also. I cannot remember a winter issue of Lynx that had so few books to review. Spreading Ripples by Anna Holley and Aya Yuhki. Hardcover with dust jacket, 5 x 8 inches, 96 pages, English and Japanese, kanji and romaji, ¥2000E. Order from Japan: letters@banraisha.co.jp Spreading Ripples is a beautifully made book in the most professional Japanese style. Everything is absolutely perfect, including the poetry. The poems originated, according to Aya’s Postscript in 2005 after her collaboration with Anna Holley on the book, White Flower in the Sky when Anna informed her that she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Then began a series of exchanges of tanka on various subjects between the two women. Sometimes Anna would send several tanka on a subject and Aya would respond to only one of them. Other times the exchanges consisted of only one or two tanka. By 2006 the project was over. After printing the various series in magazines, over the next two years, Aya suggested to Anna that they put them together in this book. All of Anna’s tanka were written in English and translated into Japanese. Aya wrote her tanka in both Japanese and English. And thus, we have another marvelous book of tanka that easily cross the two cultures. Aya Yuhki is now the Editor-in-Chief of the Tanka Journal, the organ of The Japan Tanka Poets’ Society and lives in Saitama, Japan. Anna’s amazing ability to link the images in her poems is what attracted me to her work even when she was writing haiku. In addition, and this is what makes her tanka easier to translate, Anna has a spare, elemental style of stating her tanka so that there is not too much or too little information for the tanka in Japanese. From the sequence “One String” – Anna writes: dwindling Aya responds: matsumushi cricket and rewinding By reading through the three books of collaboration by this pair one is touched by the classic elegant beauty of Anna’s tanka and the more modern vocabulary and thought in Aya’s work. It is as if the two women had exchanged cultures; Anna being more ‘Japanese’ than Aya. Anna is the traditionalist whose linkage, and style, does not change although her life even though her inspiration has undergone major crisis. Aya has her finger on the pulse of modern writers and her work reflects that.
The Toddler’s Chant by Stanford M. Forrester. Bottle Rockets Press 2009. Perfect-bound, full color cover, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 96 pages, color photo inside of author, foreword by Michael Fessler, $14.00. Order from Bottle Rockets Press, P.O. Box 189, Windsor, CT 06095 The spare open lay-out with often only one or two haiku to a page, with many blank pages and other pages given to an iconic religious figure, invites the reader to linger and to contemplate the poetry. Many of the poems relate to a religious life – one that seems to embrace more than ‘just’ Zen Buddhism, although that seems to be Forrester’s longest and current religious orientation. Due to this, the haiku have a strong leaning toward Japanese images and way of seeing the world, and yet there is something so American, so East Coast American, so clearly Forrester’s own way of experiencing his life. Worth the price of the book alone, is Michael Fessler’s Foreword. Michael sheds light on Stanford the poet as well as the man behind the poems. Many times he, and he alone, gives the background or explanation for some of the poem. And he writes so well it is a pleasure to read what he has to say. Any compliments for the book could be quoted from Michael’s words. Shiva’s Temple –
Waiting in Silence / Wachten in Stilte by Ion Codrescu. ‘t schrivjverke, 2009. Perfect bound, 3 x 4 inches, 48 pages, color cover, and endpages, English and Dutch. Contact max@verhart.org to order. At least once a month I go through a debate with myself. I have such a desire to make one of these tiny hand-sized books of my own poems that I cannot get the thought completely out of my mind. I design the book, even pick out poems, and yet when the words come closer to the ink, I always veer away and make at least the traditional-sized book of 8.5 x 5.5. I love these little books and think they make such a great little gifts to tuck into envelopes or friends’ hands. I do not enjoy reading them as the pages are so small, that my thumbs seem to occupy most of the space just holding on to the book. I find turning a page so fiddly that I will rarely read a tiny book from start to finish. I do love them when I can leave them lying around and on the spur of the moment, grab it, flip it open and read the poems on the two pages chance has chosen for me. Also, and alas, as I get older, the tiny 8 point fonts dim even that excitement. However, no other poetry form other than tanka and haiku lends itself to these little books. And I have such fond memories of the series of handmade booklets that Wim Loefvers made. Somehow it seems fitting that the tiny country of The Netherlands should stay the centerpoint of tiny books and I thank Max Verhart and Marlene Buitelaar for carrying on the tradition. cumulus cloud – Do you not think it would be better written as: the spreading ink blot This way the riddle technique would work perfectly – what is the “the spreading ink blot / on the apprentice’s paper?” Answer: “cumulus cloud.” and written this way one could get rid of the punctuation. And see? – the perfectly shaped haiku. Editors, be alert. Writers, remember the source. Shape up or ship out and go back to writing free verse.
Shells in the Sand by Gerard J. Conforti. AHA Books, pob 767, Gualala, CA 95445. Perfect bound, full-color cover, 8.5 x 5.5, Preface by Pamela Miller-Ness, Introduction by Cor van den Heuvel, 90 pages. Order from Lulu.com Shells in the Sand is a collection of four of Conforti’s book, some of which were published as AHA Online books. In addition to “Spirits of the Wind” and “Sometimes the Rain,” this contains the unpublished “A Dent in the Wood” and “All of Us Together.”
Twenty Years Tanka Splendor, edited by Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 2009. Perfect bound, color cover, 90 pages, $10 ppd. AHA Books, P.O. Box 767, Gualala, CA 95445.
Scarlet Scissors Fire by Jane Reichhold, 2009. AHA Books. Gualala, California. ISBN: 978-0-944676-46-2. Perfect bound, 5.75 x 8.25inches, 116 pages. "I don't think there is anything that is really magical unless it has a terrifying quality." five poems This is probably a little oversimplified, but the first feeling I have of Jane Reichhold's collection of verse is that it has the look of tanka with the feeling of sijo. They differ But here we leave history behind to re-enter myth with sympathetic magic. In this grimoire of miniature spells, the words have an intrinsic power because the voice squirming basket of squid According to seasoned ingeneur, every great magic trick consists of three acts: The Pledge of something purportedly ordinary, The Turn to the extraordinary, and the revelation in the flourish dubbed The Prestige. This is the old gospel of competitive Victorian-era illusionists at deadly serious play. pressure of ice Scarlet; The Pledge, a kaleidoscope of images, phrases, and emotions, past, present, future, driven and blended by the poet; not so much to clarify, but to absolve the reader of while I thought Scissors; The Turn, the unresolved challenges our senses and we are drawn into alternate slices of possibilities. The roller coaster climbs to a peak of perspective. she would rise and walk Fire; The Prestige, the Zen arrow is released to find the target. It seems to end too soon and we wonder how it happened. of bronze and blaze A stunning collection and vintage Jane Reichhold; a gift well worth reading. it's just a piece
FINISHING LINE PRESS IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE PUBLICATION OF KICKING THE RAIN In Kicking the Rain, R.G. Rader gives us unforgettable imagistic poems that are both passionate and sensual. His work has enormous depth and subtlety and often takes surprising ironic turns. This is a book not to be missed. Maria Mazziotti Gillan From the title to the individual poems in this new and exciting collection, R. G. Rader’s work is rich in imagery and music. In these poems, the dialectic of observation is immediate and direct, filled with tension and conflict that underscore the drive toward wholeness. R. G. Rader is a close and sensitive observer of the world and of the people around him; Kicking the Rain is a collection filled with insight, intelligence, and art. Adele Kenny These poems are shaped by their rhythms almost the way the smooth stones strewn along the bottom of a creek bed are shaped by the clear cold water running over them. There is a musical integrity, an honesty and clarity in the words that is a refreshing change from the stuttering opacity that seems to characterize so much contemporary verse. Nor are these poems, as is often the case, a visual nightmare; they were written not to dazzle the eye, but to mesmerize the ear. Vincent Czyz, author of Adrift in a Vanishing City R.G. Rader is an award-winning poet and playwright, actor, director and a professor of English and Theater. He is the founding publisher and editor of Muse-Pie Press, a poetry press founded in the early 1980’s (www.musepiepress.com). His poetry has been widely published in journals and anthologies throughout the US and abroad, and he is the author of two poetry collections: Neon Shapes (Merit Book Award winner) and Raising the Blade: Collected Haiku and Tanka 1980-2000 (poems that honor Japanese genres and published online by AHA Books (www.ahapoetry.com/raisbk3.htm). ORDER ONLINE | |||||
BOOK REVIEWS Spreading Ripples by Anna Holley and Aya Yuhki. Hardcover with dust jacket, 5 x 8 inches, 96 pages, English and Japanese, kanji and romaji, ¥2000E. Order from Japan: letters@banraisha.co.jp The Toddler’s Chant by Stanford M. Forrester. Bottle Rockets Press 2009. Perfect-bound, full color cover, 8.5 x 5.5 inches, 96 pages, color photo inside of author, foreword by Michael Fessler, $14.00. Order from Bottle Rockets Press, P.O. Box 189, Windsor, CT 06095 Waiting in Silence / Wachten in Stilte by Ion Codrescu. ‘t schrivjverke, 2009. Perfect bound, 3 x 4 inches, 48 pages, color cover, and endpages, English and Dutch. Contact max@verhart.org to order. Shells in the Sand by Gerard J. Conforti. AHA Books, pob 767, Gualala, CA 95445. Perfect bound, full-color cover, 8.5 x 5.5, Preface by Pamela Miller-Ness, Introduction by Cor van den Heuvel, 90 pages. Order from Lulu.com Twenty Years Tanka Splendor, edited by Jane Reichhold. AHA Books, 2009. Perfect bound, color cover, 90 pages, $10 ppd. AHA Books, P.O. Box 767, Gualala, CA 95445. Scarlet Scissors Fire by Jane Reichhold, 2009. AHA Books. Gualala, California. ISBN: 978-0-944676-46-2. Perfect bound, 5.75 x 8.25inches, 116 pages. FINISHING LINE PRESS ANNOUNCES
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Next Lynx is scheduled for June, 2010.
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