A Longhouse Birdhouse

Thursday, December 27, 2012

LONGHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY 2009 ~

LONGHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY PART FOUR ~ 2009 ~

Another style of publishing we like — the taller booklet, or what Bill Porter termed "a bus ticket" (he should know, he rides them), because of their design and shape.

2009

2009. Bob Arnold, Cup. Many new poems from a winter ice-age. Handmade and handbound in johnny jump-ups stiff wraps. This many-colored sequence is limited to 50 signed copies.

: I wrote the brief commentary for the year 2008 then went outdoors, early morning, and cut brush for an hour. One of the best chores to do and feel something is done before the heat rises to another 90-95 degree day. This little booklet came from the opposite pole: winter down here in the river valley, an ice storm and no power or phone for almost a week and the poems that came to visit me.

2009. Bob Arnold, Glade, from a woodcutter's notebook. This sheaf of poems of work and love. Many colored fold-out booklet wrapped in leaf sleeve with wrap around band.

: Glade is in the woodlot with the girl you love, working together, making firewood which is making poems. The paper stock for the booklet is actual leaf pressed into Bodhi.

2009. Bob Arnold, Music. Love Thy Poet More and More and More and More! 2009 Three color 4-1/4 x 6 postcard suitable for framing or slipping into the mail.

:a postcard poem made from the longest poem from Cup because it seemed right to do.

2009. Bob Arnold, My Sweetest Friend. 38 poems as one-long-poem tribute, concerning the sudden loss of an older sister who was once a close childhood friend.

: I like this book of poems to speak for itself more than I can here — I come from a family of four: three brothers, of which I am the oldest, and an older sister, who we all looked up to. Our sister took her life in Florida in 2009, or she had an accident, or she was murdered. One never knows anymore. A note was left and it seemed to be in her handwriting. I know the handwriting because my sister wrote me all through my high-school years and very early twenties when I would send her homemade books of poems and she always answered. Including a few weeks before she was found dead, alone, on the floor of her Florida condo. Fellow poets, you remember the very first person who took to you and your poems and guided you awhile through the storm, right? The poems came to me quickly, sometimes 6, 7, 8 at once. I had to run ahead of the book.

2009. Bob Arnold, On Which~Way Trail. Love poems from the woods and the trail. 24 poems wrapped in a variation of handmade covers and endpapers. All with a bent toward different centuries. Very limited and handmade.

: this little book of small poems was made with what cover stock we had on hand, often a pleasure because right about now I was after some variety and change-up. I like trails into the woods — man made and animal made, both go.

2009. Bob Arnold, What Is October. One poem - 4 1/4 x 6 three-color card. Ideal for posting or framing

: a small poem for the month of October. Lightweight. You don't even know it's with you.

2009. Abdulqâder Bidel,/ Adaptations by Robin Magowan. BIDEL'S RUBÁIÁ. 14 poems adapted by Robin Magowan from the world and mind of Abdulqâder Bidel (1644-1721) in colored wraps, Tibetan and silkscreen variations.

: I believe my old friend David Giannini encouraged Robin to send us this translation during a lunch they had together where things get talked about, even hatched. Robin liked the idea, as did I, and mostso the poet translated and the era. We had some paper stock I've never seen again, plus a red variety, we settled around the poems.

2009. Guy Birchard, Cigarette Cards. Eighteen new poems by Guy in this accordion fold-out, three color chaplet with wrap around band.

: Guy writes us from Canada and he might write you from there as well, and his very fine poems come from there or even some British variance or somewhere else only Guy knows of. Immensely entertaining and cleanly built comes every Guy poem.

2009. Hanne Bramness, Winter Flowers. A companion volume to Flower Pieces by Hanne Bramness published by Longhouse. These near dozen new poems from Norway, translated by the author and Frances Presley. Fold-out format in rose wraps, many colored with band.

: more 'flowers' from Hanne in Norway. It's irrisistible when she sends them. We find a vase.

2009. Rafael Cadenas, / Rowena Hill, translator from Lover. 14 poems by the Venezzuelan poet Rafael Cadenas and translated by the British native Rowena Hill. Foldout three color sheets in red sky in the morning papers with signed and unsigned wrap around bands.

: as often is the case, we publish more translations in a sudden spurt of either receiving or seeking them out. This booklet was formed when Louise Landes Levi shared with us the very good work of translator Rowena Hill. Reading, designing and printing and handmaking the booklet was the easy part — coordinating between here and Venezuala proved to be tricky and loaded with twists and turns. Rowena was even kind enough to get a few copies signed for us by Rafael Cadenas, a gentleman.

2009. Paul Celan / translated by Cal Kinnear, "Voices". Love Thy Poet More & More & More & More & More! series. Three color 4-1/4 x 6 postcard. Limited

:first came the postcard of Celan translated by Cal Kinnear, then. . .

2009. Paul Celan / translated by Cal Kinnear, A Handful of Sleep Seed. Fine and bright fold-out booklet. New and limited.

:. . .came a fuller booklet. Too many fine poems to be left untouched, so we made a booklet and got these out to the translator in Seattle. I believe it was Andrew Schelling who recommended Cal try us out, with our thanks, again, to Andrew.

2009. Jason Clark, Abandoned Kingdoms 1-6. Jason's artist notebook of abandoned tree houses from the northern woods --Mix portraits on fold-out leaf with the artist's text, and one poem by Bob Arnold. Limited edition.

: Jason wrote us from northern Vermont that he had a sketchbook of treehouses and would we be interested? Immediately. Down the pike came the drawings, from the field, lovely brush drawings that seem made by blowing grass, ink tipped. Haven't heard from Jason in awhile — he must be out there tramping, stopping, drawing, moving on.

2009. Tom Clark, Single. A tall three-color foldout folio of new poems by Tom, many drawn by the poet from his blog "Beyond the Pale". A union truly between the screen appearance and paper edition. There are both signed and unsigned editions.

: I can't remember how Tom Clark got with us but I've been reading his work since the 1960s and always admired and much respected his hand at the Paris Review (poetry editor) and his realer than real commentary on the cultural scene. He continues it today with his blog. Part of his secret to success and longevity of spirit has been one Angelica Clark.

2009. Andy Clausen, The Old Wobbly's Prayer. A worker's song for these troubled CEO-thieving economic times - Andy Clausen speaks to the spirit of good will. Part of the Longhouse Love Thy Poet More & More...! series. Three color. 4-1/4 x 6.

: a fine sturdy poem to an old tradition. Andy Clausen was once companion to our family's close friend Janine Pommy Vega, and without a doubt Janine shared the poem with us and we said, "we'd love to print it". So we did. That day.

2009. Ira Cohen, God's Mirror / White Poem. Two poem fold out booklet "I woke this morning from a dream..." in wild paisley wrap, one of a kind.

: Louise Landes Levi would often visit in New York City Ira Cohen, photographer, poet, wise man, traveler, and while visiting Ira would share things with LLL and she would write them down for him. This was two of the poems Louise wrote down and said she would share them with Bob & Susan, and Ira nodded an okay. The cover paper stock when I opened the drawer in a store and came upon the stuff, on my knees, beckoned.

2009. Rene Daumal, / translated by Louise Landes Levi. Memorables. Three color foldout booklet of one long poem Memorables translated by Louise Landes Levi tucked into sky blue papers with signed and unsigned wrap around band.

: while Louise was working at Ira Cohen and sending us things, she was likewise going through her traveling bags and finding more of her translations of Rene Daumal, and those came with the same package of goodies. Her RASA collection from New Directions should not be missed.

2009. Jonathan Greene, Feed The Lotus. A dozen new poems by Jonathan in this accordion fold-out, three color chaplet with wrap around band. Signed and unsigned editions. This is the unsigned

:Jonathan and I have been corresponding for many decades. We have mutual desires in country things like Harlan Hubbard, and book love for Thomas Merton, ways & means of Wendell Berry or Dorothy Day, country folk, Cid Corman, the Far East (what better way to put it?) and book culture. He selected and published my book Once In Vermont from his Gnomon Press with I believe some healthy instigation from his wife Dobree Adams, and hand in glove I've been reading and publishing his work all along. This booklet is one of many you'll find from Longhouse.

2009. Gary Hotham, Sand Over Sand . Whether Maryland, Germany, Norway, small poems go with Gary -- this single leaf foldout of a dozen new poems. Limited edition.

: hands down, always, Gary Hotham is one of my favored poets of the short poem. He's as regular and resourceful as that cup of sugar you ask from a neighbor. I could probably publish a booklet per year by Gary if I really allowed my passions to be set free. But then Gary's poems, just one! last years. Here's a bunch to have.

2009. Louise Landes Levi, word on the street. Itinerant poet Louise Landes Levi cries out from the street a poem of THOU SHALL NOT KILL to Israel and Hamas in this one long poem fold-out tipped into violet with wrap around band. New and limited.

: you can see we were on a roll with Louise in 2009. Last night (July 2012) I wrote her a stern letter because sometimes Louise deserves a stern letter. If you're patient, you'll find a benevolence in the person; the same that works throughout almost all of her writing. Her wisdom spans through Jewish and east Indian travels, studies and purpose. She is also a skilled musician, often seen playing on the streets worldwide. She continues to walk and pick up rides on the great green earth that is before her. This was the first piece I selected because it was that good and in my hands that day, to set forth on the premiere of my "A Longhouse Birdhouse" (blog). It was immediately offensive to an old friend, and one I often published, that he asked his name to be removed from anything we ever did again. He got his wish.

2009. John Levy, Jimmy's Girlfriends and His Late Mother. In the world of law and order comes this John Levy short story presented as tandem booklet in wrap around band. Very limited.

: okay, so we got carried away for a little spell here with John Levy. It can happen with John and me, over many years, but then he doesn't keep in contact much with us anymore. I believe he follows me safely at a distance from the Birdhouse blog. Yes, he told me that. Once upon a time we did lots together, all 3 of us (Susan too). Visit in Vermont, visit in Seattle; out there we slept on John's 'Murphy bed'. The only time I slept on a bed pulled out of the wall. We all traveled up into Vancouver together, and likewise had a long and sure relationship with Cid Corman. It was Cid who put John and me together. So here we are re-kindling the friendship one more time, and John has such humorous and wry writings that I couldn't help myself and started to design and print and design and print some more until we made a few things. These are the stories. It came in a bunch, so we wrapped them up in a band.

2009. John Levy, The Nightest. The largest Longhouse foldout possible, many sheets of twenty poems selected by Bob Arnold and designed in three color tucked into two varied papers, heavy grassland and brown batik.

. . .and these are the poems. I believe John said his daughter inspired many of these, and may have even given him some of the titles for the poems. You see the earthen particles on the cover for this booklet? it's all real stuff, and an incredibly heavy paper stock. We bought it all wanting it for John's booklet and we worked at getting it folded right. It was like a little bit of barbed wire in your hand when you held the booklet, or nettles. Nothing like the poems.

2009. Stephen Lewandowski, Meeting the Bear. A Longhouse flip-up booklet. One poem. May be framed or carried in shirt pocket

: Steve was an early Longhouse contributor and came here visiting when things were more wild and wooly, we just talked outdoors in the rain then figured to move inside. He's always brought a texture of the western New York landscape to us in his poems.

2009. Gerry Loose, "Homage To The Atlantic Ocean From Berneray Western Isles". Three color postcard. 4-1/4 x 6. . Ideal for framing.

: Gerry lives on a houseboat and has often moved on that houseboat or some boat in his adventures off the British Isles. We share rural life stories as easily as two clothespins on the line. All day in the sun. And when he sends me poems, I always want to print them for sure. This postcard is one and there will be another one in this bibliography down the road, and I know another one for a future post 2012. But first we did a booklet of poems which I'll take up next.

2009. Gerry Loose, Starworks. Gerry on his houseboat, wood's trail, or town walk blown this way from Scotland --Ndouble leaf catch of many many poems. Limited edition

: a delightful and thoroughly imaginative piece brought forth from Gerry moving on mother earth, his home. We got just the paper stock for this one, which provides a sort of starstruck sheen to it. The poems do the rest. Gerry's writing is as one with his life pursuits, there isn't a seam to be found. That's a boat builder for you.

2009. Thomas Meyer. Vespers and Clair de Lune. A tall three-color foldout folio of new poems by Thomas Meyer, two long poems entwined. There are both signed and unsigned editions.

: I've been forever curious and attracted to the fine work and fellowship of Thomas Meyer, long companion to Jonathan Williams, the rural squire of North Carolina and off the beaten paths U.K., of where Tom was drawn. These two long poems, we think, fit ideally into this taller booklet format and can be tucked into a letter to anyone as riches spilling forth.

2009. Siimon Petkovich, Forests of Clarity. Siimon is not a typo but a real one, heritage part Croatian/part Australian and brought forth here in a 19 poem booklet to announce the Longhouse new year of 2009

: Siimon with the two "i's" turned up one day in the mail from somewhere out there in hinterlands (Europe) and I liked the rebel cry and inventions of most of his poems. So I selected a group on the spot and printed them immediately like toast and butter. We sent a bunch to him, but who knows what happened, or where he was or eventually ended up. Part of publishing are the stories that come with the writing. A few years later, of course out of the blue, Siimon touched base again, and I'm expecting it to happen again. In the meantime, the poems are good'uns.

2009. Bill Porter, The Great Kashgar Bus Convoy . Prose. This account has been edited from a series of 280 two-minute programs on the Silk Road Bill Porter wrote and produced for an English-language radio station in Hong Kong in 1992. We are happy to share this publication with Kyoto Journal. As a translator of ancient Chinese text, Bill Porter is also known as Red Pine. Tall double three color booklets in wrap around band.

: I've told the story before how Bill Porter and I met— in a bakery in Vermont, and we were scheduled to meet and had no idea really what one another looked like, but when it happened we knew instinctively who-was-who. With a friendship grin. Bill had traveled down by bus from Montreal (we were supposed to work up there together, but some family emergency took me out of it) and then hitchhiked the last few miles to find the bakery. While visiting in the bakery (Susan later arrived) we hatched the idea for this booklet of Bill's travels on the Silk Road. It was Bill who gave the shape and form of these booklets we were now printing that he liked to call "bus tickets", because that's what they looked like to this veteran of the world open road. From our meeting he was heading out to Arizona and baseball's spring training. As I'm writing this, he's back at his many storied travels in China.

2009. Philip Rowland, someone one once ran away with. Fold-out booklet of poems in blue wrapper with wrap around band.

: Philip is the master hand at the publication Noon from Tokyo and an equal master with the very short poem. It was one whole pleasure making this booklet. For the hey of it, we also included a long poem by Philip that beautifully balances all sizes of poems together.

2009. Ryokan / translated by Dennis Maloney, I Pass Through This World Four Seasons of Poetry. 47 poems to be exact - all translated by Dennis Maloney. Longhouse, 2009. Many colored fold-put booklet in golden sleeve. Limited

: I always liked the way this booklet turned out, and it's packed with poetry but doesn't seem at all crowded, and maybe it all has to do with the color balance that work for the cover? You try your hand at something and wait for the results. Dennis and I have yet to meet after five decades long corresponding with one another and sharing vast amounts of publications. At one time he was interested in publishing a book of mine that was tied up with a letterpress publisher who was taking his awful sweet time at it, and never did publish it, and I lost Dennis by then and a few others took a crack at the book until finally it came forth from a publisher in my home ground of the Berkshire hills. You can go home again. I learned this from Ryokan.

2009. Andrew Schelling, from the Arapaho Songbook. A dozen new poems by Andrew, drawn from a longer work-in-progress, in this accordion fold-out, three color chaplet with wrap around band.

: one of two booklets from this long work we would showcase from Andrew Schelling's Indian studies of the western plains, nearing the mountains. We found some paper stock that resembled almost a rawhide, a tanning, a skin hide well preserved. The poems do the rest.

2009. Andrew Schelling, translator, Dadu (1544-1604). Born in Ahmedabad. Called Dadu Dhayal (the Compassionate), He was a cotton-carder, an occupation in which low-caste Hindus lived at close quarters with Muslims. His Sakhis owe much to Kabir and other North Indian poets. In sparkle gold wraps, many color fold-out with wrap around band.

: Dadu, translated by Andrew Schelling, was all part of a four part booklet series we were designing up of Andrew's work (none of it planned) combining his trait and eye for East Indian studies, and his then homebase on the western USA landscape. The centuries of writings it entails is mind bofggling. It's a typo, yes, but I like the way it looks, sounds and feels because it captivates the pleasures of Dadu.

2009. Austin Smith,. Instructions For How To Put An Old Horse Down. A tall three-color folio of new poems by Austin Smith, many long poems entwined. There are both signed and unsigned editions

: Ah, Austin. Someone tells me he's about to become 'famous' with a poem in the New Yorker and a full book of poems from Princeton, while studying in the esteem Standford University writing program. Well and good, he deserves everything he can get and has earned. But we published him first, and it was probably Kent Johnson who first shared with me Austin's work, and also Austin's dad, a farmer and poet Daniel Smith. Trust me, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. This 'bus-ticket' booklet of poems are some of Austin's strongest rural networked poems, and it goes nicely with his much smaller booklet of shorter poems from Longhouse. There's nothing quite like reading a young poet who has listened and watched so well through his childhood, and those walks from the barn.

2009. Nicomedes Suarez-Arauz, Bodies of Water. Love poems and poems of rivers 15 new poems by this poet from the Amazon. One of our largest fold out booklets

: a brilliant poet from South America who for many years taught at Smith College and lost none of the sacred waters and jungles and drama from his native habitat. These are love poems and landscape poems aligned. Rivaling only Hoa Nguyen's booklet we published for heft and size. Another one of those manuscripts where you had to take in practically all.

2009. Pell Tanner, The Poems I Really Love. Introduction by Chinese scholar and poet JP Seaton. 21 poems with a deep chinese influence. Many colored fold-out booklet in Asian screen print sleeve.

: crushingly honest love poems made by a textile manufacturer who travels far and wide into China with his own personal odyssey and life work. Not the first time Sandy Seaton brought a group of poems to me and said, "I think these are very good." Sandy's quite right. He was happy to write an introduction for the booklet.