Sunday, May 31, 2015

ANNE SPENCER ~






Sacred Spaces:
The House of Anne Spencer

photographs by John M Hall
Introduction by Jeffery Beam



Saturday, May 30, 2015

JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN ~





John Edgar Wideman
Harper's Magazine
June 2015

 



Friday, May 29, 2015

MY BLACK ANGEL ~









My Black Angel
Kim Addonizio
Charles D. Jones
Stephen Austin State University Press




Thursday, May 28, 2015

HUMMINGBIRD ~










Hummingbird


_______________________

 


Rarely pausing

Though I have seen


It stop the flutter


Of its amazing


Wings and perch


Nearly invisible


On a wire against


The evening sky —


And be sighted —


And being very


Still, be thought


Of as not there




© Bob Arnold

from DUO
Longhouse 2015 







Wednesday, May 27, 2015

DUO by BOB ARNOLD ~







DUO

 The Collected Bird Poems
1974-2014
 by BOB ARNOLD


New and available now from Longhouse ~

92 pages

 Perfect bound softcover

____________________________________

$15
Shipping $3.95 ~ U.S. orders with Paypal



"Tis another wonderful little book from Bob Arnold at Longhouse.  The title is perfect in its reflection of the Bob-Bird relationship, which is the book.  I love the range of the poems, from tight & haiku-like to a little more easy & conversational, from spiritual/mystic to down-to-earth (or "up-to-air") rootedly realistic.  "Complete" would make a beautiful broadside to be hung on every wall.  SO many to like.  Another is "Duo" itself.  And "Birds," the kind humor.  And "Nest."  It's hard to extract & list the poems I most like.  For a complete account, see the 'Table of Contents.'"


— J.D. Whitney



Buy now through easy-to-use Paypal, US Orders, $18.95







International orders ~ complete $30.00 with Paypal payment







all orders may be made by Paypal or check
mail order here:


LONGHOUSE

 PO Box 2454
 West Brattleboro, Vermont 05303



Monday, May 25, 2015

KEN WARREN ~




Kenneth  Warren
1952 ~ 2015




I just received this news about Kenneth Warren, whom I never had met, but we long ago shared a front cover photograph display and interior article in Poets & Writers on the highs & lows of being small press publishers. From that date forward we were forever in fair exchange mode. No one ever had to remind the other. We always came through and what I sent to Ken from Longhouse pressings, he sent in turn back to me from House Organ, and the poetry wheel revolved. Yes, forever the twain was met. Not as easy as you might think, and eternally thankful.

[ BA ]






WHAT BOOK WILL NEVER BE REACHED FOR?
                           for Kenneth Warren (1952-2015)                         


from the shelf  tumbles dust

dry words, unread pages

there is heaven and earth

Ontario become a dark ship in a lake of gods

your soul was as constant as the driven wind

deep soul, beautiful lake, beautiful water

it is a taking away, taken from us


the subject of poetry as you know too well

a cloudburst unleashed

the evening cry of gulls

sunset below the pattern of storm

driven like sleep finally come

aftermath of black waves

growing wave crests orange


almost all the beats would be fine

in rhythm, but then there would be

a pause, a skip

I’d glance at you, eye to eye

and see the terrible aloneness

what bright color might next catch our interest?

bury that thought  as they now bury you


the rabbit in the moon

was placed there

as tribute for rabbit’s sacrifice

of his life and substance

for the saving of others

                                         Alan Casline       
                                         May 25, 2015
                                         Elsmere, New York




——————————


"Just came to my e-mail to hear of the death of Ken Warren. Ken was one of my best and bountiful friends. So many times our paths crossed and we got to do a few things together. I was so looking forward to House Organ  #100. I could always push on Ken and he would always carefully push back. Loved the guy and the world a dimmer place. Still a bit shocked."

[ AC ]

  I haven't asked Alan to share his poem, words, photograph, but something tells me
he doesn't mind.





ALVARO CARDONA-HINE ~





Alvaro Cardona-Hine & Barbara McCauley 

photograph by Jeane George Weigel




Childhood



the cows walk ahead of me

down a road milky

with low-lying fog



from time to time

I hear voices

above the steady pounding

of the river

then I realize

it's the song

I had thought of singing



a butterfly with two

suitcases of color

on its shoulders

bumps into me







A Witness



I come from the arms of my mother

glad to live alone

with you and you and you



everywhere I look

an odor of light

bears down hard

upon the earth



the wind from the ocean

suddenly finds itself

among the barley







Three Rivers Tie A Knot In My
Handkerchief



now the sun is on the hill

caressing the backs of the eucalypti



from my room I can hear

the cicadas above their patron saints

woodpeckers up the mountain



I laugh a little under my breath

I have fooled the priest

who expected me at confession



my growth depends exclusively

on the broth

simmering in the kitchen







New Explanation



staring at a bird in the darkness

becomes evening     evening

stresses its song     a song



how light

after being stolen

is spent on useless roads

how the wind leans on blunt instruments



large fields are often small







Passage

for Barbara



what I wanted to tell you is on the tip of my tongue

the wind will find it in your ear



it is a day of rain and sun

some patches of snow hold out under the silent pines

flower after flower blooms directly across our path




Alvaro Cardona-Hine
Lhude Sing Cuccu
Alba Books Press 2015





Friday, May 22, 2015

NOWHERE ~








NOWHERE






Strange to see—
 

A sofa abandoned
 

In the woods



Off a dirt road
 

By the river we hike
 

No one around for miles

 


We turn the sofa back
 

Onto its legs, sit down
 

Call the dog up with us


_________________

© Bob Arnold


from the forthcoming ~
The Woodcutter Talks



 

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

GERALD HAUSMAN ~









ISLAND DREAMS by GERALD HAUSMAN

Selected Poems 1968 ~ 2015
chosen & edited by Bob Arnold




New and available now from Longhouse ~

160 pages

 Perfect bound softcover

____________________________________



$18
Shipping $3.95 ~ U.S. orders with Paypal

Buy now through easy-to-use Paypal, US Orders, $21.95









International orders ~ complete $38 with Paypal payment







all orders may be made by Paypal or check
mail order here:
 

LONGHOUSE

 PO Box 2454
 West Brattleboro, Vermont 05303


____________________




GERALD HAUSMAN


Poets think they’re pitchers when they’re really catchers. — Jack Spicer


Okay, now that we have the game field established, start pitching, that means you dear reader. Long green grass stretches before you.

You hold in your hands the ultimate catcher’s mitt of poetry, written over six decades of the poet’s life — imagine six decades. As the editor, I one day asked the poet, as if I was coming by for a cup of sugar, “Say, why not send to me all of your poems written and published over all of your life.” Like I was asking for nothing at all. Well I was asking for nothing at all since the best of poetry is spun out of thin air. The best poetry reads like an umbrella being put up in the rain. What a terrific function! What a way to stay dry! What a balance of dryness and wetness. What aptitude! Let’s go for a walk.

The poet wasted no time, and I knew he was a poet because his lover for life, Lorry, helped him get together all the poems in their sun-baked island home in Florida and in a matter of only a day or so I had all the poems before me, in my catcher’s mitt. Or I was going to make a pretty perfect catcher’s mitt. It would be poems that were lived and made in different locations like Florida, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, New Jersey, New Mexico, California, the Berkshire hills of Massachusetts, along a horse trail, swimming in the bowl of a lake, holding a daughter’s hand, listening awhile and awhile longer.  Gerald Hausman could have been famous, and in fact he is famous because he lived the life he dreamed of with one woman, his children, little bits of money and lots of beans and good chili, with an insurmountable energy for storytelling and writing children’s books, and publishing other people’s books, and traveling the simpler paths, where you never run into funny fame and fashion. You make poems like a baker makes good bread. Everybody eats.

You may even forget you are a poet, until another poet tells you —
 you are.

Well over forty years ago I first found the first published books of Gerald Hausman, like folded up into birch bark they were, and they were poems of the time that could be written on the softest subjects and with the most delicate care. There was such hope. It would be the easiest thing to share if only you could find a pitcher and a catcher — and if you did, and they were good at what they did —  the rest would fall into place. People would come, a crowd would gather and watch, cheer, and they’d play into the night. 

Bob Arnold


OTHER NEW TITLES FROM 
LONGHOUSE


Paypal or check, $2 shipping,  please inquire 
email "poetry@sover.net"

_________________________






Bob Arnold's first 
children's book

"R a i n   B e a r"

~ $12.95










LORINE NIEDECKER
  
A Cooking Book 


~ $15











CARSON ARNOLD
If I Blinked Through
These Windows

Collected Music Writings     
a big soaking book of youth     

 ~ $20









 




J.D. WHITNEY
Sweeping The Broom Shorter

Selected Poems    

~ $15


two different covers ~ take your pick!



















BOB ARNOLD & JASON CLARK

 Sapline     
maple sugaring in Vermont    

~ $12









 

ROBIN MAGOWAN
The Garden of Amazement 

Scattered Gems After Sâeb 


~ $15










 

 


MALCOLM RITCHIE
Small Lines On The Great Earth

poems from Scotland    


~ $15











BOB ARNOLD
My Sweetest Friend  

poems from brother to sister     

~ $15













DUDLEY LAUFMAN
The Islandian 

Poems & Fables
journey to another land  

 ~ $12









CID CORMAN
of 
Volumes 4 & 5

edited by Bob Arnold 
 848 pages perfect bound

~ $50
 plus $7 priority mail











BOB ARNOLD   
Go West

c'mon! travel westward by train 
in a full book of photographs
& poems


 ~ $15









OPENINGS 
by JAMES KOLLER

selected poems 1959 ~ 1985 
edited by Bob Arnold 


~ $12.95











BOB ARNOLD  
Start With The Tree


150 photographs by Susan Arnold
a lifetime of building & marriage      


 ~ $20






FORTHCOMING   NEW   BOOKS   BY   BOB ARNOLD   &   KENT JOHNSON
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