Monday, December 31, 2012

CHEERS! ~








Lorine Niedecker
from The Granite Pail
(Gnomon Books; North Point Press)
Back Road Chalkie
photo © bob arnold






HEART LED ~











new year






JAYNE CORTEZ ~






May 10, 1936 – December 28, 2012





Sunday, December 30, 2012

LONGHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY 2010 ~








  LONGHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY PART FOUR ~ 2010 ~





cover image 3



2010




2010. Bob Arnold. Bakery. In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.

Bob Arnold Bakery

: I'm working on real-time with writing this bibliography. I started at 8 this morning after an hour of scything and thinking. Now noon and I'm into the year 2010, after a stop for breakfast, some correspondence, and packing books for customers. An hour before going out into the blazing sun to do more landscape work. It's torturous weather but we'll be ripe and roiling for a swim in the woods river. In the meantime, this isn't a bad collection (Bakery), but not my best it turns out. Only the prose poem about a bakery being taken-over by some dreamers still works for me here. Plus one or two of the short poems. 


2010. Bob Arnold. Gentleman. In glossy photographic wraps, hand sewn in four colors.


Gentleman


:Gentleman is a precursor limited edition to poems that will go into making some of my trilogy of books Woodlanders (Yokel; I'm In Love With You Who Is In Love With Me; The Woodcutter Talks). The cover photograph is by Susan, top of Cannon Mountain in the White Mountains and I'm holding an October snowball in my hands only for her. Or was it Carson? Two loves.


2010. Bob Arnold. In A Cabin, In A Wood. Well over a dozen new poems from the Vermont countryside of daily chores and everlasting love. In three-color fold out performance.

In A Cabin

: more new poems in trial run that will either go into larger collections, or not at all. Share with friends, and some friends come through and tell you things.



2010. Bob Arnold. More Questions. A book for children or the child in the adult, asking the simplest questions often best left unanswered. In three-color showcase, handmade edition.


More Questions


: a small handmade book of one poem said in segments, one small passage per page, getting to the place of no-answer.



2010. Bob Arnold. Save Yourself. In three-color showcase, handmade edition. Wraps.

Save



: another group of new poems, mostly short, and I believe devoted somewhat to the memory of Joan Crawford in the film "Johnny Guitar", where she says these immortal words. Front cover individually hand stamped.



2010. Bob Arnold.Villa of Souls. A foldout portfolio of Bob Arnold's stonework and photographs from a back woodlot in Vermont. A continuation of his earlier book on stone-building On Stone. This portrait holds both photographs and poems by the poet. In three-color fold out performance.

Villa


: showcase of my stone cairns, and photographs, up in the Vermont woodlot here, attached with a few of my stone oriented poems. The photographs are all in color. The cairns remain in their villa, slowly going back to brush and shadows.



2010. Bob Arnold. A Possible Eden. Bob Arnold’s new book of modern fables. With two paintings by the author. Three color text. Hand-sewn wraps. 40 pages


A Possible Eden


: there will be two volumes of A Possible Eden, and not at all planned. The first volume had a bear detail from one of my paintings that I just kept for the second volume, same size books and all. My back self-portrait with Susan is also kept on both books. The only distinction between the two books is a hand drawn number "2" on the back of the second volume. Prose poems.



2010. Bob Arnold. Farm Visit. In three-color showcase, handmade edition.


Farm Visit



: I once worked weekly at a family farm for twenty years. Not an animal farm: more land, gardens, landscaped pastures and fields, ponds to trim, firewood to cut, split and haul inside all through the winter. It kept me in some money. There were families, couples, who once upon a time also kept a handyman around their property if they could afford one. Susan sometimes came with me and we put up the family Christmas tree for them, decorated it and took it down. Somewhere along the line I wrote a poem, like this one (or another book: Farm Hand) about being there. Decorated by me and designed, handmade in less than 30 copies.



2010. Jeffery Beam. Me Moving. A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.


Me Moving


: Jeffery is always nearby. His poetry, life, charm, book love and all is one we share. Now and again he'll get it in his head to send me a group of poems and every time (so far) they hit the mark and we handmake a booklet for him. He returns by sending hungry readers and collectors wanting his publications. It's win-win with Bob, Susan and Jeffery.



2010. John Bennett. Dancing Dancing On The Wind. In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet

On The Wind

: when I was young and starting out editing and printing mimeograph publications John Bennett was one of my heroes. He worked, seemingly on thin air, out in Washington state, churning issue after issue out of Vagabond. They were homemade supreme; something dangerous and exhilarating about every issue. Poets in the issues were either top grain rebels or just part of the crew, but everything in the issues throbbed and gristled. Great stuff for a twenty year old to dream over. Disregard, some, after awhile; and keep to the editor John Bennett who always wrote the tough~love poem or story. It was easy as pie after all those years to ask John to send me a bunch of poems and let me make a booklet for him. Finally.



2010. John Bradley What Is Borne: In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet

What Is Borne


: John Bradley has one of the most caring voices in modern poetry. It's no surprise to me his son became a man of the cloth. We have now published three or it may be four booklets by John, ranging from Hiroshima and modern era polemics, to a sheaf of poems on Henry Ford and his time, and a travelogue by John while in Turkey. He just wrote a letter to me this morning describing how he was fleshing out a new piece on Billy the Kid, and would send it if he thought it was up to snuff. I asked him to send it to me, please, snuff or not.



2010. Rolf Dieter Brinkmann / translated by Mark Terrill. Under Glass. A tall three-color foldout folio . New and limited edition

Under Glass



: Mark marches on with Longhouse and another booklet of his translations (the third) — this one from the wild card of Europe Rolf Dieter Brinkmann, which would later go into a full collection of poems by Brinkmann all translated by Mark. His personal bibliography is revealing an outstanding and rich text of his own poems, prose poems, literary essays, book reviews and the translations of modern German poets. Tap the source.



2010. Pam Brown, Sentimental. In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet

Sentimental


: Australian Pam Brown came to us through her love, amongst many things, of old home architecture and of course poetry, which she is good at. I have a sneaky feeling it was Pam who brought my work and Longhouse to the attention of John Tranter, who then carried it a bit further in the original treasury called Jacket. Pam's poems speak in unsentimental grandeur and grace one poem entwined here to the other.



2010. Alvaro Cardona-Hine. Little Songs to Sing While Singing. A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band. With art work by the poet and artist Alvaro Cardona-Hine



Little Songs to Sing While Singing



: Alvaro lives with his wife Barbara, both painters, high on a crest in New Mexico. Neither are of the wealthy New Mexico art life, unless you consider wealthy as living long and beautifully. I long ago discovered Alvaro's poetry via Scribners and Alan Swallow. In my hands I knew I had something. The books even seemed to want to disappear with their humility and tenderness. When Alvaro and I met by mail, books were exchanged like we all often do, and then a painting was sent inscribed to us both. I hung that up right above where I handmake all these booklets. "it is time / to exist" indeed.



2010. Tom Clark. Jim Carroll. "A poet departs, too soon, and there is a void that will not be filled. From somewhere deep and old the tears well up in the dark night.When I met Jim in 1967 he was seventeen. He had been leading a triple life: high school All-American basketball star, heroin addict/ street hustler, poet." -- Tom Clark, The above is from Tom Clark's wee memoir of Jim Carroll newly published from Longhouse for the Spring Equinox 2010. With photographs by Bill Berkson, Mary K. Greer, and Beatrice Murch. In glossy photographic wraps, hand sewn in four colors. Ready to be slipped into your back pocket, or anyone's. Tom Clark was born in Chicago 1941. Man of letters in poetry, prose, biography and the fine art of proper blogging . A graduate of the University of Michigan, he then attended Cambridge University and University of Essex before returning to the United States in 1967. A long time resident of the American west, he makes his home with Angelica in Berkeley, California. This is Tom's second Longhouse publication along with "Single" - Longhouse, 2009.


Jim Carroll


: there is too much disturbance to this passionate testimonial in its publishing history that I'll just let it rest that someone, someday, will find the correspondence, and the emails, and what even appeared, unfortunately, concerning the book, on some blogs and make something of it all. The book remains in print because like all good things — like baseball and blues music — it's good to have around. That joyous front cover photograph of woolen cap JC is by Mary K. Greer. And like Mary, Bill Berkson was kind enough to provide a younger Jim Carroll photograph on location (New York) for the back cover.



2010. Cid Corman. A Language Without Words. First published by Byways 6, 1972 : Gerry Loose, Essex, UK. Our ever thanks for Gerry to reprint & bring this one back into the fold. A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

Corman 2010



: Gerry Loose in the UK in 1972 first published these poems in a small booklet he regretted was long out of print and one day told me so. So I asked him if he would send me the poems and see if we could republish the poems and bring everything back to life. Not too difficult with Cid, simply keep watering. The plant roots are both shallow and deep. Gerry was more than happy to see his original "Byways" publication re-appear.



2010. Ray Di Palma. House of Keys. In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.

House of Keys



:Ray sent this manuscript, unsolicited, one summer day and being like a scorcher today, we set right forth and printed it all before nightfall. Hidden in the shade of fine poetry and art work by Ray. We stay in contact at all times via a mutual love for old films, great books and some other friends Ray has brought to us with his guiding hands at knowing often what works where the best. That's a handler, some call it a teacher.



2010. George Evans. The Precise Moment At Which, For Victor Jara . 4-1/4 x 5-1/2. Three color small broadside / card. Ideal for framing.

: a rare item, not even shown! from the sturdy historical hands of George Evans. We both have a passion for the late and great Chilean singer Victor Jara, murdered in the Pinochet Junta era, so this poem was like between two homes. I can't more highly recommend George's books of poems. All of them floating out there in the sphere of just too good to be lost.



2010. Donna Fleischer. Twinkle, Twinkle . A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

Twinkle, Twinkle


: Donna's first, and it won't be here last, show at Longhouse. Nicely crafted and spoken to the page poems of wonder, right there in the title. We found for the original wrap a see-thru yellow paper stock, that was later replaced with an entirely different red. If you don't fall in love with that first poem on the title page, I'm a monkey's uncle.



2010. Walter Franceschi . A Good Idea. A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

A Good Idea



: Walter's second Longhouse booklet. You see I read that "Koan" on the title page (where I put it for good reason) and was hooked. The rest of the poems just kept coming and coming and I flicked them left and right down the foldout page. In Italy, Walter commutes by train. On the train, unknown to most on the passengers, poems are getting seen and composed.



2010. Gloria Frym. from Mind Over Water. A tall three-color foldout folio

from Mind Over Water



: we met Gloria Frym, briefly, at the first Lorine Niedecker Festival in Milwaukee. That was in 2003. The poems here arrived after we touched base during the Origin, sixth series I was collecting and editing, and a booklet quickly formed "with poetry / which fits in the palm".



2010. Merrill Gilfillan. Treehouse Haibun. In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.

Merrill Gilfillan



: I've been reading Merrill Gilfillan for a long time, as many have, we're lucky. The books quietly appear and quietly rest on our shelves and the poems or prose is never forgotten. It was Ray Di Palma, an old friend of Merrill's who gave me his address to finally contact him for a pair of booklets we'd bring out over the next year. One friend following another friend down the path.



2010. Michael Hettich. More Than Gratitude . In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.

More Than Gratitude



:there are two photographs for this booklet. Colleen, Michael's wife, liked one better than the other, so we obliged and used both. The poems remained unchanged and content right where they set, much the way Michael is, making less demands on anyone and more into his poems which have a capacity to take off into imaginative storytelling.



2010. Brooks Johnson. the people of the state of illinois vs brooks johnson . In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.


Brooks Johnson

: Brooks, yes, is the son of Kent Johnson, and a poetry rough rider anarchist of a sort. He, with a small gang of fellow travelers, once took on the Poetry Foundation in Chicago, which made for interesting good and bad press for everyone. A lover of Cesar Vallejo, Brooks lives up to some of what the master may have asked of him.



2010. George Kalamaras. Mingus Mingus Mingus . In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.

Mingus



: of the many of George Kalamras's loves, music is up there, along with western USA lore, India, surrealism, the work of Robert Kelly, and beagles. The poems collected in this booklet are all jazz players in poem portraits by George thriving to the strum of the beat.



2010. John Latta. A Year (Days Off). In three-color fold out performance. Pamphlet.

John Latta



: for at least a year I was turning daily to John Latta's poems on his blog and collecting myself inside the rhythm and intelligence of his world. This is a clutch of such poems, dedicated to Kent Johnson and all things wildly caught between book covers. The list of authors and thinkers he catches in his galaxy net is becoming.



2010. Dudley Laufman. Scything . A tall three-color foldout folio . New and limited edition

Scything



: Dudley is now 81 years old this year and remains constant at the two or three worlds he has long inhabited: fiddling, poetry, and rural ways. He was at Newport when Dylan was making some early trouble there (Dudley was fiddling with a band) and for decades later has fiddled and called contra dances, read his poem publicly with many poets, and kept a small sustained homestead in the Craftsbury region of New Hampshire. It was a pleasure to finally get some of Dudley's rural stories, characters, narratives, poetry into a booklet to share. "Jacqueline" is his wife, fiddling partner, and anchor.



2010. John Levy. Research Regarding Poetry and Driving. A half dozen new prose poems, some first published in U.K., (Stride) and here at Longhouse on the Longhouse Birdhouse. In three-color fold out performance.

Research



: John is showing up this time with a booklet of prose poems. The third in a series of Longhouse booklets that range from a short story, to a collection of poems, and now the prose poems, often quite humorous.



2010. Ed Markowski. A Chinese Box . A tall three-color foldout folio.

Ed Markowski.

: I love this story. I did when I first read it as something shared between Ed and I, then I thought how good this would be to share with others, and wouldn't it be something if we could get it all to behave and fit into one of our booklets. It did so. Starting from working in an auto plant in Michigan and then out and free with a girl at the time, the open road, and even a stop over at the Naropa Institute, and soon enough jail.



2010. Joseph Massey. Mock Orange . A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

Mock Orange


: by now we have published three or four of Joe Massey's small foldout booklets. Each one comes along with a small but mighty contingent of faithful readers asking for a copy, Joe hid out somewhere in northern California making-do, with occasional pleas from him to send a booklet here and yonder. We got a thing going.


2010. Marcia Roberts. Collagraphs. A tall three-color foldout folio

 


Collagraph

: Marcia Roberts has had three books of poems published by Skanky Possum or Effing Press, both out of hot-stuff Texas. Have a look at these fine presses. We were able to further the Marcia run in Origin, 6th series and later came a generous book of poems What She Knew from BlazeVox. Marcia lives with her family in San Antonio where one senses the Texas space here in Collagraphs.



2010. Norman Schaeffer. Little Sierra Nevada Poems . A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band. With photograph by Kevin Garner, looking from Lone Pine to Mt. Whitney.


Schaeffer


: this is the first of two booklets we especially enjoyed making with Norman from first his years of hiking the high crest of the Sierra Nevada, to later love poems at home in the Pacific Northwest. It wasn't easy paring the Sierra poems down to an essential backpack duty, but here it is. They each resonate with a scope of mountains and rivers and rising heights. The love poems are coming up. . .



2010. Andrew Schelling. Arapaho Songbook II . A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

Arapaho

: Andrew's part-two to the world of Arapaho, equally as balanced and arrow-flight as the first booklet.



2010. David Shapiro. "To THE EARTH or A LAST POEM" . Love Thy Poet Spring Equinox 2010. Three color 4-1/4 x 6 postcard suitable for framing or slipping into the mail.


Shapiro



: it turns out this passage comes out of a poem already published by the poet but how we've presented it here on a postcard (not yet recognizing it came out of an earlier poem) it lives a whole other existence. Since it was sent to us by David this way, we go this way.



2010. Daniel Smith. Fatherland . New poems from this midwest farmer & poet detailing generations of hardwork and earned abilities, plus pulling up stakes from one long term family farm in Illinois for Wisconsin. In three-color fold out performance.

Fatherland


: well heeled poems out of a midwest farm family. Dan works the soil and his poems with the same ingredient of care and understanding. The father of poet Austin Smith, the family has within the last few years re-located farm and life to Wisconsin where Dan holds a steady hand between the farm work and the poems that call.



2010. Simon Vinkenoog / Translations by Gerard Bellaart, Frederique Berringer, Louise Landes Levi & Hans Plomp and afterword by Louise Landes Levi. SIMON VINKENOOG  poems: 1950-2006 A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

Vinkenoog



: with an afterword by Louise Landes Levi who also sent some of the poems our way, along with artist and Cold Turkey Press extraordinaire Gerard Bellaart, an eventual small selected poems was made for the legendary bohemian from Amsterdam who passed away a year earlier. All tribute.



 2010. Vassilis Zambaras. IN CREDIBLE EVIDENCE . A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.

2010. Vassilis Zambaras. IN CREDIBLE EVIDENCE . A three color fold-out booklet of poems with wrap around band.


: long ago, when he was living in the Northwest, we published Vassilis in our early pages of Longhouse and other publications — so it was more than good to have him back to bring forth a short booklet of many poems which we sent to him in his homeland of Greece.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

ICE vs. PISTOL ~
(H-O-R-S-E)









archive


CLARK COOLIDGE ~





clark coolidge
when he played drums for
serpent power
(1967)






A FELT SUCCESS


Learn how to put things will you?       the pencil
won't stop probing       miracles occur down the tube
ink in your shoes through a flatter hat you couldn't
run    a whole airplane lost in the Atlantic
Never to be done again the Pacific gleaming
put on orange pants for trawler duty
there's something in the learning glass apparently
peppermint will improve you Palmer Method
she's alive but she's a mess      torque you see
that's an idea       an alum shield the duration
THUD       somebody's here       the pain will kill her
the blood will hurt a lot very much can't stand it
the survivors stood on a shutter while the sun
made with the steady blinks and moved multitudes








READ ONCE


Put on this wig and fiddle with those bottles
weak hands in a vast landscape       resultant
the effect of certain chests       see if you can
set this safe       a potpourri of betters
there are certain Houdinis       obstacles here
the pen flows where the brain cramps
the city blows only the museum remains
a laying-on of wee surprises       use no orioles
there are other-colored collars       statistical fillings
moldings of the Gold Octet      those boys
occupational blizzards at cop-out speed       were you
a Nazarene?       a localizer   bittersweet       fat port
the fog is a washout       come home
no matter the obstacle falls       come








DOWN AT GRANNY'S CAVE


Anyone interested in art is welcome to shoot up the place
auto mechanics washing down church sides
an iron clock interrupts the grammar lesson
thumbtacks in the coffee you better listen
a split second blink could do it       kill some
too few downturns in your m's       pouting over
a box loading operation   some temper with your tunes?
reflections in the snow?       nobody'll ever
you mean it?       lot of stone too much telephone
yellowjackets as a coat       nightmare as a lock
then only a peck of lemons       nobody cares where you are
the eve of optics       Orlando Cepeda knows
The Shadow stirs       losses all around
the creek turns into a reservoir and explodes








THINK THIS


You don't understand       from now on
we'll have grey fun       lodged in the skull
it seemed a mind or violin frog?
real striper teacher       a car cheat
the clearance to admire sheer doors
the rest suspended by naked strands
couldn't make up their minds       was it
a home or a gallery they lived in?
a most tiring mist had come over them
so they attended bed       turned off all that stuff
had been speaking the wrong language all their lives
please sharpen those       the basement is full of Serbs
I'm positive       as wrong as I've been
the field is full of notes not dates


CLARK COOLIDGE
88 SONNETS
Fence Books, 2012













Thursday, December 27, 2012

LONGHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY 2009 ~









LONGHOUSE BIBLIOGRAPHY PART FOUR ~ 2009 ~


 

cover image 2

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.

Cup


: 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


: 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.

My Sweetest 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.
On Which-Way Trail


: 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

What Is October


: 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.

Bidel


: 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.

Cigarette Cards. 

: 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.


Winter Flowers.


: 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.

Lover


: 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


Voices

: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.

A Handful of Sleep Seed.


:. . .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.

Abandoned Kingdoms 1-6. 


: 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.


Single


: 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.

The Old Wobbly's Prayer.

: 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. 


God's Mirror / White Poem


: 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.

Memorables


 : 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


Feed The Lotus.


: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.

Sand Over Sand


: 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.

word on the street.


: 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.

Jimmy's Girlfriends and His Late Mother


: 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.



The Nightest.


. . .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


Meeting the Bear


: 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


Starworks


: 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.



. Vespers & Clair de Lune


: 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

Forests of Clarity


: 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.



The Great Kashgar Bus


: 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.

someone one once ran away with



: 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 Pass Through This World Four Seasons of Poetry.


: 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.


from the Arapaho Songbook


: 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


: 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


Instructions For How To Put An Old Horse Down 


: 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 


Bodies of Water


: 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.

The Poems I Really Love.


: 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.





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