Monday, May 31, 2021

GLENN HUGHES, "PREPARING TO WAKE UP" ~

NEW FROM LONGHOUSE






Three color booklet of new poems

by Glenn Hughes


 in fold-out splendor



____________________________

 $12, postpaid


$15.95 signed, postpaid


________________________


      (International orders please inquire)




order through Paypal with free shipping 

(use our email address of longhousepoetry@gmail.com)

or a check to:

Longhouse, PO Box 2454, West Brattleboro, VT 05303





Longhouse

Publishers & Booksellers

Green River, Vermont

2021









Sunday, May 30, 2021

JULIA OLDER ~

 





Julia came from the wonderful old school of intimacy —

her letters to me were forever immediate and drawn from her

rural surroundings of New Hampshire, even as she was sharing translations

by Vian and Quasimodo which we published. I had known her long ago from

her books of poems with Unicorn Press — Alan Brilliant, the proprietor and legendary

printer and publisher already had the fix on one more poet we all should be reading.

Out of the blue, like an owl's call, came news that Julia had passed away. She was

with us but a moment ago.

                                                                       [ BA ]



Julia Older 

Peterborough, NH — Writer Julia Older died at age 79 on April 17, 2021, in Peterborough, NH. Born May 25, 1941, in Chicago, IL., she and writer Steve Sherman settled in Hancock, NH, in 1972, where she lived until the end of her life. She is survived by Steve Sherman, sisters Priscilla Older and Deborah Hall, nieces and nephews, and many dear friends. 

You can get some sense of Julia's life from lists of books she published, and fellowships, awards, and honors she received for her writing over many years. Julia was pleased by formal recognition and grateful for assistance (she loved her residencies at Yaddo and MacDowell for the peace and freedom they offered), but she always went her own way, pursued only subjects that engaged her imagination, and developed talents in many areas besides writing. From childhood she adored dance, and in her 70s she seriously took up ballet again. A fine flutist, for years she soloed and played in various ensembles, for pleasure and for income. As a young single woman she roamed other countries—hitchhiking through France, writing in a seaside town in Italy, studying and teaching in Mexico, playing the flute in Brazil. After moving to New Hampshire, she came to know and love her own region — Grand Monadnock; the Isles of Shoals; the woods, lakes, coast, and byways of New Hampshire. She made friends with the birds outside her window and knew native plants. Many of her writings reflect her devotion to the place where she lived. Still, by nature and education she was a cosmopolitan, and in her imagination she continued to roam widely, producing a poem and radio drama about a mysterious ancient artifact, a sequence of poems about an early Persian feminist, two well-regarded translations of avant-garde French writer Boris Vian's stories, and translations of Italian Salvatore Quasimodo's poems. The last she was working on when she died. You can find Julia's publications in local libraries and at Toadstool Bookshops. 

From the time they met at MacDowell Colony and through-hiked the Appalachian Trail for their honeymoon, Steve Sherman was at Julia's side, collaborating with her, cheering her on, caring for her when she was ill, and responding to her work. Friends and family will always remember what fun it was to be with them—enjoying their fabulous meals, laughing and talking, lifted by Julia's gaiety, capacity for life, generosity, and perhaps by seeing her launch into a pirouette or two just for the joy of it.


To Plant Memorial Trees in memory, please visit our Sympathy Store.
Published in Monadnock Ledger-Transcript on May 27, 2021.

Thursday, May 27, 2021

THE LOST ART OF READING ~

 




_________________________________


Another title taken off the shelf
of my separate library of 
only small books built into
 the door casing of our bedroom door —
books on one side, beauty on the other side —
I returned to read this book after a few years
and it doesn't disappoint the true reader,
the fabulous reader (one with always a book going, always)
journeying with us into the world of
 forgotten authors like Alexander Trocchi
which is handled masterfully, this heroin
soaked master storyteller and also into
the young mind of Frank Conroy's Stop-Time
and somehow, even after reading 
forever portraits of Malcolm Lowry
and Jack Kerouac, Ulin has us on the road
with him and to poignant locations for
both authors, particularly Lowry, who
Ulin portrays vividly in one or two pages —
Then Ulin, darn it, ruins all the
care and culture of reading,
the passion that is essential
by bothering himself and thus us
with the stupid subject of the Internet.
As if it really means anything to the
passion of reading.
Book reading.
The art form
that many have died for, 
stolen, hoarded, hugged.
The Internet is a mere pest
compared to reading
Cain's Book.

[ BA ]


Sasquatch Books
2010


 

Wednesday, May 26, 2021

BOB DYLAN WELCOMES ~

 



BACK ROAD CHALKIE

Spring 2021





Monday, May 24, 2021

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

MOVE (A CRIME) ~

 




M O V E




MALCOLM X ARISING ~

 




R E A D      M E


The Dead Are Arising

The Life of Malcom X

Les Payne, Tamara Payne

Norton 2020


Malcolm X guards his family in an iconic Ebony photo





Tuesday, May 18, 2021

Monday, May 17, 2021

SEBASTIAN MATTHEWS ~

 New from Longhouse, Spring 2021 !

Sebastian Matthews ~ Best of the Classic Years





Three color booklet of new poems

by Sebastian in fold-out splendor.


 $8.95



(International orders please inquire)



order through Paypal with free shipping (use our email address of poetry@sover.net)



or a check to

Longhouse, PO Box 2454, West Brattleboro, VT 05303





Longhouse

Publishers & Booksellers

Green River, Vermont

2021




Saturday, May 15, 2021

Wednesday, May 12, 2021

LORINE NIEDECKER ~

 



HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORINE !

In Scotland they remember you!





LORINE NIEDECKER ~

 





My friend tree

I sawed you down

but I must attend

an older friend

the sun








You are my friend —

you bring me peaches

and the high bush cranberry

                        you carry

my fishpole


you water my worms

you patch my boot

with your mending kit

                        nothing in it

but my hand








Paul    

         when the leaves

                  fall


from their stems

          that lie thick

                   on the walk


in the light

          of the full note

                     the moon


playing

          to leaves

                       when they leave


the little

           thin things

                        Paul








I knew a clean man

but he was not for me.

Now I sew green aprons

over covered seats.  He


wades the muddy water fishing,

falls in, dries his last pay-check

in the sun, smooths it out

in Leaves of Grass.  He's

the one for me.








Remember my little granite pail?

The handle of it was blue.

Think what's got away in my life —

Was enough to carry me thru.



_________________________________


Lorine Niedecker

from The Granite Pail

Gnomon Press, 1995

reprinted by permission of Bob Arnold

Literary Executor for the estate of Lorine Niedecker


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, LORINE


photograph above:

Lorine Niedecker playing the ukelele near the Rock River as a young woman.

Hoard Historical Museum.



Monday, May 10, 2021

MERRILL GILFILLAN ~ TUNES MEANT FOR WHISTLING

 New from Longhouse, Spring 2021 ~



Merrill Gilfillan

TUNES MEANT FOR WHISTLING






Three color booklet of new poems

by Merrill in fold-out splendor.

Both signed and unsigned editions.




Signed limited edition $20
Unsigned $12.95



(International orders please inquire)



order through Paypal with free shipping (use our email address of poetry@sover.net)



or a check to

Longhouse, PO Box 2454, West Brattleboro, VT 05303





Longhouse

Publishers & Booksellers

Green River, Vermont

2021







Sunday, May 9, 2021

Friday, May 7, 2021

Tuesday, May 4, 2021

Monday, May 3, 2021

FRED JORDAN, PUBLISHER AT GROVE PRESS ~

 




F R E D       J O R D A N







ROOT, HOG, OR DIE (A Beautiful Film)~

 




 by Rawn Fulton and Newbold Noyes

black and white, 56 min, 1978, digitally remastered 2014

From early Colonial times, the rural hilltowns of New England have been home to generations of dairy farmers. They earned their living through a remarkably varied combination of seasonal activities and incessant daily chores — maple sugaring, plowing, planting, cultivating, haying, logging, clearing fields, building stone walls, mending fences, harvesting crops, cutting, splitting and stacking firewood, breeding, doctoring, trading and slaughtering their cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens and horses; while also daily milking & feeding their herds, mucking stalls, cooking, cleaning, tending home fires and raising their families.

All the while they supported each other in tightly knit communities sustained by shared values, mutual needs, and respect for the land.

When Jefferson envisioned the citizenry essential for the success of America's experiment in democracy, these were very possibly the type of agrarian people he well knew and had in mind: self-reliant, hard-working, good-humored, neighborly, and blessed with common sense.

Root Hog or Die is a portrait of a living remnant of this once pervasive but rapidly vanishing way of life. Filmed in 1973 in hilltowns across Western Massachusetts and Southern Vermont, it follows the cycle of the farming year from spring to winter. In its course we visit with an array of elders, who reflect on farming's deep natural patterns, share their family histories and personal memories, and ponder the inevitable forces of technological and social change they have endured. The bittersweet nature of their challenges is manifest, as is the quiet pride they take in their lives as farmers.

“A significant contribution to American oral history.” — Alan Lomax

“A must for every American Studies program.” — Robert Gardner












Saturday, May 1, 2021