New Directions, 2025
Wednesday, September 16, 2026
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Monday, September 14, 2026
IRA SADOFF~
Thank God they're all gone
except for one or two in Clinton Maine
who come home from work
at Scott Paper or Diamond Match
to make a few crank calls
to the only Jew in New England
they can find
These make-shift students of history
whose catalogue of facts include
every Jew who gave a dollar
to elect the current governor
every Jew who'd sell this country out
to the insatiable Israeli state
I know exactly how they feel
when they say they want to smash my face
Someone's cheated them
they want to know who it is
they want to know who makes them beg
It's true Let's Be Fair
it's tough for almost everyone
I exaggerate the facts
to make a point
Just when I thought I could walk to the market
just when Jean the check-out girl
asks me how many cords of wood I chopped
and wishes me a Happy Easter
as if I've lived here all my life
Just when I can walk into the bank
and nod at the tellers who know my name
where I work who lived in my house in 1832
who know to the penny the amount
of my tiny Jewish bank account
Just when I'm sure we can all live together
and I can dine in their saltbox dining rooms
with the melancholy painting of Christ
on the wall their only consolation
just when I can borrow my neighbor's ladder
to repair one of the holes in my roof
I see the town now from the right perspective
the gunner in the glass bubble
of his fighter plane shadowing the tiny man
with the shopping bag and pointy nose
his overcoat two sizes too large for him
skulking from one doorway to the next
trying to make his own way home
I can see he's not one of us
___________________________________
Emotional Traffic
David R. Godine, 1989
Sunday, September 13, 2026
ALICE COLTRANE THE CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT ALL DAY~
Bass – Cecil McBee, Jimmy Garrison Drums – Clifford Jarvis, Ed Blackwell Piano, Harp, Percussion – Alice Coltrane Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Fife, Percussion – Pharoah Sanders Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Percussion – Archie Shepp Harmonium – Kumar Kramer Tambura [Tamboura] – Tulsi Recorded at Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, February 21, 1971
Saturday, September 12, 2026
Friday, September 11, 2026
JAMES LOOP ~
The End
remember me reader
age thirty four and naked
in a small kitchen
straining spaghetti
while reading the aeneid
to what perilous absurdities
of love and nutriment
would I not stoop
out of the hope of you
Motto
what binds
what breaks
the river
makes
the river
the river
The Alphabet
lucky us as
in its alien shrine
no one, none
boils alone
Universal Ad
sometimes it's just time
for a little something
______________________
James Loop
Metronome
Winter Editions 2026
Thursday, September 10, 2026
ITHELL COLQUHOUN ~
Ithell Colquhoun demonstrating automatic painting on BBC TV's 'The Eye of the Artist' in 1948. Photo: Getty
Wednesday, September 9, 2026
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Monday, September 7, 2026
Sunday, September 6, 2026
HOT FART IN THE TEMPLE (Ronald Baatz) ~
Rain
like children
running barefoot
Haiku stuck
in the cheap pen
I keep in my overcoat
Falling in her hair
snow knows the perfect path
to her spine
Saturday morning
she pushes a plum
into its own shadow
Dew caressing
a young grasshopper
its whole life ahead of it
In this unbombed part of the world
not so unusual
such huge tulips
Windy cold rain
and whatever blinking
is left in the birdhouse
Dawn
no egg
is ugly
It feels good
inhaling the birds
in the cold morning air
___________________________
Ronald Baatz
Hot Fart in the Temple
Black Fig Press 2025
blackfigpress.wordpress.com
Saturday, September 5, 2026
Friday, September 4, 2026
Thursday, September 3, 2026
Wednesday, September 2, 2026
THIS MOMENT AT LONGHOUSE (NEW TITLES) ~
~
WHEN I WAS A POET IN CHINA ~ Norman Schaefer
Norman Schaefer
When I Was A Poet In China
Norman Schaefer’s long experience as a wilderness trekker in the Sierras and his admiration for ancient Chinese poets, exemplified by the ethereal presence of Li Po, informs this etude on the sights and sounds of West Coast ecology. When I Was A Poet In China is elegant yet accessible, with a deep respect for the sagacity of an ageless sensibility still relevant today. Centuries and cultures are bridged in this masterful dialogue reflecting on art, literature, and the vagaries of existence under the willows on the banks of Putah Creek.
P A T N O L A N
Longhouse
2026
available now
New, perfect bound, 100 pages
Prose
$16.95
$5 shipping
NEW! ANDREW SCHELLING at LONGHOUSE ~
ANDREW SCHELLING
Wielding the Sanskrit Ice Axe
L O N G H O U S E
2026
$12
(postpaid)
New! Margaret Randall at Longhouse
Margaret Randall
Book Burning Here and Now
L O N G H O U S E
2026
$12
(postpaid)
New! Jonathan Greene at Longhouse
Jonathan Greene
Thoughts to Survive Hard Times
~
L O N G H O U S E
2026
$12
(postpaid)
BOB ARNOLD'S "SWWIMMER” ~
"Artists feed each other: John Cheever fed one of the best. Bob Arnold was inspired by the John Cheever’s short story.“The Swimmer” to write a fact based novel SWWIMMER (the double “W” is intentional) that honored Cheever’s achievement. In doing so, Arnold created a rare work of art: a stunning trade book that is also an artist-book, an example of masterful writing, exquisite design, and a story that takes the particulars of personal family relationships and makes them universal as they develop the themes of love, loss, abandonment, the striving to return to inner peace by finding a way outward, “swimming” into the world’s confusions and mysteries." — JOE NAPORA
A personal letter from Margaret Randall:
Dear Bob:
As it turns out, I read Swwimmer in one sitting last night. I'd intended only to glance over the book but it hooked me. I like the writing a lot. It seems a departure from your writing style in other books and particularly suited to telling this subtly complex story which--am I wrong?--seems to be modeled after your own son and his life. A very moving story. And the shape and heft of the book works well. I have been working on an essay about how these maga AI companies are buying up, scanning, and then destroying books... by the tens of millions. Part of what I am trying to transmit is the importance of the book as form as well as content. Swwimmer confirms this. And Schelling's translations from the Sanskrit, following the story of that first Everest climb and the lost codex that recorded the legend of the mountain's spirit were also fascinating. A rare jewel.
Thanks again.
Love, Margaret
Bob Arnold
SWWIMMER
Longhouse
a new edition, 2026
available now
New, perfect bound, 170 pages
Prose
$20
$5 shipping
_________
Listen up!
Every book or title here are human-authored and human-designed. People made them. No part of this work may be used to train AI technologies, to develop machine learning or large language models, or for similar purposes without the clear written permission of the publisher.
Thank you! from Bob & Susan at Longhouse
Established in 1971
LONGHOUSE
P.O. Box 2454
West Brattleboro
Vermont
05303
all photos & buildings by
Bob & Susan Arnold
Tuesday, September 1, 2026
ARTHUR SZE ~
Into the Hush
1
A magpie feather gleams in the grass;
today you are not having open-heart surgery,
nor are you strapped to a hospital bed,
inhaling oxygen; you do not mix cement
and sand in a wheelbarrow, nor did you sleep
the night in a field off an interstate highway.
This morning you live in a sparrow's warble,
in pale green leaves trembling in sunshine.
You catch the curling wave of the day
where peas flower on a trellis, where apricot
blossoms tinge the tips of a hundred-year-old tree.
Weeding in the garden, you get stronger
as you dig; you become well, island, field;
out of nowhere, a rough-legged hawk
glides downward with outstretched wings;
aspen leaves flutter without wind. When you've
worked this long, your art is no longer art
but a wand that wakes your eyes to what is.
_________________________________
Arthur Sze
Into the Hush
Copper Canyon Press
2025
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