JOHN PHILLIPS ~ HERETIC

J O H N     P H I L L I P S

New and available now from Longhouse 2016 ~

 

With collages by the author
160 pages
 Perfect bound softcover

____________________________________

$18

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L O N G H O U S E

 PO Box 2454
 West Brattleboro
Vermont 05303

A selection of poems from Heretic by John Phillips ~


Heretic


Today I made another mistake.
If I’m not careful, I’ll be caught.

What then? Years ago

they stopped burning heretics.
For me, they might bring it back.

I would almost want them to.

Only then might I forgive them.






This Floating World


Bashō

along the Fuji River

came upon an abandoned child,
two years old, crying.

From out his sleeve,
threw it some food,

walked on.


______________________________




In a dark
in a darkened room there’s a music

a music playing there
a woman slowly no
quickly passes she
into the room behind
dark in shadow the
dark

behind the music remains
doesn’t quite remain it stays by going

she stays now gone still lingers his

lips to her music

the music is not dark it is
in a darkened room it makes not dark
gives a certain light to

light to the lips saying dark saying
light is a woman in the dark

music of a woman

a woman in a dark room of
light a woman

dark light

each in the other being one each other
one is more than oneself or is not

woman is a man loving the woman is a
man and woman loving a newborn daughter in the dark

light loving a child sung to

in a room darkened by dark
lips on lips   light
a certain music of

NEW: a review of Heretic ~

http://www.stridemagazine.co.uk/Stride%20mag%202016/Feb2016/Phillips.Spence.htm

 

I'LL BE RESTED ~

This beauty was recorded two years after the passing of Franz Kafka

My own father was two years old

Blind Willie Johnson was also working the neighborhood

ONE OF US ~

( Farrar Straus Giroux 2015)

"One of Us is a book about belonging, a book about community. The three friends
from Troms all belonged in definite places, geographically, politically and with
their families. Bano belonged in both Kurdistan and Norway. Her greatest aspiration 
was to become 'one of us.' There were no short cuts.

This is also a book about looking for a way to belong and not finding it. The
perpetrator ultimately decided to opt out of the community and strike at it in the most
brutal ways.

As I worked on the book, it came to me that this was also a story about contemporary Norway.
It is a story about us.

To all of you who have told me drops or streams of stories, written to me or commented
on my work: we made this book together.

Through the book, I want to give something back to the community from which it
sprang. My royalties for this book in Norway are being donated in full to the 'En av oss'
(One of Us) foundation. The foundation's statues allow for the money to be distributed
to a wide range of causes nationally and internationally, in the areas of development,
education, sport, culture and environment.

I have chosen to let those who contributed most to the book to decide which causes will
receive support.

I think that would be in the spirit of their children."

Asne Seierstad
Olso, 20 January 2014

I hesitate not wishing to lift boughs off those lost but after reading this

shattering book and for whatever very good reason knowing now

many of the children and others lost, by name, character,

and even families, I went to see what these beautiful

children looked like, and sure enough,

quietly, there is a memorial film

in their names.

THE FIRST COLLECTION OF CRITICISM BY A LIVING FEMALE ROCK CRITIC ~

J E S S I C A     H O P P E R

The title of this book is not entirely accurate.

There's Ellen Willis' Beginning To See the Light,

though it wasn't all music writing, and then her

posthumous collection that was. Of course Lillian

Roxon's Rock Encyclopedia from 1969, Caroline

Coon's crucial 1988: The New Wave Punk Rock

Explosion and the collective, life-changing Rock

She Wrote. We should be able to list a few dozen

more — but those books don't exist.Yet.

The title of this book is about planting a flag; it

is for those whose dreams (and manuscripts) lan-

guished due to lack of formal precedence, support

and permission. This title is not meant to erase

our history but rather to help mark the path.

This book is dedicated to those that came before,

those that should of been first, and all the ones

that will come after.

Featherproof Books

Chicago

2015

FEEL SICK ~

http://michaelmoore.com/ObamaComeToFlint

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-declares-emergency-michigan-over-bad-water-white-201803257.html 

 

 

BIG PINK ~

CHAINSAW ~

(Chainsaw, 1997)

BRENDA IIJIMA ~

this the. this

how this is this

.

life.   this.

.

war.  this.

.

ramped up.  yet.   not, and this.

subtle transitional feelings.

away.  subtle, satin.

walking.

.

You are

there.

.

here.

here is this.

trouble finding.

could function.  This.

.

.

.

coagulating.

.

. . .you could. 


________________

BRENDA IIJIMA
revv.  you'll—ution

Displaced Press, 2009

LIU XIA ~

A Soul Made of Paper

                                      for Xiaobo



Born in the dark hours,
I'm not concerned with what's waiting
for me after death.
I've already lived
a thousand years, long enough
to shock you.

There's always something surprising
in this world. The more magical a creature is,
the more it should display its strangeness.

I'm not a madwoman.
Everything is a sign.
A beam of light reflects off my hands,
then instantly disappears,
getting rid of what stands here,
the various mediocre details.

I observe symbols
and hear a voice in my ear —
indistinct.

The perpetual orphan,
the child who refused to be born,
he clings to my hands, tight.
Each time I try to push him away,
he twitches and curls
in my palm. 

Sometimes, though,
he stretches forcefully
and flies to the stars.

I indulge in singing absurd
and monotonous songs from childhood,
and my sadness numbs.
Mice return to their cave
and I discover a strange
phenomenon: people walk
toward the ground
tilted.

They are turning into animals,
Ha ha! The human soul
is made of paper.


________________________ 


L I U     X I A
translated from the Cinese by Ming Di and Jennifer Stern
E M P T Y     C H A I R S
(Selected Poems 2015)
Graywolf Press



Liu Xia is a Chinese poet and artist. She has been living
under strict house arrest since her husband, poet and
activist Liu Xiaobo, was imprisoned in 2009 for "inciting
subversion of state power." and received the Nobel Peace
Prize in 2010. Empty Chairs is the first publication in both
English translation and the Chinese original. The book is
selected from thirty years of the poet's work, including some
of her haunting photography.

DEREK BETWEEN THE BIG DOGS ~

DAVID BOWIE ~

D A V I D     B O W I E

 

(b. Brixton, London, England 8 January 1947

 10 January 2016, New York City)

THE GREAT CAREER ~

A L L E N    G I N S B E R G    ~   L A W R E N C E    F E R L I N G H E T T I

A wonderful book to be read on so many levels of friendship, literary business, over-lapping connections during a time of war, life on the streets, long before the practice of the Internet and when letters were on paper one waited to receive and great mountains of great books were published, libraries made, and singers were filled with song, not apps.

http://www.citylights.com/book/?GCOI=87286100245130

 

C I T Y   L I G H T S 

( 2015 ) 

GROUNDBREAKERS ~

G  R  O  U  N  D  B  R  E  A  K  E  R  S

Peter Orlovsky & Allen Ginsberg

photograph by Richard Avedon

August 1970

ANOTHER DAY IN VERMONT ~

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2182958/Police-Vt-farmer-crushed-cop-cars-tractor-revenge-drug-arrest.html

 

 

THE DONNAS ~

Owning the stage

MIDWINTER ~

T O M A S    T R A N S T R O M E R

MIDWINTER




A blue light

is streaming out from my clothes.

Midwinter.

Jingling tambourines of ice.

I close my eyes.

There is a soundless world

there is a crack

where the dead

are smuggled over the border.




___________________________

T O M A S    T R A N S T R O M E R
translated by Patty Crane
Bright Scythe
Sarabande Books 2015

LONE STAR TRAIL ~

K E  N     M A Y N A R D

The First singing Hollywood cowboy

(1895-1973)

CUP ~ BOB ARNOLD ~

Cup

Bob Arnold

C E L E B R A T I N G    45   Y E A R S    O F    L O N G H O U S E    P U B L I S H I N G

P O E T R Y  !


   
Poems

Longhouse 2016

softcover

perfect bound

112 pages

Buy now through easy-to-use Paypal, US Orders ~ $12.95
$3.95 shipping & handling

International orders ~ complete ~ $27 with Paypal payment

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L O N G H O U S E
 PO Box 2454
West Brattleboro
 Vermont 
05303

SINEAD O 'CONNOR ~

In 1963 Bob Dylan wrote and sang a song

drawn from the traditional ballad

"Lord Franklin"

O'Connor comes & goes. . .beautifully. 

SMOKIN' ~

S  M  O  K  E  H  O  U  N  D

The musicians here say they wanted to

sound good on any car stereo

Carson Arnold, drums

Tim Horgan, guitar