Okauchee, Poem by Dirk Velvet

OKAUCHEE

by Dirk Velvet

The

Blue Jays

woke us

at dawn

with their

jeering

calling to the cottage

from

weeping willows

whose roots

reached as far into the lake

as onto the land

The water was

cool green

at its best

and gray-black at its worst

Okauchee

nothing else mattered

Not

tangling weeds

floating fish

sinking rafts

Okauchee

it was all we ever knew

or

wanted

of summer

At dusk we piled into the attic

Strewed across mattresses

no longer wanted at home

we listened to

the bats chatter

as it lulled us

to

sleep

( Okauchee Lake. Okauchee Wisconsin )

Dirk Velvet’s poetry will appear in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose from writers around the world — available March 15, 2013.

Photo: Ken Blackwell, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Guest Blogger: Ellaraine Lockie, Author of Coffee House Confessions

This post was written by Ellaraine Lockie, author of the recent Silver Birch Press Release, COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS, a poetry chapbook.

POETRY NEWS

The illustrious Rose Auslander has tagged me [Ellaraine Lockie] to join The Next Best Thing, started by poet Elizabeth Scanlon.  It’s an ongoing network of interviews in which each writer with a book coming out tags another set of writers, and the interviews can then be posted on publishers’ and other writers’/poets’ blogs, etc.  Here’s mine:

Ellaraine Lockie’s Interview Tagged by Rose Auslander for The Next Big Thing.

 What is the working title of the book?

COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS

Where did the idea come from for the book? 

From coffee houses, and the people who frequent them, all over the world.

What genre does your book fall under?

Poetry

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

The lead could be Anjelica Huston, but the supporting cast would be so many that we couldn’t afford big names.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?

The confessions in this book are disclosures of a culture in glimpses into both historical and present-day life, with its contradictions and quirks—all through the lens of coffee shops.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

The poems were written over the past ten years.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Coffee shops, both nationally and internationally, when I write each morning wherever I happen to be. I go to them for the white noise, caffeine infusions, intoxicating smell of grinding coffee beans and the animation surrounding me.  All of this simulates my creative energy.

It was never my intention to write about the coffee houses themselves, though.  I go in order to work on other poems, but there’s a corner in my mind that absorbs what is happening around me . . . and that’s usually a lot.  Coffee shops are community hot spots—places where the full gamut of human behavior plays out daily.  Sitting in the middle of it is like living in a small town.  And if anything seems poetic, I jot it down on a list.  Sometimes that list turns into poems.  And here they are in COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Possibly some insight about people and events and maybe a few chuckles too.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It was released on February 3, 2013 by Silver Birch Press – and is available in Kindle and paperback formats at Amazon.com. The chapbook can also be ordered from bookstores, using the book’s title and author or the ISBN number: 0615727670.

Cover photo: Nick Warzin, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Irony at the Allergist’s, Poem by Ellaraine Lockie

IRONY AT THE ALLERGIST’S

by Ellaraine Lockie

Plastic replaces bona fide flowers and pollen
on the table by a stack of magazines
You think you can smell neroli
from the bittersweet blossoms
on the cover of The Green Gardener
Or maybe it’s the gray cat curled
around the tree trunk that’s causing
your nose to raise its voice
 
First the whine of sniffles sends you
to the box of Kleenex on the corner table
Then the blast in a trombone’s decibel range
that causes a woman to drop her pill
Followed by a continued ensemble of sneezes
as Georgia O’Keeffe’s purple petunias
on the wall waft optic allergens
And oak branches outside brush their own
allergy onslaught against the skylight
 
You know by feel that the flowers
beside the Kleenex are silk
Yet your eyes want to water them
Someone offers a Benedryl
but you can’t accept the absurdity
You feel even more foolish to find
from the allergist that dust and molds
are your real antagonists
 
With 179 needle scratches that leave
back and arms with enough red welts
to evoke a battered woman
You return Better Homes and Gardens
to the waiting room table
Brush against a plastic sunflower branch
And gray powders storm the air
that the biggest welt on your arm
welcomes like long-lost relatives

Illustration: “Purple Petunias” by Georgia O’Keeffe (1925)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ellaraine Lockie is a widely published and awarded poet, nonfiction book author, and essayist. Her ninth and recent chapbook, Wild as in Familiar, was a finalist in the Finishing Line Press Chapbook contest and received The Aurorean’s Chapbook Pick for Spring 2012.  Ellaraine teaches poetry workshops and serves as poetry editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh, and as associate editor for Mobius. Silver Birch Press published her poetry chapbook Coffee House Confessions  on February 3, 2013. Find the book at Amazon.com.

“Irony at the Allergist’s” and other poetry by Ellaraine Lockie will appear in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology — a collection of poetry and prose from authors around the world — available March 15, 2013. The Green Anthology includes a wide range of creative explorations inspired by the color green — including poems and stories about nature, love, envy, food, the environment, relationships, the family, seasons, water, eden, and new life.

Now Available: Kindle Version of Debt, a Novel by Rachel Carey

Last week, Silver Birch Press released DEBT by Rachel Carey — one of the best novels we’ve read in many years. Read our original post here. 

We’re happy to report that a Kindle version of the book is now available at this link. The Amazon.com page also includes the “look inside” feature where you can enjoy a passage from this debut novel by Rachel Carey.

A review on the Amazon.com site captures much of what I love about this novel — characterizing the author as a 21st Century Jane Austen (here, here!) — so I’m including it below.

5.0 out of 5 stars Money is the root of all humor February 8, 2013

By katherine tomlinson

In Rachel Carey’s debut novel, Debt, money (or lack thereof) and class hold roughly the same importance they do in a 19th century novel of manners. She has taken the conventions of chic lit (all the fancy restaurants and mindless consumption you see in books like Bergdorf Blondes) and mixed them with a subtly snarky style that evokes a 21st century Jane Austen.

She is keenly observant, pricking her characters’ pretensions with subtle gibes that are so sharp you almost don’t notice them until they draw blood.

The characters–and there are a lot of them–are all fully realized. There’s the entitled Nadya–it’s her world, you just live in it–and the totally adorable Clyde. Our narrator is would-be novelist Lillian whose work in progress is so downbeat it even depresses her and who is beginning to regret the way her student debt is piling up without her having much to show for it. That would depress anyone.

But this is a comedy, a multi-layered farce that treats money the way Sex and the City treated sex. Carey has a good time tweaking pop culture–there’s a hilarious running gag involving a blog called “shopacovery”–and everything about Lillian’s pretentious writing teachers will resonate with anyone who’s ever taken a writing class.

This book is subversive and sly and extremely entertaining. If you loved books like Confessions of a Shopaholic and The Devil Wears Prada, you will love Debt.

West, Poem by Steven Kuhn

WEST

by Steven Kuhn

In the afternoon, she came to me.
 
Red wine summer spirit.
Strawberries and citronella.
 
In the 4:00 lull, the trees rested their thousand tongues,
deciding instead to think for a while
on whatever it is trees have to think about,
 
and we talked then,
of sacred things like shadows
and symmetry,
of caffeine and buzzing insects and quiet.
 
I think a tree’s only thoughts are ancient praises.
When they sing, the song is a patient one,
and when they are tired,
they dream of summers past.
Trees are largely unconcerned.
Trees are never bored.
 
 “The cool of the evening.”
I’ve always loved that phrase.
 
When the sacred shadows began their tired push for dominance,
she brushed my cheek and departed
to the prolonged thunder of a plane headed west.
She again became the wind, and I again myself,
and tired.  With all the old ghosts for company.
 
The trees stirred, dreaming, fitful,
About whatever it is that trees have to dream about,
and the contrail of a 747 became a streaking comet in the light of a sun
that seemed to be larger when it touched the horizon.

“West” and other poetry by Steven Kuhn will appear in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology — a collection of poetry, short stories, novel excerpts, interviews, and essays from over 50 writers in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Africa — available March 15, 2013.

Photo: “Monet Tree” by Ian Martin, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

I Was in Pismo Beach, Poem by Chris Davidson

I WAS IN PISMO BEACH

by Chris Davidson

I was in Pismo Beach with my wife

and her mother Phyllis, and her husband Greg,

and we stayed in a hotel room on the second-floor,

with two queen-sized beds,

and Greg stood by the open door of the room,

smoking, looking out at the ocean, where he saw,

under thick white clouds lumbering cross the sky

like whales, whales—first time he’d seen them

in the wild, he said. And the smoke lifted

from his cigarette, and the mist from the whales

lifted as if in reply, and all of this

I don’t remember, none of it, not the trip

to Pismo Beach, not the whales,

but Phyllis does, for she talked about it

here when she came to visit last week .

My wife barely recalls it, sort of is

the phrase she uses. All was recounted

as we walked on a pier at a different beach—

myself, my wife, and Phyllis, who pushed

her grandchildren in the stroller, the sound

of water below bringing up the hotel, the smoke,

the whales and waves, whatever else.

“I Was in Pismo Beach” and other poetry by Chris Davidson will appear in the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology, a collection of poetry and prose from over 50 authors in the U.S., U.K., Europe, and Africa — available March 15, 2013.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Chris Davidson’s writing has appeared in Zyzzyva, Alaska Quarterly Review, Burnside Review, Zocalo Public Square, The Rumpus, Jacket2, and elsewhere. He teaches at Biola University and lives in Seal Beach, California, with his wife and sons.

Photo: “Morro Bay, San Luis Obispo County” (Courtesy of San Luis Obispo County website)

Learn more about California’s winter whale watching season here.

The Pause that Refreshes: A Bach Break

Yesterday, the Silver Birch Press blog included a post with praise for J.S. Bach from notables past and present. Thought we’d start our day with some more quotes about this musical master.

“Why waste money on psychotherapy when you can listen to the B Minor Mass?” MICHAEL TORKE, American composer (b. 1961)

“Music begins to atrophy when it departs too far from the dance…poetry begins to atrophy when it gets too far from music…Bach and Mozart are never too far from physical movement.” EZRA POUND, American expatriate poet and critic (1885-1972)

“[Bach was] the immortal god of harmony.” LUDWIG VAN BEETHOVEN, German composer and musician (1770-1827)

“I think that if I were required to spend the rest of my life on a desert island, and to listen to or play the music of any one composer during all that time, that composer would almost certainly be Bach. I really can’t think of any other music which is so all-encompassing, which moves me so deeply and so consistently, and which, to use a rather imprecise word, is valuable beyond all of its skill and brilliance for something more meaningful than that — its humanity.” GLENN GOULD, Canadian pianist (1932-1982)

Listen to the wondrous Glenn Gould play Brandenburg Concerto No. 5 at youtube.com.

Illustration: J.S. Bach’s monogram, as found on a postcard from the good folks at zazzle.com.

Feb. 2013 Release: Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the February 2013 release of DEBT, a debut novel by Rachel Carey. This book has everything we love in a great read — compelling premise, well-drawn characters, humor, wit, and outstanding writing. It’s a literary page turner (yes, there is such a thing!) that will make you eager for this gifted author’s next book.

Set in New York City, Debt — a satirical look at the 2008 financial meltdown — follows a range of characters who owe something to someone in a variety of ways. From main character Lillian Fitzgerald — a recent grad with an Master’s in Creative Writing in one hand and $100,000 bill for her student loans in the other — to Henry Bolt, the mysterious force who owns the bank that financed Lillian’s student loans, and an assortment of other people up and down the debt chain (bill collectors, stock market mavens, the wealthy, the foreclosed, the bankrupt, the desperate, the spoiled, the gamblers, the winners, and the losers), Debt covers a wide universe without leaving the five boroughs.

I see great things ahead for author Rachel Carey and feel honored that Silver Birch Press has published this gifted writer’s first novel.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Rachel Carey is a writer and filmmaker. She received an MFA in Film Directing from NYU, an M.Ed. from Harvard, and a BA in English from Yale. She currently lives with her family in New Jersey and teaches college film classes. Debt is her first novel.

Find Debt, a novel by Rachel Carey at Amazon.com.

Cover photo by Jeff McCrum

Bach’s Biggest Fan Listening to the Brandenburg Concertos

Regular readers of this blog are familiar with my cat Clancy and his love of Bach — especially the Brandenburg Concertos. (Listen to the joyful sound here — with Glenn Gould at the piano.) Every time we hear this sublime music via KUSC-FM (which is currently holding a fundraising drive), I try to shoot a picture of my in-bliss feline, while his ears move to the music and his eyes narrow until it’s hard to spot his pupils.

Clancy’s reaction (and mine) to the music made me wonder what people of note had to say about composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) — and I’ve found some interesting (and moving) quotes below.

“Bach opens a vista to the universe. After experiencing him, people feel there is meaning to life after all.” HELMUT WALCHA, German Musician (1907-1991)

“Creativity is more than just being different…What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” CHARLES MINGUS, American jazz bassist (1922-1979)

“Any species capable to producing the music of Johann Sebastian Bach cannot be all bad.” LEWIS THOMAS, American physician/poet/essayist (1913-1993)

“It may be that when the angels go about their task praising God, they play only Bach.” KARL BARTH, Swiss Theologian (1886-1968)

“Once I understood Bach’s music, I wanted to be a concert pianist. Bach made me dedicate my life to music…” NINA SIMONE, American jazz musician/singer (1933-2003)

“To strip human nature until its divine attributes are made clear, to inform ordinary activities with spiritual fervor, to give wings of eternity to that which is most ephemeral; to make divine things human and human things divine; such is Bach, the greatest and purest moment in music of all time…He has reached the heart of every noble thought, and has done it in the most perfect way.” PABLO CASALS, Catalian cellist/conductor (1876-1973)

“…in his [Bach’s] works we will search in vain for anything the least lacking in good taste.” CLAUDE DEBUSSY, French composer (1862-1918)

“Harmony is next to godliness.” JOHANN SEBASTIAN BACH, German composer/musician (1685-1750)

Feb. 2013 Release: Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the February 2013 publication of the poetry chapbook COFFEE HOUSE CONFESSIONS by Ellaraine Lockie — a collection of poems written in and about coffee houses throughout the world.

“I know no one else who manages to combine quantity of poems with quality the way Ellaraine Lockie does. She is a font of creative ideas and brings the ultimate in craft and experience to the realizing of those products of inspiration, observation, and research. I admire her work immensely.” GERALD LOCKLIN, Professor Emiritus of English at California State University, Long Beach

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ellaraine Lockie is a widely published and awarded poet, nonfiction book author, and essayist. Coffee House Confessions is her tenth poetry chapbook. Her recent books have received the Best Individual Collection Award from Purple Patch magazine in England, the San Gabriel Poetry Festival Chapbook Prize, and The Aurorean‘s Chapbook Pick. She teaches poetry workshops and serves as Poetry Editor for the lifestyles magazine, Lilipoh. Ellaraine writes every morning in a coffee shop no matter where she is in the world.

Find Coffee House Confessions by Ellaraine Lockie at Amazon.com.

Cover photo by Nick Warzin. Find him at nickwarzin.com.