Congratulations to Joan Jobe Smith — author of the upcoming Silver Birch Press release Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis: His Art, His Women (&me) — for her poem (“Beercan in the Garden”) that’s featured in the current issue of the San Diego Reader. Read the poem — about Jobe Smith driving Charles Bukowski to various locations — at the San Diego Reader website.
Silver Birch Press authors Joan Jobe Smith and Fred Voss — whose book Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis will be available later this month — will appear on Saturday, October 13, 2012 at the Long Beach Poetry Festival. For more information on this free event — which takes place in Long Beach, California, from 10:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. — visit the official site.
NEXT SUMMER
Poem by Joan Jobe Smith
The peaches turned out small this year—
no bigger than apricots.
No one wanted to eat them
one bite off each wasn’t worth it.
I picked them
left the ones on the tree
the butcher birds and meadowlarks
had bitten into, the ants crawling on them,
the funny-looking flies coveting them.
And I left the ones that had fallen onto
the ground, rotting now, because I
liked the way it made the backyard smell.
No one wanted to help me peel them
and slice them because it took
so much time—and I ate some
the ones with a worm on one side
the ones bruised on one side until
my teeth felt sweet and slick
and icy. I let them set overnight
and in the morning the nectar
buoyed the peaches like fat dumplings
in sauce; and I only added a little honey
to thin out the juice so that the peaches
would go farther. When
the crust had browned
and the cobbler removed from the oven
and cooled some in front of the open window
we all ate a bowlful although
it was almost suppertime
and we talked about the things we’ll do with them
next summer when the peaches are bigger.
Painting by June Marie. Find her work here.
Note: “Next Summer” originally appeared in The Wormwood Review:68 — an issue that also featured the work of Charles Bukowski and future U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins. The poem will appear in the upcoming Silver Birch Press release Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis: His Art, His Women (&me) by Joan Jobe Smith.
Fans of Joan Jobe Smith are already contacting SIlver Birch Press to ask when they can get copies of her new book, Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis: His Art & His Women (& me). The highly anticipated book by Go-Go Girl turned critically acclaimed author and poet will be available before the end of summer 2012.
Photo: 1966 Sears catalog.
Here’s what L.A. legend Charles Bukowski had to say about Joan Jobe Smith, author of the soon-to-be-released Silver Birch Press title Charles Bukowski Epic Glottis: His Art & His Women (& me):
The poems of Joan Jobe Smith have the reality of force properly put down on paper…a game girl…she cuts herself loose into the stratosphere…a strange woman, a strange, good, basic woman.”
We are pleased to announce that Silver Birch Press will soon publish a book by renowned poet and famed interviewer Joan Jobe Smith (pictured above right; also pictured are Charles Bukowski muse Pamela “Cupcakes” Wood and poet Fred Voss).
Entitled Charles Bukowski Epic GLOTTIS: His Work & His Women (& me), the book includes rare interviews with many of the women in Bukowski’s life (Pamela “Cupcakes” Wood, Linda King, Frances Dean Smith, and Ann Menebroker), poetry, essays about Bukowski’s public readings, and more. The book is a must-read for avid followers of the Bukowski canon and a fun introduction to the great writer for people just learning about the poet of Los Angeles. Stay tuned.
Pamela “Cupcakes” Wood (at left in above photo) is the author of a fun, fascinating memoir about her relationship with Bukowski. The book, entitled Charles Bukowski’s Scarlet, is available at Amazon.
Silver Birch Press 