Fish, poem by Gaia Holmes

FISH
Poem by Gaia Holmes 

“There are plenty more
fish in the sea,”
he tells you with conviction
knowing, as he does,
the whole spectrum
of glitter, silver fin and gill.
 
He knows fish
that would shock
with their electric,
sheepish fish that graze
on plankton, sea furze
and the moss
that clads shipwrecks.
 
He knows fish
that you can trust
for their regularity,
fish that get high
on the lights
of midnight trawlers,
fish that freeze
mesmerized
by the clank and hum
of ocean liners.
 
He knows fish
that fall in love
with pebbles,
fish that get giddy
when wind
fingers the waves.
 
He knows fish
that would gracefully
take your hook
into their mouths
without wincing.

“Fish” and two other poems by Gaia Holmes appear in the  Silver Birch Press Silver Anthology, available at Amazon.com.

Illustration: Drylcon Graphics

Silver, poem by Winston Tong

SILVER
Poem by Winston Tong

Shining, sterling, sublime,
Incandescent, incisive, immortal
Laborious, luminous, lambent,
Valued, venerable, versatile,
Elemental, enduring, esteemed,
Regal, reflective, radiant
Silver.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Winston Tong is a celebrated actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his vocal work in Tuxedomoon and for winning a 1978 Obie Award in puppetry for Bound Feet. He appeared in the 1981 documentary Theater in Trance by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who shot the film in 1981 at the Theaters of the World Festival in Cologne, Germany. Tong’s career, including solo activity, was examined in detail in Isabelle Corbisier’s Tuxedomoon biography Music for Vagabonds—the Tuxedomoon Chronicles (2008).
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Winston Tong‘s work is featured — along with writing from more than 60 other authors — in the Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose (November 2012). The 240-page book is available in paperback or Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

New Kindle Release: Everything Is Epic by Michael C. Keith

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce that a Kindle version is now available of EVERYTHING IS EPIC, stories by Michael C. Keith.

In the collection of 18 stories, a wife discovers her spouse does not always cry wolf, a son finds his father’s seemingly odd behavior is anything but, a raging sea delivers a young woman’s fantasy lover, an inexplicable event disrupts life on the planet, a long-perished civil rights activist saves a young man from humiliation, and visitors from another world wreak havoc by curing all earthly ills.

“From the relentlessly restless imagination of Michael C. Keith comes his latest collection, EVERYTHING IS EPIC. With his usual outrageous characters, poignant storylines, and exceptional writing, Keith has once again earned his place as one of our very favorite writers.” 

Robin Statton, BOSTON LITERARY MAGAZINE

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Michael C. Keith is the author of over twenty books on electronic media, among them Talking Radio, Voices in the Purple Haze, Radio Cultures, Signals in the Air, and the classic textbook The Radio Station. The recipient of numerous awards in his academic field, he is also the author of dozens of journal articles and short stories and has served in a variety of editorial positions. In addition, he is the author of an acclaimed memoir (The Next Better Place, published by Algonquin Books), a young adult novel (Life is Falling Sideways), and four story anthologies––Of Night and Light, And Through the Trembling Air, Sad Boy, and Hoag’s Object. He has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Pen/O.Henry Award and was a finalist for the National Indie Excellence Award for short fiction anthology. He lives near Boston.

The paperback version of EVERYTHING IS EPIC, released in early April, has already garnered impressive five-star reviews on Amazon.com.

Find EVERYTHING IS EPIC in a Kindle version here.

New Release: Gerald Locklin New and Selected Poems (1967-2007)

Silver Birch Press is pleased to announce the April 2, 2013 release of Gerald Locklin New and Selected Poems (1967-2007) — a rerelease of the poetry featured in the 2008 edition of the same title issued by World Parade Books, edited and with a foreword by Paul Kareem Tayyar. The 172-page book — which features over 100 of Locklin’s most iconic and memorable poems — is available at Amazon.com.

“I have never been let down. I have been picked up, lifted up, tossed into that rare area: excellent writing with verve, writing that laughs, writing that reads easy yet says something. That’s a good package.” CHARLES BUKOWSKI

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Gerald Locklin is a professor emeritus of English at California State University, Long Beach, where he taught full-time from 1965-2007. He has published fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews prolifically in periodicals and in over a hundred and fifty books, chapbooks, and broadsides. Recent or upcoming books include a fiction e-Book, The Sun Also Rises in the Desert, from Mendicant Bookworks; a collection of poems, Deep Meanings: Selected Poems, 2008-2013, from PRESA Press; three simultaneously released novellas from Spout Press; and a French collection of his prose, Candy Bars: Le Dernier des Damnes, due May 7, 2013, from 13e Note Press, Paris. Event Horizon Press released new editions of A Simpler Time, A Simpler Place and Hemingway Colloquium: The Poet Goes to Cuba in 2011; Coagula Press released the first of two volumes of his Complete Coagula Poems; and From a Male Perspective appeared from PRESA Press.

Silver Birch Press Green Anthology Hits #75

Last time we checked, the Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology was #95 on the Poetry Anthologies list for Kindle books — and today we’re happy to report that we’re at #75. But the best part is the company we’re keeping.

We’re right below Kenneth Rexroth (1905-1982) — a poet that Time magazine referred to as “father of the Beats” — and right above the delightful collection Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poetry About Birds, a book I recently borrowed from the L.A. Public Library. (I also posted several poems from the book on this blog.)

Thank you to everyone who purchased the Kindle version of the Silver Birch Press GREEN ANTHOLOGY for $2.99 (the lowest price Amazon will allow) — and if you’re an Amazon Prime member, you can borrow it for free.

I think we’ve moved from #95 to #75 on the list because people are looking for inexpensive (yet meaningful — at least we think so!) St. Patrick’s Day gifts. The Kindle version of the GREEN ANTHOLOGY — the equivalent of a 262-page paperback — is filled with poetry and prose that revolves around the theme “green.” Our authors approached the subject from many different directions — writing about luck, money, the environment, love, seasons, trees, water, relationships, and much more.

Thank you to everyone who purchased a Kindle (or paperback) version of the Silver Birch Press GREEN ANTHOLOGY. We appreciate your helping us bring new voices in poetry and prose into the world.

Find the book at this link.  Again, thank you!

Silver Birch Press News

We have a new logo, a new website, and many new offerings — poetry, anthologies, nonfiction, memoirs, novels, dramatic works, and more — at Silver Birch Press. We be honored if you’d pay a visit to our website: silverbirchpress.com. Thank you!

Our name and logo are homages to one of our publishing heroes — John Martin, founder of Black Sparrow Press. We picked the name Silver Birch because we were looking for a way to carry on the tradition of Black Sparrow — so we selected a color and something in nature (and, by the way, our initials are the same as Black Sparrow, only reversed). And, to complete the picture, we added a starling in our birch tree.

John Martin, as many of you know, was Charles Bukowski‘s friend and publisher — and the reason that Bukowski did not end up an obscure poet in obscure ‘zines.  In this tradition, we hope to discover and foster gifted writers — that’s one of the reasons for our anthology series. Check out our latest — the Silver Birch Press Green Anthology — at Amazon.com.

Thank You to Our Visitors!

As we approach the six-month anniversary of the Silver Birch Press blog, we would like to take a moment to thank each and every one of our visitors from around the world. We appreciate your spending part of your day with us —  and value your readership and cherish your comments!

Thank you to people from the following 125 geographic designations (listed in order of number of visits):  United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Brazil, Australia, India, Spain, Netherlands, Mexico, Turkey, Sweden, Belgium, Portugal, Philippines, Czech Republic, Japan, Argentina, Slovakia, Serbia, Greece, Austria, Finland, Hungary, Colombia, Russian Federation, Croatia, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Romania, Denmark, Ireland, Republic of Korea, Norway, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Israel, Chile, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Lithuania, Pakistan, Slovenia, Bulgaria, South Africa, Georgia, Cyprus, Peru, Ecuador, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ukraine, Luxembourg, Saudi Arabia, Latvia, Puerto Rico, Viet Nam, Albania, Panama, Estonia, Venezuela, Egypt, Bangladesh, Morocco, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Uruguay, Lebanon, Malta, Paraguay, Algeria, Qatar, Macedonia, Palestinian Territory, Iraq, Kenya, American Samoa, El Salvador, Kuwait, Greenland, Nigeria, Dominican Republic, Jordan, Trinidad and Tobago, China, Tunisia, Bahrain, Sri Lanka, Armenia. Bolivia. Honduras, Nicaragua, Mongolia, Guadeloupe, Virgin Islands, Micronesia, Oman, Mauritius, Libya, Moldova, Iceland, Guam, Maldives, Mayotte, Jersey, Namibia, Réunion, Senegal, Montenegro, Mozambique, Bahamas, Burkina Faso, Kyrgyzstan, Congo, Sudan, Belarus, Zambia, Martinique, and Uganda

Silver, Poem by Winston Tong

SILVER

Poem by Winston Tong

Shining, sterling, sublime,

Incandescent, incisive, immortal

Laborious, luminous, lambent,

Valued, venerable, versatile,

Elemental, enduring, esteemed,

Regal, reflective, radiant

Silver.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Winston Tong is a celebrated actor, playwright, visual artist, puppeteer, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for his vocal work in Tuxedomoon and for winning a 1978 Obie Award in puppetry for Bound Feet. He appeared in the 1981 documentary Theater in Trance by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who shot the film in 1981 at the Theaters of the World Festival in Cologne, Germany. Tong’s career, including solo activity, was examined in detail in Isabelle Corbisier’s Tuxedomoon biography Music for Vagabonds—the Tuxedomoon Chronicles (2008).

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Winston Tong‘s work is featured — along with writing from more than 60 other authors — in the new Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose. The 240-page book is available in paperback or Kindle versions at Amazon.com.

Foggy November, Poem by Dale Sprowl

FOGGY NOVEMBER

Poem by Dale Sprowl                                                           

Mystic fog clung to air like film over eyes.
Unlike the usual silver tidal wave that strikes the coast,
it made the world invisible except for headlights and streetlamps
which created dusty pyramids reflecting nothingness.
 
The mist hung such that magical reality leapt to life—
a view of world one step back.
 
Sometimes veil of mist and shadow slows us,
and darkness, the uncertainty, reveals light.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Dale Sprowl teaches writing at Biola University in La Mirada, California. During summers, she administrates and teaches at the Young Writer’s Project at UCI. Her work with the UCI Writing Project began in 1981, and she has contributed to the UCIWP texts on the teaching of writing. Her first chapbook of poems, The Colors of Water, published by Finishing Line Press in 2007, and her second chapbook, Moon Over Continent’s Edge (2009) have been nominated for a California Book Award. Her poems have also appeared in PEARL, Fire, A New Song, Ancient Paths, and Knowing Stones: Poems of Exotic Places.

“Foggy November” by Dale Sprowl appears in the new 51,000-word Silver Birch Press release, Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose — now available in a Kindle version for just $2.99 at Amazon.com. The book,  which features the work of 62 authors from the U.S. and U.K., is also available in a 6×9 240-page paperback.

Ice Skating at Hudson County Park, Poem by Barbara Eknoian

ICE SKATING AT HUDSON COUNTY PARK

Poem by Barbara Eknoian

I see the lake outlined
with Christmas lights.
from the top of the hill.
The white ice looks like
a round birthday cake,
the piles of snow
scalloped
along the edges,
whipped frosting.
We hurry to put on
our silver blades
in the rental shack.
An iron stove stands
in the center
keeping us toasty
until we skate outside
in low thirty-degrees.
My feet are numb;
I think it’s frostbite.
We head back up
the hill for home
while tears freeze
on my cheeks.
I can’t feel my toes.
Then suddenly Danny
appears out of darkness
and tags alongside us.
My face flushes.
I feel warm again.
Danny is walking us home
and, just maybe,
he likes me.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Barbara Eknoian’s work has appeared in PEARL, Chiron Review, RE)VERB, and Cradle Song, a motherhood anthology. She has received two Pushcart Prize nominations and is a member of Donna Hilbert’s poetry workshop in Long Beach, California. Her fiction was featured in the 2009 Sixth Annual Emerging Voices Show produced by Sally Shore’s New Short Fiction Series. She hails from New Jersey and has never lost her accent.

“Ice Skating at Hudson County Park” by Barbara Eknoian appears in the new Silver Birch Press release Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose — a 240-page book of poetry, short stories, novel excerpts, stage play scenes, and essays from 62 accomplished and up-and-coming authors in the U.S. and U.K.

Silver: An Eclectic Anthology of Poetry & Prose is available at Amazon.com.