The Great EMPTY
A Renga in Time of Corona
This 40-part renga, a Japanese form of linked poetry, chronicles the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on a daily basis, from the intimate to the political to the existential.
Click here to see the first 10 pages.
48 pages, 7.5 x 7.5”, softcover, $9.95.
Available from Lulu.com.
The Great Empty 2
A Renga in Time of Corona
This muti-part renga, a Japanese form of linked poetry, chronicles the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on a daily basis, from the intimate to the political to the existential. This volume is part 2 from the series, which has been posted every day to social media.
The poems are accompanied by infrared, black and white photos taken in the spring and summer of the pandemic by the author, which reflect the apocalyptic, science fiction-like nature of the times.
20 pages, 8.5 x 11”, softcover, $5.99.
Available from www.blurb.com.
Felicia The Ferret
& The Atom Smasher
Inspired by the true story of “Felicia the Fermilab Ferret,” this picture book for children ages 4-8 follows her whimsical adventures.
In 1971, Felicia journeyed from her farm in Minnesota to the Fermilab particle accelerator near Chicago, where she played a key role in the atomic age and became world famous.
Her story began one summer day
As Felicia tunneled through bales of hay.
A trailer pulled up, and out popped Bob:
”I need a ferret for an important job.”
38 pages, 7.5 x 9”, softcover,
Thurston Howl Publications, $12.99.
Available from Amazon.com.
AMERICA HURRAH
Written over the winter of 2016 and spring of 2017 in response to the presidential election and its aftermath, AMERICA HURRAH is a chronicle of a country in upheaval, while touching base on day-to-day life and cultural hotspots such as Star Wars.
It covers the whole territory of Trump’s first 100 days—from Bannon as Cromwell to alt-right rumors about a pizzeria to immigrants stranded in airports, as well as hearing directly from key figures such as Kellyanne, Donald Jr. and an internet troll—and tries to make sense of it all.
96 pages, 6 x 9", hardcover with dust jacket, $20.
Available from www.lulu.com.
Annus Horribilis
Dark and sardonic, ANNUS HORRIBILIS is a chapbook of nine, sonnet-like poems that follow the 2016 election, inauguration and aftermath in
real time.
The poems in this chapbook, part one of a trilogy, are included in “America Hurrah,” above.
12 pages, 6 x 8", $7.50.
Available from www.lulu.com.
American Gothic
AMERICAN GOTHIC picks up on Day One of the Trump administration, where just like a car wreck it's hard to look away. These eight sonnet-like poems try to keep up with "each new disaster," while keeping tabs on personal life as well as cultural hotspots such as the movie Lego Batman: "Does Gotham City, after crisis upon crisis, suffer/ an outrage fatigue?"
The poems in this chapbook, part two of a trilogy, are included in “America Hurrah,” above
16 pages, 6 x 8", $7.50.
Available from www.lulu.com.
GET ME ROGER STONE
Written over the winter of 2016/2017 and into the spring, "Get Me Roger Stone" is a response to the last election and its aftermath: a chronicle of a country in upheaval. I felt the need to track all the details as they unfolded (much like Comey’s need to take notes after his meetings with the president). The poems cover the territory of Trump’s first 100 days, while hearing directly from key figures such as Sarah Palin and an internet troll—and tries to make sense of it all.
The poems in this chapbook, part three of a trilogy, are included in “America Hurrah,” above
20 pages, $7.95. 6 x 9", $7.95
Available from www.lulu.com.
In Passing
Written over the course of a year, the poems of "In Passing" capture details of daily life, small moments that pass by fleetingly.
The title is a play on words on one of India's most ancient forms of meditation, Vipassana , which means to see things as they really are.
Playful, questioning, "In Passing" focuses the same kind of attention.
THINK THE WORST
Offering an antidote to a bright future, THINK THE WORST gives us the black-comedy musings of an unlucky, unworthy survivor of the 21st century.
20 pages, 2.5 x 3.5", pocket size,
with color illustrations, $5
Click here to buy from SHOP
OOPS
In this special mini-edition, reminiscent of a palm-sized prayer book, Brit-Brit with her fast life and hard times is viewed as victim and savior, as a cultural icon and skewed lens on America's media craziness.
20 pages, 2.5 x 3.5", pocket size, $5
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SORRY
Filled with comic remorse, the anti-hero in these poetic apologies tries to come clean
for almost everything: Las Vegas, modern art,
partying, the millennium, nostalgia—not to mention books, happiness, politics,
and even sleeping.
20 pages, 2.5 x 3.5", pocket size, $5
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THE BIG BOOK OF WHY
As Marx queried, What is to be done?
In poems that range from melancholic to mocking,
THE BIG BOOK OF WHY tries to answer some of the 21st century's looming questions by rummaging through cultural detritus for clues.
Weighing in are a Detroit body-bagger, Robert DeNiro's housekeeper, and Adela Legaretta Rivas, "struck by a white Datsun one morning in April"--as well as a motley cast including hapless candidates, apartment dwellers, and
aria-singing subway riders.
56 pages, 7 x 4" pocket size, $9.95
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POTATO CHIPS FOR DINNER
collected poems
1984 - 2004
Rotation
Say a potato chip truck overturns, spilling bags
of chips
across the highway.
Some drivers stop to guiltily pick up a few, smiling:
Potato chips for dinner.
How many of them will wake
in the middle of the night
and go into the living room
to sit and stare, wondering
if the darkened house has somehow changed
its axis?
57 pages, 5.5 x 8.5”, $14.95
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Winter Light
“Winter Light” proceeds through a Boston winter at a walker’s pace the reader falls in pace with. What unfolds is a detective story, or, better yet, a detective love story. Under “the weight of this life,” the narrator is an anxious sleepwalker who registers the tremor of the everyday.
63 pages, 6 x 9", $12.95
Four Way Books, 1999
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WHERE EVERYONE IS GOING TO
In Gray, the persona of this book-length poem, we find a figure as reminiscent of Eliot’s hollow men as of the haunting Everyman of Munch’s “The Scream.” The subject is all the more frightening and provocative because it’s nothing less than the century’s bleak end. These are poems of alienation, want and surrender, seen through the painfully exposed human presence of Gray.
53 pages, 5.5" x 8", $11
St. Andrews College Press, 1999
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