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Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Saturday, June 10, 2023

Poet Theresa Werba Reviews James A. Tweedie's Humorous Poetry

Title: Laughing Matters

Subtitle: Poetry with a Wink and a Smile 

Kindle Edition 

Poet Theresa Yerba Reviews James A. Tweedie's Humorous Poetry


Reviewed by Theresa Werba 
  •  

         This collection of humorous poetry by the excellent James A. Tweedie is more than a mere collection of clever jokings and funny sayings. James Tweedie is reveling in the power of language, and celebrates its gift-giving capacity in the ways in which words and phrases, and even various authors, and styles, and forms can be experimented with, played with, coaxed, and birthed into a fantastic array of poetic expression.

          James Tweedie is not only a first-rate poet, but is also a musician and composer, which is very refreshing to me, as I am also both a poet and a musician. You can hear the musicality exuding from his poetry. The meter is clean and precise, the rhymes are perfect, rarely slanted, so you get the full effect of the satisfactions inherent in perfectly-executed formal poetry. But it never upstages the humor and wit of Tweedie’s funny perspective, and the results are often quite unexpected! It is very refreshing and satisfying indeed to “hear” the sonorities and the rhymes and meter within my head as I read his work. 

         Tweedie is highly creative in his use of form. He employs the traditional Shakespearean form ABAB CDCD EFEF GG plus the variant ABBA CDDC EFFE GG. The opening poem “Fleet of Foot Pheidippides,” is an excellent example:


    Fleet of Foot Pheidippides 

     

    A Grecian runner named Pheidippides,
    From Athens, ran to Sparta with a plea.
    “We need your help to fight the Persians, please!” 

    But Sparta sent him back with, “Nosirree!” 

     

    Two-hundred eighty miles is what he ran, 

    For four or maybe five days he was gone. 

    But Athens received help from the god, Pan, 

    And Persia met defeat at Marathon. 

     

    Pheidippides, we’re told ran all the way 

    To Athens to announce that they had won. 

    That’s why it’s called a “marathon” today. 

    For twenty-six-plus miles he had to run. 

     

    They say he gave the message and dropped dead. 

    But why did he not ride a horse, instead? 

     

         Tweedy  also uses the Petrarchan form (in “I wrote a poem” ) as well as some unusual presentations such as an Anapest Dimeter sonnet, a Monometer sonnet, and a 20-line sonnet variant (as opposed to the traditional 14-line sonnet). He also creates a short piece of prose (in the poem ”Doublespeak”) from a sonnet by reformatting it, literally disguising the form and structure of the sonnet so it reads like a short essay. Ingenious! Some of his poems also have a Dr. Seuss-like quality to them, the prime example being the alliterative poem “Beastly Betty.” You can tell Tweedie was having fun while writing this one!

     

    Beastly Betty 

    An Alliterative Poem 

     

    Beastly Betty badly breaks her brother’s 

    Buttocks with a bat upon his butt. 

    Broken, beaten brother barely bothers 

    Bellowing at bawdy Betty. But 

    Because bad blood between both babe and bro 

    Builds baleful bias brought by Betty's bane, 

    Beleaguered Bob bestows a bitter blow.
    By blasting boiling bile on Betty's brain. 

     

     

         Tweedie often groups his poetry into cycles or themes: a sonnet cycle on the Brothers Grimm nursery stories, a set of “Equilateral Proverbs” (where the first and last words of the couplet rhyme), three limericks based on famous poems by Shakespeare and Dante, with the folksong Molly Malone thrown in, as well as a collection of seven riddles. He also has a poem on the death of Edgar Allen Poe, delightfully executed, and a collection of “Groaner Poems" with some truly groan-inducing puns. 

          There is such a joyous wordplay and reverie in language that exudes from Tweedie’s work! What I truly love about Tweedie’s poetry is his interesting rhyme combinations. I am delighted when I see such rhyming as death/shibboleth, if/glyphtease/Diogenesoogenesis/diaresisGuinness/amanuensis, and antipode/postal code. There is a love of language that just exudes from each poem presented, a reverie and a celebration of the poetic possibilities waiting to be uncovered. It’s truly enchanting! I couldn’t wait to see what he would come up with next as I read!

          I would have to say my favorite poem of the collection is “Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You,” which sold me on its very first line. Anyone who can put together “A pyroclastic vomit’s what I call it;” is a hero in my book!

     

    Don’t Say I Didn’t Warn You 

     

    A pyroclastic vomit’s what I call it;
    An up-chuck from Mt. Shasta’s north west side.

     I bet you the last dollar in my wallet,
    That everything that lived beneath it, died. 

    The famous Captain Cook saw from the ocean 

    Its pillared smoke arising in plain view—
    A seventeen and seven-six commotion.
    A record of the last time Shasta blew. 

    Now every volcanologist agrees
    That since its active period reappears 

    In clockwork cycles of three centuries, 

    Its next eruption’s due in fifty years. 

    Because the end is near, I wrote this sonnet
    To warn you not to build your new house on it! 


          I also particularly like "Didn't Warn You"  because Tweedie employs the rhyme sonnet/on it, which I also have used in one my own sonnets.

    Another of my favorites is “The Perfect Poem,” a perfectly-executed sonnet on the creative process of formal poetry-making:

     

    The Perfect Poem 

     

    There is, I’m sure, in someone’s file drawer,
    A perfect poem, written on a whim,
    Perhaps, or, maybe as a simple hymn
    Of thanks and praise to God, and nothing more. 

    Or, then again, the poem could express
    The burning passion of a lover’s heart,
    A terse description of a work of art,
    Or soul-torn angst amidst some cruel distress. 

    All grammar, syntax, perfectly intact,
    Each foot a proper iamb, anapest,
    Or trochee, dactyl, spondee, at its best, 

    Each comma in its place, each rhyme exact. 

    In spite of flawless tittle, jot, and letter,
    There will be some who think they could do better. 


          Anyone who enjoys clever wordplay and creative use of language in novel and unexpected ways would be delighted to have their mind’s ear experience the rich variety of form and humorous content in Tweedie’s Laughing Matters. Highly recommended!


    More About the Author


    James A. Tweedie is a retired pastor living in Long Beach, Washington. He has written and published six novels, one collection of short stories, and three collections of poetry including Mostly Sonnets, all with Dunecrest Press. His poems have been published nationally and internationally in The Lyric, Poetry Salzburg (Austria) Review, California Quarterly, Asses of Parnassus, Lighten Up Online, Better than Starbucks, Dwell Time, Light, Deronda Review, The Road Not Taken, Fevers of the Mind, Sparks of Calliope, Dancing Poetry, WestWard Quarterly, Society of Classical Poets, and The Chained Muse. His poem “Pneuma” was a Laureate’s Choice in the 2021 Maria W. Faust Sonnet Contest; his sonnet, “Forever Nine,” was chosen Best Poem in the Summer 2020 edition of The Lyric. He was a First Place winner in the 2022 100 Days of Dante poetry contest and was honored with being chosen as the winner of the 2021 SCP International Poetry Competition. He claims to be an optimist.



    More About the Reviewer


    Theresa Werba is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Sonnets, a collection of sixty-five sonnets (under the name Theresa Rodriguez, Shanti Arts, 2020). Her work has appeared in such journals as The Scarlet Leaf Review, The Wilderness House Literary Review, Spindrift, Mezzo Cammin, The Wombwell Rainbow, Fevers of the Mind, Serotonin, The Art of Autism, The Road Not Taken, and the Society of Classical Poets Journal. Her work ranges from forms such as the ode and sonnet to free verse, with topics ranging from neurodivergence, the writing process, love, loss, and aging, to faith and disillusionment. Her website is www.bardsinger.com, where you can view videos of her performance poetry and find information about her books. Follow Theresa on Instagram and Twitter @thesonnetqueen.

     

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. 

 Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in the right column of this blog home page (a silver and gold badge and threee silver-gray circles beneath it. 

 Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author and veteran educator, she also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing HowToDoItFrugally http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews. Pre-format the post editor for each new post. Cancel Save Post published

Friday, December 23, 2022

Bobish by Magdelena Ball, a New Verse Memoir

Title: Bobish 
Author: Magdalena Ball
Author Website: http://www.magdalenaball.com 
Publisher: Puncher & Wattmann (November 7, 2022)
Publisher: P.O. Box 279, Waratah NSW 2298 (Australia) 
Publisher Website Address: https://puncherandwattmann.com/ 
Price $16.99 Paperback 
Page count: 154 Pages
Formats: Paperback
ISBN: 1922571601
ISBN-13: 978-1922571601
Available on Amazon
Carolyn Wilhelm, reviewer

Bobish, by Magdelena Ball, is a new verse memoir published by Australian press Puncher & Wattmann. The poetic story follows the life of the author's great-grandmother, who was part of the mass diaspora of Jews from the Eastern European Shtetls to New York City. The book explores her experience as a Yiddish speaker in the garment industry where she worked in the ill-fated Triangle Shirtwaist factory. It continues through the two World Wars which, of course, impacted directly any family members left in her home town of Grodno (now in Belarus). Talented writer Ball transforms the life of her great-grandmother into a magical read. 

Though she was only fourteen years old, like many other Jews in Eastern Europe’s Pale of Settlement in 1907, Rebecca Lieberman gathered her few belongings and left for the United States. Alone. What follows is a unique and poetic story of history, war, mysticism, music, abuse, survival and transcendence against the back drop of New York City in the 20s, 30s, and 40s. 

I am just taken with this book! Ball's poetry gives the immigration story a fresh new perspective (just when you think you have maybe read it all). Beautifully written, the words transcend the actual events and readers will even be reminded of their own family stories. How did Ball manage to recreate her great-grandmother's life into such a fantastic read? I do not know, but I am glad she did. Breathtaking! This will tug at my heart a long time. Do not miss this book!

Bobish-by-Magdelena-Ball-just-published-verse-memoir

Reviews may be found on Amazon, Goodreads, other online sites, and below.

'A fourteen-year-old girl is launched by pogroms and poverty into the New World, fearful and alone. How can she know that her great-granddaughter would weave her story, through imagination and a careful reading of history, into a poetic gift to her memory, and for many more generations to come?'
~ Ramona Koval

'Magdalena Ball’s powerful re-imagining of her great-grandmother’s life, from crossing the ocean in steerage, alone, at the age of fourteen, to the hardships of immigrant life in New York, is a vivid, lyrical portrayal of a woman that is as much an act of love as it is the preservation of a life, with its lessons of quiet courage in the face of crushing despair.' ~ Charles Rammelkamp


'The importance of remembering is a cornerstone of the Jewish faith and in this account of the author’s Jewish great-grandmother as she navigates her life of exile, each scene is both clear eyed and evocative, poetic and down to earth, empathetic and far reaching.  A marvellous, nourishing book of resilience.' ~Judy Johnson

Bobish-by-Magdalena-Ball

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's #AuthorsHelpingAuthors service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Thursday, April 28, 2022

Solstice Literary Reviews Jendi Reiter's Newest Book of Poetry


TITLE: Made Man
AUTHOR: Jendi Reiter
GENRE: Poetry
AGE LEVEL: Adult
PAGES: 142
PUBLISHER: Little Red Tree Publishing (March 2022)


Reviewed by Robbie Gamble originally for Solstice Lit Magazine

Solstice Literary Reviews Jendi Reiter's Newest Book of Poetry

A quick scan of the table of contents of Made Man, Jendi Reiter’s third poetry collection, indicates that the reader is in for a comitragic, day-glo accented, culture-hopping, snort-inducing, gender-interrogating rollercoaster of a ride. Titles like “It’s Not Sensory Processing Disorder, You’re a Werewolf,” “My Longest Female Relationship Is With My Subaru,” “Don’t Get Your Penis Stuck In The Bubble Wand,” “Dreaming Of Top Surgery At The Vince Lombardi Rest Stop,” and “Buzz Aldrin Takes Communion On The Moon,” erupt from the pages with a fierce irreverent energy, and we know at once that this is not a collection to be savored quietly by the fireside in slippers with a cup of herbal tea. We also sense we will be entering a smart, challenging, multifaceted world.

In the author’s words: “Made Man explores female-to-male transition and gay masculine identity through persona poems in the voices of unusual objects and fictional characters with some aspect that is constructed, technological, or hybrid.” And further, “…these character studies open up onto a broader consideration of humanity’s relationship with technology and the shadow side of male dominance of nature.” But far from being a didactic examination of gender identity and our tech-obsessions, these poems are often laugh-out-loud funny, as the table of contents would suggest. Reiter is a founder of the Winning Writers organization, and oversees its literary contests, including the nationally-acclaimed Wergle Flomp Humor Poetry Contest, so they are well-grounded in the business of tackling complex subjects with a comedic toolkit. In “All Cakes are Bastards,” a wry persona-poem take on the gender-reveal party phenomenon, the in-utero speaker says,

they drove, masked, to the mall for plastic feet
to spear into frosting
in the dry wind they dreamed
of lures or lace, of my two choices
under an orange sky
as I slumbered normal in the blood-rich sea
as ash fell on the green courses
as I grew into my ultrasound assignment
they directed the baker’s hand, putters
or pearls, rifles or ruffles
the sugared script radiating pink and blue…

There is humor, to be sure, especially in the title which draws us in, but the humor darkens around the edges, with references to out-of-control fires raging across California (one ignited by a gender-reveal fireworks display gone awry), the COVID-19 pandemic, and the murder of George Floyd at the hands and knees of the police. It’s an ironic and scary world to be born into, especially if one will be wrestling with their assigned gender.

Reiter shifts tonal gears in poem after poem, dragging the reader along at a dizzying pace, creating a sense of disorientation that is evocative of a long journey of transition through a surreal, often unwelcoming cultural landscape. In “Dreaming Of Top Surgery At The Vince Lombardi Rest Stop” they imagine “the great men of New Jersey”: Walt Whitman, Joyce Kilmer, Thomas Edison et al, availing themselves of the men’s room while the speaker intones, “O, Vince Lombardi…/ I believe you would agree…/ that purity of heart is to will one thing.” In the title poem, “Made Man,” the hormone-injecting subject veers into scriptural syntax:

Became incarnate
            and was made

man or a god barely an age
to shave, that mirror-ritual of boys
            aping the father,

making their bones
his,
            yours.

The pace slows in the poem “when people look at me I want them to think, there’s one of those people,” an intimate elegy for Lou Sullivan, thought to be the first transgender man to publicly identify as gay.

Reiter shows their aptitude for given forms, dropping in odes (“Butternut squash, you are the War and Peace of vegetables”) and ghazals (“My body is the Tomb of the Unknown Penis”) to great effect. The penultimate poem in the book, “Transfag Semiotics,” is a mini-crown of sonnets, an extraordinarily crafted sequence where the speaker drills deep into their quest for identity:

Sometimes you vanish like a father
or a breast. Drop the handkerchief,
the theory, drop to your knees. Whether
you can explain it or not, do you want to live?
Faggot is becoming. What is a man?
I experienced what I wanted to understand.

It’s an absolute tour-de-force, and the comedic gestures fall away as Reiter grows deadly serious about the cost of becoming, of being made, and ultimately, what it means to authentically be.

In the current season of culture wars, where state legislatures are enacting “Don’t Say Gay” bills, and trying to reframe gender-affirming treatments as parental abuse, Made Man stands as a testament to the humanity of trans people everywhere. It’s also chock-full of intelligent, often hilarious and sometimes biting poems that will leave you spinning and exhilarated. Jump in, crank down your safety bar, and head out for the ride.



More About the Poet

Jendi Reiter (they/he) is the editor of WinningWriters.com is a prolific (and prolifically published!) poet. His New poetry collection! Made Man is from Little Red Tree Publishing. The American Library Association's Rainbow Round Table Reviews reports it is:  "A mix of somber moments and charming wit, Reiter’s collection makes space for humor in the maelstrom of navigating gendered experiences." 
             "Things are not what they appear to be: nor are they 
              otherwise." --Surangama Sutra
More About the Reviewer

This review by Robbie Gamble was originally published in the spring issue (2022) of  solsticelitmag.org. Robbie's poems have appears in the Atlanta Review, Poet Lore, RHINO, Spillway, and The Sun, among other journals. His essays have appeared in MassPoetry, Pangryrus, Scoundrel Time, Solstice, and Tahoma Literary Review.  Recipient of the Carve Poetry Prize and a Peter Taylor  Fellowship at the Kenyon Summer Writers Workshop, he holds an MFA from Lesley University and serves as poetry editor for Solstice: A Magazine of Diverse Voices. Learn more about him at  https://robbiegamble.com/. Email him at 


More About #TheNewBookReview Blog



 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Saturday, February 12, 2022

Ketak Datta Reviews Aussie Magdalalena's Newest Poetry Book "Compact Bone"



The Density of Compact Bone
By Magdalena Ball
Genre: Poetry
Publisher: Ginninderra Press
100 pages, ISBN: 978-1761091865, Paperback

Reviewed by Dr. Kataki Datta

The Density of Compact Bone is a remarkable collection of poems from the prolific pen of renowned poet, Magdalena Ball. This is not her debut collection of poems. Hence, she is mature enough to carve a niche for herself among creative writers who are revered for their creations. This book has been divided into four interesting sections: “The Age of Waste”, “The Stronger the Entanglement the More Warped Space is”, “Chronon”, “The River Will Wash Us All Down”. Not less than ten powerful poems are included in each section. Environmental issues, Apocalypse, Time as an inexorable reality, the practicality of existence and its hapless yielding to the demands of Time, Space and Love and even the Anthropocene, we are inching on to—all serve as grist to her mill. The poet has addressed the difficult issues through the necessary terms borrowed from the pages of Science and fitted them into the emotional matrix of her poems, quite adeptly. And they never seem outlandish or misfit. 

A British lifestyle survey report once pointed out a hair-raising issue of wasting food and dumping of excess food in the garbage bins. This is sheer waste of food which is essential for sustenance. In nature, waste of many resources meets our eye very often. While we are in the times of Anthropocene, we should be wary of wasting our valuable resources like water, oil etc. In the very opening poem, Weed Garden, of this section, “ The Age of Waste”, Magdalena Ball wields her powerful pen,

  “A patch of weeds left to grow tall”, 

Which she decides to annul by walking next morning till …

…” I’ve left the farm

lost my body
with all its false softness

broken to sinuous fibre
too tough to digest.”

Losing the farm to destructive weeds is tantamount to losing a body to the rupture of “sinuous fibres”.  in poem after poem of this section, poet Magdalena Ball is warning the civilization to be careful about the threat of extinction it is going to face, with gradual depletion of all its resources:  

“Her name is Mud
 last of her kind……  

 Her name 
Is the Sixth Mass
Extinction
Glaciers, forest, buildings,
Man.”  (“FKA”)

Even humanity is touching low, as civilization is inching towards its extinction, when existence itself is threatened:

“Earth of course is
saturation blue
periwinkle in the morning
sumptuous even when 
melting
under the hot weight of 
humanity
bearing down.” ("Is Blue an Earth Tone?”)

Magdalena Ball leaves an indelible impression on our mind as she looks at all the conventional perspectives and challenges them with an analytical, scientific and a completely novel one. Just like Joy Harjo or  Adrienne Rich, Magdalena makes everything new in her world. Sometimes it feels like she is chiming in unison with Yeats’ “Surely some revelation is at hand” ("The Second Coming”) and sometimes she is with Wordsworth to give vent to her pent-up angst, “ Little we see in Nature that is ours/We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!” ("The World is Too Much with Us”) and at times the work is Huxleyan in its search for a brave new world. 

In the second section, “The Stronger the Entanglement the More Warped Space Is” , the poet explores the future of earth, space and the ‘entanglement.’ The poet opens the third, title section with suspense, initially hesitating to relate her own experience to the world, and then she opening up into ‘feminine energy’ finding solace in the woods, amidst trees and nature as in the title poem: 

… “because my feet failed
beneath all that bluster
still bone.” 

The poems in this section are fraught with covert meanings and overt explanations:

“Every day is another chance
 to die of kindness
 the infinite regression of
 immortality.” ("Tomorrow’s Box is Quantum”)

Poems like "Shadow Genome” and “Transmission” explore the notion of being ‘transmitted’ into a different form, ‘second life, second soul’ may be. All these ideas are either the influence of Hindu religion or the Buddhist concept of transmogrifying into another soul in another birth. 

In the third section, “Chronon”, Ball explores many aspects of time, both as an indivisible unit, and against the hypothetical but still true statement that Time is not continuous. If such continuity of Time is questioned then, Eliot’s tall claim that “Time present and Time Past is contained in Time Future.” A length of Time is frozen in the matrix, it seems. Ball catches Time in all its varied facets and spectra:

“Nothing is lost, not even the moment
Shattered into light pulses, entangled
In the mother tongue, in the morning
leaves a taste on the lips, sharp
breaks through like the crack of a whip
reminds you that time is a construct
 you write every minute with breath. [Eastern Whip Bird]

Magdalena Ball might have been influenced by Jorge Luis Borges’s well-renowned essay, “A New Refutation of Time” (Labyrinths), where Borges says, “ I have accumulated transcriptions from the apologists of idealism, I have abounded in their canonical passages, I have been reiterative and explicit, I have censured Schopenhauer[not without ingratitude], so that my reader may begin to penetrate into this unstable world of the mind. A world of evanescent impressions: a world without matter or spirit, neither objective nor subjective; a world without the ideal architecture of space; a world made of time, of the absolute uniform time of the Principia; a tireless labyrinth, a chaos, a dream.”[256]

The last section of this volume, “The River will Wash Us All Down” is both interesting and mindboggling. The poems of this section highlight a desire of the poet to go with the flow yet follow her own course, paving a way for unique forms of understanding. For example, in “ If I could open a space”, she  declares of breaking  ‘every boundary’, ‘dissolving…every boundary’, taking ‘every burden on my (her) tiny  back’ and forgiving ‘ even myself(herself), every ragged mistake/to open this space.’ The Density of Compact Bone is a rare collection of poems to be treasured by poetry-lovers.  

INFORMATION ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dr. Ketaki Datta is an Associate Professor of English with Bidhannagar Govt. College, Kolkata. Apart from academic publications, she has two novels, three translated novels, and a book of poems, “Across the Blue Horizon”[ funded by Arts Council, England]to her credit apart from a bunch of short stories: both original and translated. She had been to Lisbon, California and University of Oxford on an invitation to read out her papers, mainly on indigenous and World theatre.  She is Regional Editor of The Theatre Times from India, headed by Prof. Magda Romanska, Professor, Emerson College, Boston. She has contributed to Routledge Companion to Dramaturgy, edited by Magda Romanska; Beyond Improbable Lines: The Partition of India (Cambridge Scholar Publishing) by Daniela Rogobete and Elisabetta Marino. Lately, she has co-authored a book of photos and poems titled “ Urban Reflections” with Prof. Wilfried Raussert, Univ. of Bielefeld, Germany. Her book on Oral Stories of Totos is coming out soon from Sahitya Akademi. 



A BIO OR CREDIT LINE FOR THE AUTHOR OF THE BOOK
More about Magdalena Ball can be found at her website: http://www.magdalenaball.com

Snapshot Courtesy Joy V. Smith

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 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Monday, November 29, 2021

The Density of Compact Bone by Magdalena Ball Review

The Density of Compact Bone

by Magdalena Ball
Ginninderra Press
ASIN: B09HKYK9HL
ISBN-10: ‎ 1761091867
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1761091865
Paperback: ‎ 102 pages

The Density of Compact Bone by Magdalena Ball Review

"In The Density of Compact Bone, Magdalena Ball stuns with her elegantly constructed paean to earth, sky, water and her requiem to loss, both ecological and personal."

"Magdalena Ball's poems are replete with images and symbols and sometimes pictorial representations of our guilt and desires. Her poems sometimes sing of the extinct creatures who breathed their last to question us for our inhuman actions, nature and its "objective correlative' in poetic diction. Magdalena Ball captivates her readers with cogitations on dreams, failures, moments of joy and despair, contemplations of serious existential truths and quest for the same. Her poems transport us to a land of ecstasy, the parabolic pathway of moving away and returning to the same trajectory of existence with a new promise or at least a complacency of some kind, or just a sense of well-being. Her poems are a must-read!"- Ketaki Datta

This post will share some of the parts of poems from this book by Ball. When we read, we infer. Inferring is text on the page mixed with our own thoughts. We deduce the meaning of the poetry for ourselves. Others may see the same text differently, as we all have unique life experiences. This is what makes book discussion groups so interesting. When I read the text below, I think of overconsumption and landfills. What do you think? 

The billboard

flashing in neon

excess buy buy buy bye

hardwired to self-destruct.

A few poems ahead, Ball writes about loss. Is this what someone thinks at the end of a relationship? Is it about climate change, the ending of an evening, or perhaps how life changes after a funeral? It isn't fair to you, dear reader, as the entire poem is in the book. Yet, do you get some sort of impression?

I know this is something we share 

raising a glass, not thinking too much 

about the uncomfortable fact 

that that we’re sliding 

towards an edge.

 So starts the poem How to make Lokshen Kugel:

Begin with tears. There will not be enough. Salt is essential. Break something. A dish perhaps if you cannot find a heart. There will already be chips. There is no perfect crockery.

 What are you thinking about these words?

I cannot write a review to show how wonderful this book is because I am not a poet or writer. I was a first-grade teacher and so I appreciate Ball's writing but can't come close to honoring it as it deserves. 

The book ends with a land acknowledgment. Ball is from Australia. Have you noticed other books, webinars, or videos with land acknowledgments? How do you feel about Elders emerging? 

"These poems were written on the unceded land of the Awabakal people. I acknowledge the traditional custodians and pay my respect to Elders past, present and emerging."

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Magdalena Ball is a novelist, poet, reviewer and interviewer, and is the Managing Editor of Compulsive Reader. She has been widely published in literary journals like Meanjin, Cordite, Red Room, and Westerly, in many anthologies, and is the author of several published books of poetry and fiction. Her work has won or been shortlisted for several prizes including the Newcastle Poetry Prize, the Melbourne Poet's Union International Competition, and the Grieve Writing Competition. She is a longstanding (>25 years) member of the Hunter Writers Centre and has been an active participant (as both moderator and performer) in the Newcastle Writers Festival since it's inaugural event in 2013, as well as other literary festivals such as the Hunter IF, the Sydney Writers Festival, and the Digital Writers Festival. Find out more about Magdalena at http://www.magdalenaball.com

Review by Carolyn Wilhelm

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Thursday, April 22, 2021

Poet LB Sedlacek Shares Her Love of Poetry with Reviews

Title: In My Eyes
Genre: Street Poetry
Author: By Juelz
Copyright 2010
60 pages
ISBN: 978061542407
Juelz Publishing

Review by LB Sedlacek

Juelz put together this book of poems as a way to reach out to youth like him. He starts off this collection with a poem about growth. He follows that with a poem about being chosen by God and what his purpose should be. He has set himself the task of inspiring others from the start and he has done that so well.

From the poem “When my star dropped”: “I stared into the night time sky, I guess wondering why. No / tears, my eyes dry, wondering who we are, then I looked / over and noticed a star.” Juelz writes in a completely modern relatable way. His words are like a chorus of real life plus hope. Every line sizzles with good intentions.

From the poem “Struggle”: “My life is a struggle and I eat off my hustle. The concrete / I walk on is as hard as the souls of the youth.” His poetry obviously means something to him and he wants it to mean something to his readers, too.

The book is divided into 5 chapters. Original photos of the author are interspersed throughout.

From the poem “Violence and Guns”: “Five bullets, stuffed snug in a cold clip, compressed into a / handle with a comfortable rubber grip. The pain this can / cause is more than you can imagine, our young left dead.” Juelz’s poems cut right to the heart, his words are meant to touch and to transform.

These poems dwell on suffering, but also encourage change. He forces us to see for the first time maybe things we wish to avoid or pretend aren’t really happening. Each word has purpose.

The poems are mostly written in free verse, prose with some rhyming. They are well suited for most all ages. Plus they are relatable poems you can understand.

Juelz inspires with these poems with a message that is loud and clear. He brings the verse home, and that’s not always easy to do.

“In My Eyes” is his first poetry collection. “In My Eyes II” and “In My Little Eyes” are the follow up books.

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “Words and Bones,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “The Adventures of Stick People on Cars,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her first short story collection came out last year entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  Her mystery novel “The Glass River” was nominated for the Thomas Wolfe Memorial Literary Award.  She writes poetry reviews for “The Poetry Market Ezine” www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more about her at www.lbsedlacek.com

Facebook:  @lbsedlacekpoet

Twitter @lbsedlacek  

Instagram:  @lbsedlacek  

Tumblr:  @lbsedlacek  


Poet LB Sedlacek Shares Her Love of Poetry with Reviews

More About #TheNewBookReview Blog 

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Authors, readers, publishers, and reviewers may republish their favorite reviews of books they want to share with others. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read and love. Please see submission guidelines in a tab at the top of this blog's home page or go directly to the submission guidelines at: http://bit.ly/ThePlacetoRecycleBookReviews or to the guideline tab at the top of the home page of this blog. 

Authors and publishers who do not yet have reviews or want more may use Lois W. Stern's "Authors Helping Authors" service for requesting reviews. Find her guidelines in a tab at the top of the home page, too. Carolyn Wilhelm is our IT expert, an award-winning author, a veteran educator and also contributes reviews and posts on other topics related to books. Reviews, interviews, and articles on this blog are indexed by genre, reviewers' names, and review sites so #TheNewBookReview may be used as a resource for most anyone in the publishing industry. As an example, writers will find this blog's search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers.

 Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing

Friday, February 5, 2021

LB Sedlacek Earns Prolific Poet Designation

Four New Books: Chuck Town, Suicide Pumpkin,
   The Blue Eyed Side, The Poet Protection Plan
Author: L. B. Sedlacek
Publishers: See author bio in this post.
Purchase URLs listed with each synopsis






NEW FROM POET AND AUTHOR, LB SEDLACEK




Head on down the cobblestone streets onto Rainbow Row in this Charleston, South Carolina 
themed poetry book from award winning poet, author and poem critic, LB Sedlacek. Visit Folly 
Beach, Murray's Lighthouse, Waterfront Park, the Battery, the USS Yorktown, Mt. Pleasant and 
more in this brand new collection.  





Mikeal is a kite surfer in North Carolina, raised by his grandparents.  After they are murdered, he 
rents the inherited cottage to Alexis, an actress.  Together this unlikely pair decides to investigate.  
Award winning poet, LB Sedlacek, takes you into a dark mountain tale in this new poem novel 
published by Cyberwit, “The Blue Eyed Side.”   Cover photo of Blue Ridge Parkway by LB Sedlacek. 
https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Eyed-Side-L-B-Sedlacek/dp/9388319303  





The suicide plans of a would-be actress in Hollywood fall apart when she meets her Prince Charming 
who comes complete with a white Porsche & a pumpkin. Get to know Jessica & Jeremy in this 
humorous but twisted Cinderella story.  






From the Publisher and Editor of the long time free resource for Poets, "The Poetry Market Ezine," 
comes a book on being a poet!  The essays or articles in this new book are about writing, or 
marketing yourself as a writer. Navigating your life as a writer or poet, may be difficult. Do you 
have another job besides writing? Even if you have a writing related job, you are probably doing 
that to supplement your writer life income. There’s hope! At least, that’s what these essays are 
all about, how you can gel your regular work life with your work as a writer.  


More About L.B. Sedlacek

L.B. Sedlacek's is the former editor of "The Poetry Market Ezine" and a prolific poet. She has written many poetry chapbooks, like Mars or Bust, many of them reviewed here on MyShelf.com and here on the #TheNewBookReview. (Use this blog's search engine to find them.)  Synopses of some of her latest books are included in this post. Recent books include  "The Blue Eyed Side" (Cyberwit), "Happy Little Clouds" (Guerilla Genesis Press), "The Poet Next Door" (Cyberwit), "The Architect of French Fries" (Presa Press) and "Words and Bones" (Finishing Line Press).  Her short story collection, "Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories" is available from Alien Buddha Press.  

FIND OUT MORE:  
Facebook - @lbsedlacekpoet  @poetryinla
Twitter: @lbsedlacek   @frugalpoet
Instagram:  @lbsedlacek    @poetryinla



MORE ABOUT BLOGGER AND WAYS TO GET THE MOST FROM THIS BLOG

 The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. Of particular interest to readers of this blog is her most recent How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically (http://bit.ly/GreatBkReviews ) that covers 325 jam-packed pages covering everithing from Amazon vine to writing reviews for profit and promotion. Reviewers will have a special interest in the chapter on how to make reviewing pay, either as way to market their own books or as a career path--ethically!

This blog is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.



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 Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. #TheFrugalbookPromoter, #CarolynHowardJohnson, #TheNewBookReview, #TheFrugalEditor, #SharingwithWriters, #reading #BookReviews #GreatBkReviews #BookMarketing