Publishers

Vagabond Anthology | 1966 – 1977 | Hcolom Press

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THE TIMES ARE ALWAYS BAD. . . Anything less than a change of heart is sure catastrophe. Which, if you follow the reasoning, explains why the times are always bad. For, unless there be a change of heart, there can be no act of will. There may be a show of will, with tremendous activity accompanying it (wars, revolutions, etc.), but that will not change the times. Things are apt to grow worse, in fact. To imagine a way of life that could be patched is to think of the cosmos as a vast plumbing affair. To expect others to do what we are unable to do ourselves is truly to believe in miracles, miracles that no Christ would dream of performing. The whole social-political scheme of existence is crazy — because it is based on vicarious living. A real man has no need of governments, of laws, of moral or ethical codes, to say nothing of battleships, police clubs, high-powered bombers and such things. Of course a real man is hard to find, but that’s the only kind of man worth talking about. It is the great mass of mankind, the mob, the people, who create the permanently bad times. The world is only the mirror of ourselves. If it’s something to make one puke, why then puke, me lads, it’s your own sick mugs you’re looking at!

That’s it. What we have in this anthology was culled from the first 25 issues and the first 11 years of the magazine. We hope you enjoy it. — John Bennett, Editor VAGABOND PRESS Continue reading →

Martin Reiner | No Through Road | Art Bureau

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Martin Reiner is the author of five books of poems and a novel. Born in Brno, Czech Republic, he attended several military academies and was imprisoned for eight months before re-entering civilian life. He has worked primarily in the arts since 1989. No Through Road is his first chapbook to be published in English. Continue reading →

Gary Barwin | Derek Beaulieu | Frogments From The Frag Pool | Haiku after Basho

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This water-sound is intended for the haiku-master or entity to which it is addressed, and may contain confidential and/or privileged material. If you are not the intended recipient of this water-sound, you are hereby notified that any use, review, retransmission, dissemination, distribution, reproduction, or any action taken on reliance upon this water-sound is prohibited. If you received this water-sound in error, please contact the leaper and delete the material from any poem. Any views expressed in this water-sound are those of the individual frog and may not necessarily reflect the views of the pond. Continue reading →

Francine Witte | The Wind Twirls Everything

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This is one of those small press books probably desktop-published, with two staples holding about 47 pages together, cover/cover art incredibly simple yet effective, the pages sticking out, poorly cut…something you might pass up in a bookstore where a handful of copies were probably left by the author on consignment. If you look inside, you’ll find an impressive list of acknowledgements in literary journals and online publications. Always a good sign: serious writer-at-work here. Especially the asterisk noting: “nominated for a Pushcart Prize.” (I’m still old-fashioned enough in the literary game to know that this stuff matters—or should, in a day, a time of ‘anybodycanwriteanythingandpublish it (print-by-demand) andbeawriter. Maybe. — Norbert Blei Continue reading →

d’bi.young.anitafrika | rivers…& Other Blackness…Between Us: (Dub) Poems of Love | Gazelle Books

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d’bi is a passionate word-warrior with originality and ingenuity to match her creative courage. In this collection, she gushes freely, blending contemporary currents with ancestral resonance to create a daring collection that demands attention. As it bends boundaries and defies definitions, d’bi’s poetry courses along its own path. Surging and swirling, sometimes overflowing the banks, her lines are both delightful and disturbing. On the outside you see a book covered and bound, but on each page there’s raw power and boundless revelation.” — Blakka Ellis Continue reading →

Ruth Dallas | The Joy of a Ming Vase | Gazelle Books

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As American critic Tom Disch quipped of many vintage poets: ‘friends and pets die, the garden takes on a new significance.’ There are poems in this collection about Dutch Masters, the remembered voice of a deceased soprano, a waterfall, ancient Chinese artefacts, victims of the World Wars, kites and flowers; but each piece is sensitively imbued not only with the poet’s awareness of impending death but also with the incorrigible fragility of life. While Dallas is at home in a number of different modes, her high regard for literary tradition as a form of spiritual realism makes her eminently readable as a disciplined watcher of the seasons. Continue reading →

Louis Dudek | Zembla’s Rocks | Gazelle Books

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Zembla’s Rocks is Louis Dudek’s first major collection of lyric poems since The Transparent Sea (1956). All of Dudek’s voices are here: the lyrical observer of everyday events, the satirizer of culture and society, the meditative poet. This book confirms Dudek’s impressive contribution to Canadian literature. Generally acknowledged as the pioneer of the Canadian long poem, Dudek has also been active as critic, teacher, modernist theoretician, editor and publisher for over four decades. In 1981 Frank Davel and bp Nicol said that “Dudek’s centrality to Canadian poetry will become indisputably apparent. His work binds Smith, Scott, and Klein to the writing of the present generation. It links Canadian writing to the great modernist descent from Joyce, Pound, Eliot, and Williams.” Continue reading →

Louise Fabiani | The Green Alembic | Gazelle Books

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The alembic was a vessel used in distillation one of the most important processes in the ancient art of alchemy. In these lyrical poems Louise Fabiani explores the prevalence of transformation in Nature as well as in the human realm. She finds alchemy in the creation of haute cuisine from raw ingredients, girlhood rites of passage, Mozart’s suspicious death and, most of all, in the familiar otherness of flora and fauna. Continue reading →