Poetry
Image and Imagination
Ben Clarke, Editor; Photographer, Dorothea LangeWriter-in-residence at the Oakland Museum of California and the Oakland Public Library, Ben Clarke, re-examines Dorothea Lange's photographs along with collaborating artists including: A.K. Black, Scott Braley, Lucha Corpi, Kitty Costello, Maketa Groves, Richard Oyama, Margot Pepper, Eric Robertson, Clifton Ross, Abena Songbird, and Rhett Stuart. Using poetry, personal essay, rap and contemporary photography the artists explore the intersection between Lange's documentary photography and current realities.
Aprons
Eric Robertsonpinks, light blues, spring greens, yellow,
gold, polka-dotted, striped, square-cut and scalloped
Aprons to cook in and clean
and for my sister and me
aprons to tie on like capes and run
batman and robin-style
through the house screaming
bada dada dada dada BATMAN!
Joining ranks at every carpeted corner
Freezing and splitting off again with
dramatic orders--You go that way
Grandma took the aprons off the laundry line
Quetzalcoatl
Ernesto CardenalA bilingual edition of a book-length award-winning poem by the militant Roman Catholic priest who was Nicaragua's Sandinista Minister of culture for nearly 11 years. Through 52 poetic fragments, Ernesto Cardenal articulates a multiple vision, constantly constellated by myth that has always been one of the most effective mechanisms of his poetic creation.
ISBN 0-915117-38-X, 57 pages, perfect bound, two color uncoated cover, $11.95.
Burdens of Bliss
Janice King"Janice King's writing is musical, thought-provoking, subtly crafted and above all, honest. She speaks frankly of the `world that was too hard and incomprehensible.' Out of that struggle she has fashioned poetry which, by the subtlety of her wit and her craft, can both charm and amuse us."
Robert Volbrecht
ISBN:O9625153-4-5
60 pages
Perfect bound paperback
Bitterroot
Abena SongbirdSongbird's work in Bitterroot is stark and tender, has wisdom and real information for modern human beings. It rises out of and continues the Native tradition of Mary TallMountain. Poems like One Wail Rising invent and carry forward what it means to be Indian in urban America. There is an authentic and valuable voice here. –Duane BigEagle
The Ballad of Laughing Sal
Mat CallahanShe got into my cab
downtown at Mason and O'Farrell
I had my doubts about her,
'cause she wasn't wearing shoes
She knew what I was thinking,
she said,"Turn your meter on,
I know that time is money, son
that's why the poor ain't got no history.
Now take me to the Cliff House 'cause
I've got to meet the captain
the ship sails with the morning tide
there are some things we can't choose
Don't worry I'm gon' pay you,
here's a hundred dollar bill,
I am a Keeper of the Temple of the Broken Wind
And I guard the key to mystery."
"To Believe in me you don't have to
William Everson: The Light the Shadow Casts
Clifton RossAbout My Impotence or Sainthood
Marsha Campbell
Sarah Menefee
"Marsha Campbell's Dream of Rodney King should be read by everyone who ever watched violence to Blacks and did nothing."
Lawrence Ferlinghetti
Marsha Campbell's Poem: The Homeless Man, was recently published in Street Spirit, San Francisco CA.
Listen To The Night: Poems To the Animal Spirits of Mother Earth
Mary TallMountainEdited by Ben Clarke
"This posthumous collection of poetry by Koyukon poet and writer Mary TallMountain is a work magnificently conceived. A testament to the strength of a woman fated to spend her life in exile from her native land, TallMountain's work is as clear and penetrating as the wind of northern Alaska, as palpable and lyric as summer in northern California, and as bitter and cutting as Tenderloin streets of San Francisco--all places that she lived, an in which resides her spirit. Aho." Paula Gunn Allen
A Quick Brush of Wings
Mary TallMountain"Mary TallMountain weaves into her writing the story of Western civilization's "progress" and the discordant notes it brought to the way of life along the Yukon and within her own life. She retains the memory of her native culture and carries its spirit on in her poems to the many people who are turning with reverence to appreciate and protect `Turtle Island.'"
John Fox
ISBN: 0-9625153-1-0
60 pages, perfect bound paperback
$9.95