LAURA INGALLS WILDER POETICS

Because I was born and attended school overseas, much of my childhood education is different from the typical U.S. kid's. So, there I was this week *catching up* by reading all of the novels, as well as a biography on and collection of letters, by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Just picture me sheepish when I went to the local library to check them out and was directed to the Children's Section. Naturally, cough, I pretended I was reading them on behalf of another kid...

Anyway, I didn't expect to find the Wilder books to be such enthralling page-turners. I read one novel and that made me check out the rest of the nine-novel series as well as books on the author. I'm not sure I can name a dozen poets who've had that effect on me.

And, obviously, that's the kind of effect I'd like my books to have -- to not be loved by just other poets (whose practitioner POV would interest me) but also to attract people who may not have had a prior interest in poetry. My favorite reactions come from non-poets who are led for some reason or another to check out one of my books and reply, "Oh. I didn't know poetry can be like that..." When that becomes one's motivation -- to not just be relished by one's community of poet-peers -- it can (for me, anyway, it can) have a free-ing effect. That's why my recent books are, I insist, poetry collections, but not typical in form, structure, or (last but not least) length.

If you read my longer books HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE--they're not the usual poetry book (Ron Silliman has classified ONE as "Other"....I frankly appreciate the fit irony of being Other-ed there...). I welcome ye Strangers out there who stumble across my blog for a non-poetry related reason, and thus can come all innocent to my books about what a poetry book should be. I don't wish to preach to the choir. I'd like to enlarge the choir....and have that Song heard louder and louder until the stars join in.

Until then (wink), here's my latest Relished W(h)ine List:

THE CITY SLICKER'S HARVEST (to date)
2 green figs
12 Santa Rosa plums
50 apricots
86 strawberries
1,451 basil leaves
327 purple basil leaves
267 mint leaves
505 pinches of parsley
3 zucchini
2 yellow squash
1 orange squash
237 tomatoes
40 green figs
23 green onion stalks
210 green peppers
11 red peppers
8 Japanese eggplants
45 purple table grapes


PUBLICATIONS
FOR TO, poems by Skip Fox (another winner by this poet who should receive more attention for his work)

PARSINGS, poems by Sheila Murphy (free .dpf HERE. I confess empathy to this due to moi own The Secret Lives of Punctuations. (John--you should check out partly due to your interest in annotations.)

SUBMISSIONS, poems by Jared Schickling (sensibility-wise, a refreshing dose relative to many other contemporary poetry books)

ARDOR, poems by Karen An-Hwei Lee

WHAT THE FORTUNE TELLER DIDN'T SAY, poems by Shirley Geok-lin Lim

TO BE SUNG, poems by Michael Kelleher

PLEASE DO NOT FEED THE GHOST, poems by Peter Ramos

POETIC ARCHITECTURE, "worthless sophomoric exercises" (per blurber Kenneth Goldsmith) by Kent Johnson and photographs by Geoffrey Gatza

FACE BLINDNESS, poems by Megan A. Volpert

from UNINCORPORATED TERRITORY [HACHA], poems by Craig Santos Perez

LATE POEMS OF LU YOU, THE OLD MAN WHO DOES AS HE PLEASES, New Translations by Burton Watson

FOURSQUARE SPECIAL EDITION featuring poems by Samar Abulhassan

FOURSQUARE, Vol. 2, No. 10, featuring Mischa Erickson, Miranda Lee Reality Torn, Lee Ann Brown, Kristen Orser and Jessica Bozek

TRENCHART: TRACER SERIES, aesthetics by Teresa Carmody, Allison Carter, Kim Rosenfield, Amina Cain and Sophie Robinson, with visual art by Susan Simpson and Ken Ehrlich

MEL VERA CRUZ, art monograph by Mel Vera Cruz

BUSTER'S DIARIES: THE TRUE STORY OF A DOG AND HIS MAN as told to Roy Hattersley

BEST FRIENDS: THE TRUE STORY OF THE WORLD'S MOST BELOVED ANIMAL SANCTUARY by Samantha Glen

ON THE WAY HOME: THE DIARY OF A TRIP FROM SOUTH DAKOTA TO MANSFIELD, MISSOURI, IN 1894 by Laura Ingalls Wilder with a setting by Rose Wilder Lane

WEST FROM HOME: LETTERS OF LAURA INGALLS WILDER, SAN FRANCISCO, 1915

LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

ON THE BANKS OF PLUM CREEK, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

LITTLE TOWN ON THE PRAIRIE, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

BY THE SHORES OF SILVER LAKE, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

THE LONG WINTER, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

THESE GOLDEN YEARS, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

THE FIRST FOUR YEARS, novel by Laura Ingalls Wilder

THE SOUTH, novel by Colm Toibin

THE COMMONER, novel by John Burnham Schwartz

THE PANDORA PRESCRIPTION, novel by James Sheridan

THE FINDER, novel by Colin Harrison

TRIBUTE, novel by Norah Roberts

TWISTED, novel by Andrea Kane

FIDELITY, novel by Thomas Perry


WINES
1997 Wild Duck Creek Estate "Heathcote"
Korbel Brut Rose
2004 Chateau St. Jean red blend
2006 Chateau St. Jean chardonnay
2003 Dutch Henry chardonnay