TURNING THE RIVER SACRED AGAIN

Happy to provide an advance look at a worthy project, viz a blurb (unedited) I wrote for Tom Hibbard's forthcoming THE SACRED RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS:

Empire so often come to this: "potholes imitating frozen potholes." The poems in Tom Hibbard's The Sacred River of Consciousness reflect on various crimes by humanity by simply reporting them. That Hibbard's language is poetic rather than journalistic does not mask the realities being referenced -- how "At times life does unfold / as though civilization were garbage." The suffering disenfranchised, the suffering environment, the corrupted governments, the dysfunctional relationships -- how did compassion evaporate? That question is but one of many begot by these poems. For the poems also ask "at what time does the candle make crimes unredeemable." The answer could be: upon the lighting of the candle or consciousness of those events, hence the import of Hibbard's poems. If these poems facilitate the consciousness where the New York Times et al has failed, the river may yet turn sacred again. For the sake of the world, open yourself up to these poems.

Here's the rest of my latest Recently Relished W(h)ine List below. Starting with this list, I'm going to add something different -- to wit, if you see an asterisk before the title, that means a review copy is available for Galatea Resurrects:

PUBLICATIONS
THE LUNG OF THE POET, poetry broadside by Michael Leong (brilliantly fresh!)

THE SACRED RIVER OF CONSCIOUSNESS, poems by Tom Hibbard (see above blurb)

* CLICK AND CLONE, poems by Elaine Equi (witty as ever)

* TESTIFY, poems by Joseph Lease (admirable political poetry in a way where the words surface lightly--even ineffably at times--even as the words sear, in turn, emphasizing message)

A NIGHT WITHOUT ARMOR, poems by Jewel Kilcher (Too bad the publisher HarperCollins didn't provide a good poetry editor -- not necessarily talking about individual poems so much as the structure of the collection)

MORE FROM SERIES MAGRITTE, poems by Mark Young (always a delight to read his poems)

A, poems, photographs, visual poetry and more by Sophie Robinson (movingly evocative)

EYESHOT, poems by Heather McHugh

LIKE THE RAINS COME: SELECTED POEMS (1987-2006) by Mercedes Roffe, trans. by Janet Greenberg

UNION, poems by Don Share

RESIN, poems by Geri Doran

ACROSS STONES OF BAD DREAMS, poems by Zvi A. Sesling

THE NEW POETICS, concept-poetry by Matthew Timmons (well done!)

ECCOLINGUISTICS, literary zine edited by Jared Schickling (valuable reading)

ESQUE, literary journal co-edited by Amy King and Anna Bozicevich

LONG LIFE: ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS by Mary Oliver

PORTA POTTIES OF THE WESTERN WORLD, VOLUME 1, photographs by Jenifer K Wofford (never have I been so enchanted by toilets)

DREAM SYMBOLS, illustrated explanation of archetypal dream symbols by Sara Phillips

FROM THE GROUND UP: SHAFER VINEYARDS' FIRST 25 YEARS, memoir by John Shafer

FOREVER PARENTS: ADOPTING OLDER CHILDREN, memoir by JamesE. Kloeppel and Darlene A. Kloeppel

A FOREVER FAMILY, memoir by John Houghton

JUST GIVE ME BORSCHT, memoir by Matthew Bingham

PARENTING FROM THE INSIDE OUT, psychology by Daniel J. Siegel and Mary Hartzell

HUSBAND AND WIFE, novel by Leah Stewart

I'D KNOW YOU ANYWHERE, novel by Laura Lippman

HELL'S CORNER, novel by David Baldacci

THE COBRA, novel by Frederick Forsyth

THE EXILE, novel by Andrew Britton

A WOMAN CALLED SAGE, novel by DiAnn Mills


WINES
1994 Judd's Hill Cabernet NV
2002 Gumpara Victor's Old Vine Barossa Valley shiraz
1994 Dow
Travigne house chardonnay
2004 Trevor Jones Dry Grown Barosa Shiraz
1993 Peachy Canyon zinfandel Paso Robles Dusi Ranch