MOI SON, THE ARTEEEEST!

Here's Michael's latest -- a Thank You Drawing for our hosts at Lake Tahoe where we introduced the pup to skiing and snowboarding.



Here's another drawing he did after seeing the colonial horror show called "Avatar":



I've figured out a possible Ideal Dream Job for Michael -- to be an illustrator for the movies, which he loves; after seeing, say, a 3-hour movie, he can set you down for another three hours and have you listen to him talk inch-by-inch through the movie frame of what happened. I know--I've been tortured by such experiences. Anyhoow, how now to get him training for and slotted into that possibility?

After all, he's gotten -- okay, I've gotten him -- started on his visual arts resume. He did the cover of moi ROMAN HOLIDAY and did it stellar-ly, yah!

THE BRAIN'S HOLIDAY

Yesterday, after the longest Christmas morning of opening presents ever (what a pleasure to watch a child relish the experience), I finally gave the hubby, the son and the Abuelita what I characterized as my "major present" to each of them. I made them open their packets simultaneously. Each received a copy of ROMAN HOLIDAY. Everybody was tickled by it, as I had not told them previously about the chapbook that featured Michael's drawing on the front cover, and the back cover photo which is of the four of us presumably Roman-holidaying...

...After the oohs and aaaahs, Mom asked how I managed to get Michael's drawing on the front cover and our family photo on the back. I modestly said that I'm a "famous poet" and such tend to get what they want from their publishers. After everyone snorted over my claim to fame (even my son, which means, Dear Hubby isn't providing good modeling...tsk, tsk) (if you're a newbie peep reading this and thus unaware of moi sense of humor, of course I was joking anyway), I turned everyone's attention again to Michael's achievement -- his first publication as an artist!

In so doing, I turned to the copyright page where Michael's name was featured..."Right next," Moi-the-Proud-Mama proclaimed, "to where it said 'pen on ink', the art's medium!"

Pause. The hubby turned to me with a rising eyebrow and repeated, "Pen on ink?"

Aw shitski. Did I state "Pen on ink" instead of "...on paper"? Yes, I did! And, groaning, I acknowledged the typo to the hubby who wouldn't let it go: "Would that be like pencil on lead?

"Did all that fame leach something from your head?"

So, okay: if you'd like to order a copy of MOI BRAIN'S HOLIDAY, do go HERE (scroll down). That typo, of course, will make the chap ever more valuable someday on E-bay.

*****

I gave away nine poetry books for holiday presents. I -- of all people, that be I -- got not a single poetry book for a holiday present. I just don't get this pattern. I got a variety of books, but not a single poetry book! What be that about?

Anyway, here's my latest BOUGHT POETRY list:

ROMAN HOLIDAY by Eileen Tabios (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED-grin)

1,000 VIEWS OF GIRL SINGING, Ed. by John Bloomberg-Rissman (HIGHLY RECOM...etcetera)

TRANSCENDENTAL STUDIES: A TRILOGY by Keith Waldrop

WORLD BALL NOTEBOOK by Sesshu Foster

KA-CHING! by Denise Duhamel

CHRISTMAS POEM (book & CD) by Maya Angelou

FRAGILE REPLACEMENTS by William Allegrezza

KALI'S BLADE by Michelle Bautista

It's 11 p.m. as I finish this post. Have you supported a poetry press today?

ROMAN HOLIDAY--MOI "101st" BOOK

Well, before my "102nd Book", there's gotta be of course the 101st!:



If that front cover drawing seems familiar, it's because of THIS. Anyway, mine is one of three inaugural releases from a new chapbook publisher, Naissance -- which of course means "a birth, an origin, or a growth". I love helping to inaugurate small presses; I remember when Menage a Trois... was the first print-book published by Jukka-Pekka Kervinen's xPress(ed). Well, we all know where the brilliant poet-composer-artist Jukka since has gone on to become the ideal poet's publisher with not just xPress(ed) but also Blue Lion Books,eIghT-pAGE pREss, ankkuri (in Finnish), xStream, minimum daily requirements, epidermis, contour et al. Jukka helped me learn to understand how my choice for publishers also must reflect poetics, not just publishing's commercial facets.

Anyway, here's Naissance's official announcement -- hope it encourages you to check it out, meanwhile supporting as well a brand new press...which looked at 21st century technology and came up with a supportable way to distribute arguably one of the most difficult products to disseminate: ye olde poetry chapbook!

*****

NAISSANCE CHAPBOOKS ANNOUNCEMENT

Naissance Chapbooks (Kingston, PA) is pleased to announce the release of

ROMAN HOLIDAY
By Eileen R. Tabios

In ROMAN HOLIDAY, Eileen R. Tabios brings us a numbered sequence of prose poem Synopses that strike the mind’s eye like an oil-filled kaleidoscope. Patterns merge and emerge in shifting repetitions that succeed in what all poetry attempts: to cover more ground than they should have been able. An excerpt:

from Synopsis #7

It transcends the feminine gesture. [Consolation defined as the bat never reappeared]. She totters on ice despite thick ankles. [By his face, one can tell he’s about to deliver the boot.] He has a gaze like a mirror. [There is nothing like an infant tugging on a daddy’s white whiskers.] “Sulpicia, a Roman woman writer, wrote elegies in Latin that had been attributed to Tibullus.” [Whatever. True love is never chaste.]

ROMAN HOLIDAY is Tabios' 17th print poetry collection. It features a front cover reproduction of a drawing by her 13-year-old son Michael, as well as a back cover reproduction of a photograph of the author's family during a "Roman Holiday". The chap's witty design facilitates the author's long-held ludic approach to mixing real-life references with poetic personas.

ROMAN HOLIDAY can be ordered through the Naissance Chapbooks site at http://chapbookpublisher.com/shop.html for $10 (includes standard shipping within the continental USA). Other new releases are No L by Jennifer Hill and Two Poems by Michael Aro.

For more information: chapbookpublisher@gmail.com