Christina Gillis booksigning

Christina Gillis will read from her new book: Writing On Stone - Scenes from A Maine Island Life at Gulf of Maine Books on Saturday, August 9, at 4 PM.
Here's a blurb from the back of the book:
"My picture of Gott's Island has been a mytho-poetic one, informed by the novels of Ruth Moore. Christina Gillis roots that vision in rock, pulls you down to the stone and sea, and builds an accurate picture of the island through thoughtful story and perceptive listening, watching and telling. She takes you there, and you begin to feel at home." Gary Lawless.
OK, so I wrote the blurb, have been to the house where she lives on Gotts island, the house where Ruth Moore's family lived a century ago, where Ruth Moore was born, but this is really Christina's story, and the island's story.
The book was co-published by the University Press of New England and the Island Institute, with photos by Peter Ralston, and an introduction by Philip Conkling.
Please come listen to this voice from Gott's Island!

Those Lizard People

from the book God Laughs and Plays, by David James Duncan:
One sip of the fire in the water and he began telling of a friend of his, new to visionary experience, who'd recently sought council from a Brazilian shaman. The friend had been traumatized, during a lengthy initiation rite, when he had a vision of a bunch of fearsome, remorseless Reptile Beings, The Reptile Men surrounded John's terrified friend, informed him that they controlled the entire world, and prophesied that they were going to devour the whole thing.
In response to this revelation, the old shaman waved his hand dismissively and chuckled, "Those Lizard People! They think they run everything!"

James Lenfestey reading at Gulf of Maine

Poet James Lenfestey will leave his hermit cave to come read to us on Friday, May 30, at 7 PM from his new book A Cartload of Scrolls - 100 Poems in the Manner of T'ang Dynasty Poet Han Shan.

Here are two poems from the book:

#44 Plumes of paper mill steam

On a piece of lined paper the size of a Chinese poem
I write a Chinese-sized poem.
The words sound like English because I stand where I was born,
on the shore of a Great Lake. Her forests and rivers
unroll around me in plumes of paper mill steam.
I hope to get to China before I die,
where paper was invented, poetry before that.
There my verses will turn into faces.
The people will nod with gentility and respect.


#14 The Poet Joke

So three poets enter a bar.
The first gets drunk and raves.
The second seethes jealously in the corner booth.
The third? Ahhh, the third
rises up off the barstool
in smoke and flames,
ash floating in the air like dark feathers.

literary blogs

I have been reading some literary blogs, but I am sure that there are many others I have not yet discovered. Please send along your recommendations for literary, poetry and bookstore blogs, and I will add them to the list here, or you can add them as a comment .
Here are a few of mine:
Favorite literary blog: Pierre Joris http://pjoris.blogspot.com
Favorite bookstore blog: Karl Pohrt Shaman Drum Books www.thereisnogap.com
My own poetry blog: http://mygrations.blogspot.com
My blog featuring poetry from countries embargoed by the US: http://embargopoets.blogspot.com



Novelist Elizabeth Hand recommends:
http://community.livejournal.com/theinferior4/
Poet and editor Karla Merrifield suggests her "Vagabond Poet" blog
http://karlalinn.blogspot.com
Poet/editor/networker Tom Fallon recommends:
http://pjnights.blog-city.com/
or: www.geocities.com/pj_nights
Therese Broderick recommends a blog on Ekphrasis (poetry inspired by art)
http://poetryaboutart.wordpress.com
Brunswick author Charlotte Agell has a website:
www.charlotteagell.com
as does Phippsburg novelist Ellen Cooney:
http://ellencooney.com

Calef Brown Booksigning

gary snyder recommends

Reading recent posts on Karl Pohrt's great blog on books and bookselling,thereisnogap, I came across his mention of a recent visit from Gary Snyder. Gary was recommending recent reading, audio and video. Here are the recommendations:
Books -
The People's Act of Love - by James Meek
Tree of Meaning: Language, Mind and Ecology - Robert Bringhurst
Learning from Native Wisdom - Gary Holthaus
Video - A Zen Life - on D T Suzuki (Gary was interviewed for the film)
and a new 2 cd set of Gary Snyder reading with musicians in Japan, at the Tokyo 2002 summer festival. The Japanese import is called Mountains and Rivers without end, and sells for $30 in the US.
We will be carrying all three books and the cd set.

Nancy Henry: new book of poems

We are told that poets can't change the world - just words on a page with no power in the real world, but poems do change the world, every day, some for the better, some for the worse, but language is moving through us, all of the time.
One beautiful proof of this is Nancy Henry's new book Who You Are. She shows us that wisdom, compassion, love and a sense of justice and yes, finding just the right word, can reach into someone's soul, change the way that they see the world, the way that they act in the world, make the world a little bit better place not just for humans, but for all living creatures.
Nancy has been to places of pain, places of loss, suffering and despair, has lived through them, uses poetry as a way to look at those experiences, to talk about them, to get them outside of the body into air, light, and language, to make that language into a chant of healing, to help others confront their "moments of doubt and pain", to help us find strength, courage, creativity and heart, to live our lives in a more loving, compassionate, honest way.
These are not facile poems of shallow experience, no cute little stories with happy endings. These are poems from the hard world, poems from the heart, the soul, the deep interior, passing through a poet of wise intelligence, empathy and love.
"If she writes this poem
something might happen
that she can't control."

There is no better language than the language that heals, and these poems work in that way. Read these poems, and feel your heart change.
Gary Lawless

The book is:
Who You Are - Poems by Nancy A Henry
Sheltering Pines Press
2008