Bob Dylan Nobel Prize in Poetry

It's about time! Lots of You Tube Videos of Bob Dylan. Here are a few favorites

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rKEXFSw54M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2sYIIjS-cQ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frWP2TzpayM 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYavpoBdVYM

Gustave Flaubert - Poetry Is Everywhere

There is not a particle of life which does not bear poetry within it.

Gustave Flaubert

In Remembrance of the Life- New Poetry Book by Jane Rosenberg LaForge

Jane Rosenberg LaForge is one of my  favorite contemporary poets. Check out her new book.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

James Esch, Publisher

Spruce Alley Press

484-354-7729

sprucealley@gmail.com

www.sprucealley.com

NEW CHAPBOOK BY JANE ROSENBERG LAFORGE:  In Remembrance of the Life

West Chester, PA, July 8, 2016 –  Spruce Alley Press today announced the release of In Remembrance of the Life,  a chapbook by Jane Rosenberg LaForge. 

The book consists of 25 elegiac and unflinching poems that harvest a transformative beauty from the fields of memory and loss.

“Poetry at its best engages with the realities of life. Some of the biggies are death, loss, and memory. Jane’s poetry meets these subjects head-on, with refreshing honesty and insight,” said James Esch, publisher at Spruce Alley Press. 

Jane Rosenberg LaForge is a poet and writer living in New York City. Her poetry, fiction, critical and personal essays have appeared in numerous publications, including Poetry Quarterly, Wilderness House Literary Review, Ottawa Arts Review, Boston Literary Magazine, THRUSH, Ne'er-Do-Well Literary Magazine, and The Western Journal of Black Studies. Her memoir-fantasy, An Unsuitable Princess, is available from Jaded Ibis Press. Her full-length collection of poetry, With Apologies to Mick Jagger, Other Gods, and All Women was published in fall 2012 by The Aldrich Press. She is also the author of the chapbooks After Voices, published by Burning River of Cleveland in 2009, and Half-Life, from Big Table Publishing of Boston in 2010. She lives in New York City with her husband and daughter.  Follow her on twitter at @JaneRLaForge. Website: http://jane-rosenberg-laforge.com/

Some reviews of In Remembrance of the Life:

"Rosenberg LaForge points toward the beauty of inevitability; death is less an end than a step toward 'the infinite, and you can/ no longer resist the distance.' Reading these poems is often akin to ‘diving into a rainbow of saffron and petrol,’ where the choices one makes may not be choices at all."

—Leslie McGrath, poet and author of Out from the Pleiades: a Novella (Jaded Ibis Press, 2014)

"Reading In Remembrance of the Life is like reading Virginia Woolf if she were writing poetry—one image triggers another appearing to emerge from the unconscious...a book that the reader will return to again and again." 

—Chella Courington, author of The Somewhat Sad Tale of the Pitcher and the Crow and Love Letter to Biology 250.

Details:

In Remembrance of the Life by Jane Rosenberg LaForge

44 pages, Paperback

25 poems

ISBN 9781365002564

Available for purchase at lulu.com:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/jane-rosenberg-laforge/in-remembrance-of-the-life/paperback/product-22757327.html

Also distributed through Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, and independent bookstores worldwide.

NOTE: Review copies are available (electronic PDF or print). The author is available for interview requests.

ABOUT

Spruce Alley was founded in 2013 by James Esch in West Chester, Pennsylvania. The press is a micropublisher of independent literature, audio, and artwork in print-on-demand and digital formats. Contact James Esch (sprucealley@gmail.com) or go to www.sprucealley.com.

“Absolution” by F. Scott Fitzgerald A Classic American Short Story . Have a Read.

 "Absolution" is filled with moments of beautiful prose. It is a story of  three peoples's intense inner conflicts about religious beliefs and  their behaviours. It was written in 1924.
 F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote the Great Gatsby is the author.

https://literaryfictions.com/fiction-1/absolution-by-f-scott-fitzgerald/

Fascinating Exhibit Fitchburg Art Museum- TRIIBE- Check Out Video

http://triiibesamedifference.github.io/video/

Over the Plain Houses by Julia Franks-Book Review-"Over the Plain Houses is a stunning novel of love, betrayal, madness and change."

Hardcover: 280 pages

Publisher: Hub City Press (May 1, 2016)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1938235215

ISBN-13: 978-1938235214

 http://www.amazon.com/Over-Plain-Houses-Julia-Franks/dp/1938235215

 

 "Franks' debut is a thoughtful exploration of one woman's quest to live life on her own terms."-Kirkus Reviews

 

 Over the Plain Houses tells the story of what it was like to be a woman, wife and mother in rural North Carolina in 1939.  It also tells the story of the gradual disintegration of one woman’s marriage. Over the Plain Houses is a stunning novel of love, betrayal, madness (Brodis thought his wife was a witch and a sinner) and change. It is filled with the rich landscapes and details of earthy country life.

In Over the Plain Houses, we meet Irenie Lambey wife of Brodis Lambey.  We learn first hand how the life of a farm wife married to a former logger turned fundamentalist preacher (whose self declared mission was to spread the word of God) changes when the USDA sends Virginia Furman a modern woman and government employee to Irenie and Brodis’s town to teach the women modern ways of housekeeping as other USDA employees had previously come to town to encourage the men to  grow “modern” crops like tobacco that would  provide  a better income for their families. 

 

The former simple lives and beliefs of many of the farmers and their wives were challenged by Virginia Furman and her progressive (at the time) ideas. One of  the concepts Irenie struggled with was  Brodis's interpretation of the Biblical Eve and Adam’s relationship.
 

"Listen. Eve shall be ruled by her husband and in sorrow bear children. She shall spend her life disappearing, and the blue flame shall sputter and shrink into its own self for years to come."

"Do you own Mama?" she asked her father in the midst of her confusion.

 Irenie's mother had said to her, " 'You don't have to be like Vina Jones.' Mrs. Jones had birthed a child every year for seventeen year running."

 What did a woman in 1939 do when she did not want another child, abortion was illegal? What will Irenie do?

 

Julia Franks' descriptions of nature, the farm animals and the passing seasons adds to the authenticity of the story. The descriptions are filled with sensory impressions that made me feel I was there watching the logs tumble down the falls in the water or I was there when the hounds went on a night walk with Irenie.  I could feel the soil and the night air. I was there in  Irenie’s and Brodis’s bedroom seeing the square of light filter through the one small window at night while they lay under a quilt in a sparsely furnished room where the Bible was by the bed.  Franks’ descriptions of place with visual vignettes is superb. Franks depicted the outer world of this couple with the eye of an artist and botanist and she portrayed the inner world of these two with compassion and the insight of a writer who gets her characters completely. You can’t help feel her empathy for them even if  they act terribly.

 

The book is constructed like a river that meanders with slow passages and then bursts into volatile inner and outer terrain. The pace invited me to keep reading, there was tension in the story heightened at the right pivotal points. Occasionally I thought the pace was slowed down by endless descriptions of nature.  But later I realized these passages offered a reprieve to the reader to gather their emotions like Brodis and Irenie did.

 

This book will resonate to women of any age I believe who love a man or love a man they fear. It will resonate to men and their concepts of provider and protector of “their” women.  It is a book for people who love nature and the way of life in the county. It is a book for history lovers. It is a book for anyone who wants to read a story where people are wrestling with cherished beliefs and inner demons, a story of conflict and redemption set in an authentic world that is fading.
 
 In the hands of a lesser writer Brodis and Irenie could have become one-dimensional characters, a fire and brimstone preacher and a woman who wanted to be free. In Franks’ hands they became conflicted people like many of us wanting to live their dreams.

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley- Book Review- Grand Central Publishing

Each time I see the words Breaking News on a TV screen I think no not another disaster.  I am desensitized to disasters from the never-ending images on the 24/7 news cycle. It takes a while to get to the truth and news stations milk this on the hour to captivate viewers, ratings matter.

 

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley is about this 24/7 news cycle and a story they are covering. A plane crashed with two influential wealthy men aboard, Michael Bateman the head of a major news conglomerate and Ben Kipling a Wall Street financial tycoon. Their families including two young children were aboard. These men were powerful movers and shakers with ties to the top levels of government.  A relentless narrative is spun by the anchor of the news station Michael Bateman headed. It concerns the cause of the crash and questions the motivates of one survivor suggesting he may have instigated the crash.

The most compelling thing about Before The Fall was not only the way the book reflects society and the 24/7 news cycle mirroring viewers' insatiable need to watch news to know who is doing what to whom, but the humanity Hawley showed toward each of the characters on the plane whether they survived or not and to the family members not on the plane whose lives were changed.

At moments the news and the horror of the crash became secondary to the way the characters were revealed to the reader. Hawley juxtaposed chapters that moved the main story line forward with chapters dealing with passengers' pasts. As much as I welcomed the information, I feel that the way these chapters were placed in the story was jarring. I found myself wanting the story’s plot to progress. I had to delay this need to know as the remnants of the plane were found and read a chapter about one of the characters on the plane.  Eventually I realized it was worth it since each person from the stewardess to the copilot was humanized, I am not sure how else Hawley could have gotten so much background information in the book without this continual interruption of plot.

 

Hawley like all good writers told this story scenically. Objects become important in the scenes. Being the bodyguard of a newsman who has threats on his life for controversial views is tense business. Bateman’s bodyguard "slept with his finger on the trigger of a Glock.”  There were other images like this of objects that enhanced the whole thriller aspect off the story as well as believable dialogues often missing from thrillers.

 

The narrator’s voice added to the mystery of the plane crash and life in general by searching for meaning in the face of tragedy.  One of the character’s hero was Jack LaLanne the fitness expert who is known for his 50’s TV show. The narrator said, “Where Sartre saw ennui, Jack saw energy. When Camus saw pointlessness and death, Jack saw the broad breaking power of repetition.”

When you read the book you will see how Jack LaLanne influenced one of the characters in a way that enabled him to survive.

 

Before the Fall is the story of people who happened to be in the wrong plane at the wrong time, the story of the need for connection the news provides to the world, the story of  despair and survival. Despite the way the press sensationalized the crash and tried to defame people's character I invite you to see if the power of  love, integrity and truth wins in the end.
 

Before the Fall by Noah Hawley

I finished reading Before the Fall by Noah Hawley. After I have had time to reflect on the story, I will post a review. This was quite an amazing   thriller (a contemporary who or what did it  tale)that reflects not only the human response to loss and tragedy but also shows what it is like to be in the news business today. It "ain't" your mama's news anymore.  A disturbing and moving story.

Bringing More Soul Into Society- The Power and Place of Poetry

Recently I was given a CD called the Power and Place of Poetry (1995), an Irish radio interview with David Whyte.  I had not heard of him before. I highly recommend  this CD. I found it uplifting.

http://davidwhyte.stores.yahoo.net/poplofpo.html

 From the  back cover jacket.

 Whyte  "speaks persuasively to the role of poet and poetry in the life of individuals and society. He makes it clear that what we are truly yearning for can only be found through our imagination."


 http://www.davidwhyte.com/poetry.html

Cut Paper Illustrations/Matisse's Garden (Book) Friedman and Amodeo Museum of Modern Art /Video Tate Museum London "painting with scissors." Link to Artsy’s Henri Matisse page.

 MATISSE'S GARDEN is a great introduction  to Henri Matisse's cut paper art. It is a book created for children.  It  is a joy to view the book even if you are an adult. It suggests Matisse's creative process.

The book was published by the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

 http://www.amazon.com/Matisses-Garden-Samantha-Friedman/dp/0870709100


Check out this You Tube Video and see Henri Matisse's cut outs. He created these late in his career.
 Matisse was ill and confined to a wheel chair at times and he still created such inspiring, joyous and  innovative work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLgSd8ka0Gs


 Check out this link To Matisse's work 


"We strive to make all of the world’s art accessible to anyone online. Our Henri Matisse page, for example, provides visitors with Matisse's bio, over 160 of his works, exclusive articles, as well as up-to-date Matisse exhibition listings. The page even includes related artist & category tags, plus suggested contemporary artists, allowing viewers to continue exploring art beyond our Matisse page."

https://www.artsy.net/artist/henri-matisse

1/11/16 Today's Art Post/ Mixed Media Collage/- InVision: 2D & 3D Landscape/ Davis Gallery

http://davisartgallery.com/Current-Show.aspx

This collage called "Hidden" was in  the Davis Gallery's Landscape show. The show closes today so I decided to post the collage for all to see.

"InVision: 2D & 3D Landscape

2D & 3D artwork with a broad interpretation of "Landscape," including physical, spiritual, cultural, and ecological. The artwork is created in many different media—drawing, painting, mixed media, photography and more.

Opening

Thursday, September 10, 2015, 5–7 pm "