Finishing Line Press
PO Box 1626
Georgetown, KY 40324
859-514-8966
Publishing timeline.
Release date (books will
be mailed):
Nov. 10, 2012
Nov. 10, 2012
The poems in I Am the Flame are
visual and
poignant, holding moments of longing, tenderness, sadness, acceptance, humor
and wonder. The poet revisits her female ancestral
roots.
What
Others Have Said About I Am the Flame
"In poems rich with evocative details and surprising turns,
Elizabeth Glixman, through family stories,
history, and an imagination brimming with wonder and wisdom, defines her place
among her female ancestors. She solidifies her connection with them as she writes, "I am all these women /
... I am their flame." Later, she returns their "bones to the core of the earth / to the heat" where, with her
flame of passion and new found understanding, they become a "new orchestra
/ of woman song."
Berwyn Moore, professor of English
Gannon University and author of O Body Swayed and Dissolution of
Ghosts
“I Am the Flame blazes a
trail of poems that looks back upon one's roots. Through insightful vignettes,
Glixman delves into the traditions and lives
of her ancestors with the inquiring mind of "a child entering life shocked
by light / remembering the womb from where we all came." A beautiful and
riveting collection.”
Arlene Ang, poetry editor The
Pedestal Magazine, Press 1, author of Seeing Birds in Church is a Kind
of Adieu
“With these poems, Glixman goes "to the outer edges of
memory" to honor her ancestors. Even though "the people who know who
they were to each other, what happened are
gone," Glixman's songs "mix longing, imagination" to remember
language, lives unspoken til now.”
Kimberly L. Becker, author Words Facing East, member of Wordcraft Circle of Native Writers and Storytellers
Sample
Poem
Did my Ancestors
Travel
from
China
to Mongolia to Russia to Eastern Europe
in time for the Holocaust?
Could a seed have escaped trauma
floated in the air before the annihilation
pollinate another ancestor?
Did a seed travel to India northern Africa Israel
to the Golden Age in Spain
flee the Spanish Inquisition to Europe
mingle on the way with pistils
stop to grow rice, live in a yurt, a Persian palace
hunt milk goats
do Sufi twirls
read Rumi
wail at the Wailing Wall
birth babies in beds made of hay?
There is a picture of my great grandmother
She is low and wide like a locomotive
I fill in the pieces
I see her in fields on horse back riding
carrying my Mongol brother
in her arms through the mountains
covered with blue skies
to Mongolia to Russia to Eastern Europe
in time for the Holocaust?
Could a seed have escaped trauma
floated in the air before the annihilation
pollinate another ancestor?
Did a seed travel to India northern Africa Israel
to the Golden Age in Spain
flee the Spanish Inquisition to Europe
mingle on the way with pistils
stop to grow rice, live in a yurt, a Persian palace
hunt milk goats
do Sufi twirls
read Rumi
wail at the Wailing Wall
birth babies in beds made of hay?
There is a picture of my great grandmother
She is low and wide like a locomotive
I fill in the pieces
I see her in fields on horse back riding
carrying my Mongol brother
in her arms through the mountains
covered with blue skies
I
see her criticize her husband
the one who is thin and angular
(in the picture where she is rotund)
for his weaknesses
his inability to do more than dream.
This is all make believe
The people who know who they were to each other
what happened are gone.
the one who is thin and angular
(in the picture where she is rotund)
for his weaknesses
his inability to do more than dream.
This is all make believe
The people who know who they were to each other
what happened are gone.
black hats with brims, long waistcoats and withered hands
wide almond eyes and yurts
prologue and epilogue
narrative and poetry- what I create are dreams.
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Finishing Line Press
Post Office Box 1626
Georgetown,
KY 40324
Media Contact:
Leah Maines, Editor
Finishing Line Press
P.O. Box 1626
Georgetown, KY 40324
