Countries by Anne Waldman (1980)

Countries
Anne Waldman
Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1980

Anne Waldman had several of her early books published on Toothpaste/Coffee House Press. This tiny sized, 5 X 6.5 inches with linoleum blocks by Reed Bye, falls in the middle of their working collaboration. One of 1,000 printed. Short pieces. Tight, compact, ready for travel.

Application Counter by Matthew Wascovich (2002)

Application Counter
Matthew Wascovich
Slow Toe Publications
Cleveland, OH
(c)2002
Matthew Wascovich published a number of books of poetry, before starting the band Scarcity of Tanks. The poetry in this book is clean and tight. 35 pages, stapled-bound chapbook with cover art painting by Catherine Langsdale. It's a fine collection and if one looks at the work knowing that he morphs into a lead singer, it's easy to see these as chunks of lyrics as well.

EarDada #1 (2000)

EarDada
editor: Re'Howse
Gardenia, CA
(c)2000
Volume 1 Issue 1

This staple bound zine was the handiwork of Re'Howse who, I believe, is alive and well and living in Louisiana where she is makin' some art. 15 years ago, she put together this tiny zine of art, prose, and poetry. A piece I wrote was in it. The concept of "flash" writing was already around and I wrote a piece that took only half the 50 words allotted. I called the piece 27 Left Tattooed anarchy circle
on her neck.
Three piercings in right
nostril,
silver.
Metal slash
industrial music
rattles the chandelier.
Her hand
jerks the wires
when she sneezed;
BOOM!

I even scored a Tshirt (a special EarDada shirt) which I wore out. There are so many small zines and journals out there. I just happened to be in this one. It was a pretty cool experience.

Sir by H R Hegnauer (2011)

Sir
H R Hegnauer
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2011

A short story with experimentation in white space? Possibly. Unpaginated white pages of decent writing in a lovely, typical of these books, presentation. A beautiful object. But the writing did not impress me; either as prose or - was it meant to be poetry?

Notice the Star by Dan Carr (1976)

Notice the Star
Dan Carr
The Four Zoas Press
Hardwicke
(c)1976

Another ebay find. I am always surprised how little sellers learn about the things they sell. Especially chapbook. "little slivers of nothing". I swear that most people think that way about chapbook. This little one was printed in 1976. Linoleum cut by Parnell Rogers.

Letter-pressed cover. Nice quality. Good read. Rare, good luck finding a copy.

The Landscape of Mind by Jianqing Zheng (2001)

The Landscape of Mind
Jianqing Zheng
Slapering Hol Press
Sleepy Hollow, NY
(c)2001

#340 of 500 printed. 29 pages. Hand-sewn binding. This book is the winner of the 2001 Slapering Hol Press contest. Mr. Zheng was born in China and was forced into "re-education" from farmers. Jianqing Zheng, Greenwood, Mississippi, is professor and chair of English at Mississippi Valley State University. He is the editor of Valley Voices: A Literary Review. A noted Wright scholar, Zheng's work on the writer has appeared in the Explicator, Southern Quarterly, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, Notes on Contemporary Literature, and other periodicals.

These poems are luscious. Well worthwhile. DO find and read.

little mysteries by ken mikolowski (1979)

little mysteries
ken mikolowski
toothpaste press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1979

With illustration by his artist/wife, ann mikolowski. Another beautiful like chap from Toothpaste Press. Designed by Allan Kornblum. This copy is part of the 2000 copy second run of this little gem. Ann Mikolowski went on to do a number of covers and internal illustrations from other Toothpaste Press.

when we were together in 1954 by Patrick Riedy (2012)

when we were together in 1954
Patrick Riedy
pressboardpress
Buffalo, NY
(c)2012

#55 of 80 made. 5" X 5" (how square). Riedy put down markers in Buffalo, NY which is a good place to do it in upstate out of New York City kinda way. We communicated with each other by mail and chapbook exchanges in 2013 after Ryan Eckes, who Plan B Press published in 2007, did a reading in Buffalo. Riedy has since moved on to Syracuse. Buffalo shakes off its poets, and more come to fill the void.

Letterpressed cover, hand sewn stitchery, unpaginated pages, and pages of few words. But of the words that are there! They float, flutter, and meander. A book with a title that includes a year does so, indirectly and inadvertently, like nailing a marker into the soft ground of memory. To many born in or around 1954 (including this sod), that isn't just a year - it is THE year, our year. It's a year that left a mark, a "before 1954" or "in 1954", followed by "after 1954". 1954? It's not an idle insufficient series of numbers.

It's the year that Rock and Roll began. The year the French lost Vietnam and American "advisors" took over. It's the year of polio shots and color TV sets, and frozen dinners. Matisse died. The first nuclear sub was launched. On The Waterfront. Senator McCarthy. Brown vs. Board of Education. Oppenheimer is stripped of his security clearance - cut out of the debate, America detonate bigger bombs over Bikini islands.

Riedy, without digging through historical documents, nonetheless brilliantly states :
when we were together
in 1954
we weren't born yet

which is both a truism and deeper statement about how every successive generation can not fully comprehend or appreciate the previous one. The Political columnist, Gail Collins, wrote that no one grows old in the country that they were born in. Sage brilliance. Because rust never DOES sleep. There is always some younger, smarter, generation of fresh faces and stupid responses pushing up from "the future". And the future itself is not a static collection of datum. It's happens right now - and then, now - and again right now - no, I mean, NOW (snap your fingers, you have already missed it)

and when he concludes "everything had meaning/nothing was worth nothing/and these words/meant something" he summed up a good deal more than he imagined.

Why Jesus? by Nicky Gumbel (HAPPY EASTER)

Why Jesus? Nicky Gumbel
religious tract

It's Easter Sunday and back when I was started Bardfest in Berks County, PA it was always tricky to have a 30 day poetry month with a poetry reading every day of the month when Easter fell in April which is why I am including this little tract. My first question is why green? Why is the cover and the lettering green? well, Green is the color of plant life, abundant in spring. It is used to represent the triumph of life over death. Green is the liturgical color for the Trinity season in some traditions, and may be used during Epiphany in others.

Ben Franklin and other early American printers stayed in business and prospered from the printing of religious tracts like this one. This particular one was printed in the UK. But no matter, it part of a long history of religious printing going back to the original Gutenberg Bible. It's likely that more religious items have been published since the invention of the Press than any other type of material.

It's not poetry to my ears, but it's designed to resinate with many a reader. Here's to publishing religious tracts!

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1993)

The Yellow Wallpaper
Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Orchises Press
Washington, DC
(c)1993, (c)1891

I am writing about this story by Charlotte Gilman because it was published by Orchises Press which publishes primarily poetry which is the main focus of this blog. Orchises is the brainchild of George Mason University professor, Roger Lathbury.

This 16 page staple-bound story has this description from the Orchises catalogue: "This unforgettable tale of madness and repression, first published in The New England Magazine in January 1892, was praised by William Dean Howells as a tale to “chill the blood,” but it has also been viewed as a study in progressive madness, a text that destroys itself in the telling, and an early instance of feminist fiction."

Gilman was known for this story from the time it first appeared in print. However, these days she is also know for Herland. She wrote 4 volumes of poetry as well as several books and collections of essays.

Here is the original cover for the book for of The Yellow Wallpaper.

Orchises Press has been publishing since the early 1990s.

Cherry by Barbara Jane Reyes (2008)

Cherry
Barbara Jane Reyes
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
Brooklyn, NY
(c) 2008
I liked the poetry very much in this small collection and decided to let her website speak for itself: "Barbara Jane Reyes is the author of Diwata (BOA Editions, Ltd., 2010), winner of the Global Filipino Literary Award for Poetry and a finalist for the California Book Award. She was born in Manila, Philippines, raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the author of two previous collections of poetry, Gravities of Center (Arkipelago Books, 2003) and Poeta en San Francisco (Tinfish Press, 2005), which received the James Laughlin Award of the Academy of American Poets. Her fourth book, To Love as Aswang, is forthcoming from PAWA, Inc. She is also the author of the chapbooks Easter Sunday (Ypolita Press, 2008) Cherry (Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs, 2008), and For the City that Nearly Broke Me (Aztlan Libre Press, 2012).

Her work is published or forthcoming in Arroyo Literary Review, Asian Pacific American Journal, Boxcar Poetry Review, Chain, Eleven Eleven, Fairy Tale Review, Fourteen Hills, Hambone, Kartika Review, Lantern Review, New American Writing, North American Review, Notre Dame Review, Poetry, TAYO, Unpublished Narratives, xcp: Cross Cultural Poetics, among others.

An Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellow, she received her B.A. in Ethnic Studies at U.C. Berkeley and her M.F.A. at San Francisco State University. She is an adjunct professor at University of San Francisco’s Yuchengco Philippine Studies Program, where she teaches Filipin@ Literature in Diaspora, and Pinay Lit. She has also taught Filipino American Literature at San Francisco State University, and graduate poetry workshop at Mills College, and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Philippine American Writers and Artists (PAWA). She lives with her husband, poet Oscar Bermeo, in Oakland, where she is co-editor of Doveglion Press."

Completely worthwhile.

Now Poetry by Xerox Education Publications (1974)

Now Poetry
Xerox Corporation
Xerox Education Publications
Columbus, OH
(c)1971

This is an interesting and overlooked item. Overlooked in the sense that it should be in every chapbook collector's archives. This 63 pages booklet is as much a promotional tool for Xerox as it is a collection of poetry. The work included is concrete poetry as well as more formal styles but the eye-catching element is that there are images on every page. Xerox is showing off a bit but it works! Since this booklet is part of the Xerox Educational Publication services, the poems are actually primarily from kids. There are some poems by adults in here but it's primarily a collection of kid poems. Some of which are very good.

The booklet is produced on Xerox paper stock meaning it's thin and can be easily damaged. Yet this copy is in great condition. What better way to celebrate National Poetry Month than with kids' poetry!

Shards by Pat Sadowski & Al Nadolski

This is National Poetry Month in the USA so I am going to write about a poetry chapbook a day for the month. Ambitious? Perhaps a little, but it's worth doing. So here goes:

Shards
Pat Sadowski & Al Nadolski
publishing date unknown
unknown publisher

We'll start with a mystery. This one more than others IS a mystery. The ebay seller had no details about this book except that he thought it was made locally and locally for him was Milwaukee. Staple-bound chapbook. Unpaginated. Each poets few poems in this volume are good. Topical and geographical. Were I to guess, I would place this collection in the 1970s. Little more than unearthing a lost gem, really. I will return to this chapbook if I ever find out more.

Cyrus by Anna Burton-Wachter (2013)

Cyrus
Anna Gurton-Wachter
The Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2013

Sometimes one just tries to do too much, spread themselves too thin. This tiny chapbook is an unfortunate example. It's not prose-poetry. It's surface writing. It lacks depth. I did not connect with the writing at all. SAVE A TREE.

Trailer Trauma by Robin Axberg (1995)

Trailer Trauma
Robin Axberg
Milwaukee, WI
(c)1995

This is one of the oddest chapbooks I have yet to find. It's a collection of poetry with B&W photo images and drawings done by friends of the poet and assembled - interestingly. At first I didn't know what to make of it and then I spied the dedication to "Larry and the Cafe Melange poets". Ah, a clue! Cafe Melange has a history! This can be seen as much as a historical document of Milwaukee history in the early 1990s as anything. Ms. Axberg signed to the book to a friend using her (then/NOW) married name. This chapbook is something alright. Glad I got it.

Fervent Remnants of Reflective Surfaces by Evelyn Reilly (2006)

Fervent Remnants of Reflective Surfaces
Evelyn Reilly
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
(c)2006

This work, like so many books published by Yo-Yo Labs, has the fingerprints of Brenda Iijima all over it and that's not a bad thing. The work itself is a fun exercise in marginalia, reductionism, and playfulness. It is as though the author has gone outside after a significant snowfall and left her singular footprints in the white both for herself and her readers with a hot chocolate GLEE. Ms. Reilly incorporates some Moby Dick text in the second section (Lesser Levithans)to get Mr. Melville involved. It works well at every level. Unpaginated. All images by Ms. Iijima. Score one for the Labs!

the months since last posting

Sorry - overwhelmed by holidays and the remodeling of our house. Our front porch has become a mudroom/office. Whose office? well, mine actually and I am still going through my stacks and boxes and bins of chapbooks. It has been some time and now in the midst of WINTER the local school district doesn't know how to be ready for "winter" so my kids are home far more often than they should be.

Well known and loved poets have passed away over the past few months, including just a day about Philip Levine. His first few books were chapbooks/small press books. Rod McKuen passed away as well but I never liked his work and I don't believe he was published in chapbook form. More importantly to me, Allan Kornblum (Toothpaste Press) died in Fall. A generation of publishers is passing from the scene before our eyes. Their work remains and much be collected. That's where this blog comes in. That's what this blog has been about from the beginning, talking about people, publishers, Presses.

rushing to the end of the year

There is life after blogging too. Or perhaps, instead of blogging. Instead of capturing every second of one's life on some electronic devise or another. Not standing on every platform available. Not screaming in every direction at once.

I meant to write more about chapbooks this year but was overwhelmed BY the year. Too much happened, and blogging fell off the radar screen. Keep collecting, I did a good amount but writing about the treasures I did not do in the measure I meant to do.

I see them like snowflakes falling on ebay, some big fishnet in Minnesota pulling up entire schools of chapbooks posted there. Then put up individually with some odd priced numbers. I see these illuminated little fish from the deep forgotten unknown flashing across my momentary awareness; names and titles I never heard of. Like old signs along route 66 in the desert night. Surrounded by the hollow darkness of obscurity. Never remembered. Pages never opened. Poems never read.

And unlike the masked poster from Minnesota whose only in it for the quick buck, I try to uncurl the twisted logic of best intentions and the scrubbing away of time. Chapbooks, authors, presses. Swept clean from our morning brains like forgotten dreams.

A Message to Garcia by Elbert Hubbard (1917)

A Message to Garcia
Elbert Hubbard
The Roycrofters
East Aurora Erie County New York
(c)1917

Hubbard was a member of the Roycrofter artisan community in New York state and died on the Lusitania (May 7, 1915). He lived in an Arts & Crafts community and two years after his death, this lovely handmade chapbook was created to honor Hubbard. It's a wonderful example of the Arts & Crafts movement in the US during this period. Handmade paperback, hand sewn binding. Very fine indeed. A bookworm also enjoyed it sometime in the past and I am now keeping it for the relic that it is since some of the text was literally devoured years ago.

My Lost Idols by Jackie Botterio (1967)

My Lost Idols
Jackie Botterio
twowindows press
san francisco, ca
(c) 1967

I was going to write about this chapbook in terms that I have before: size, page count, details and all that. But with this one I got caught up in that printed in November 1967 in an edition of only 130 copies and that the copies were only distributed to friends. Why? Well, the clue is found on the title page at the bottom:

Jackie Botterio
1942-1966

The young lady, all of 24 years old, died. This is her only book. Her remembrance. The fact that there are 5-10 copies posted online to be sold is heartbreaking. This young woman, this small press, deserves more than the briefest mention. I did a quick search of this blog and found a different chapbook by twowindows Press : a 1987 chapbook by Joanne Kyger and Michael Rothenberg. By that time, the press was located in Berkeley. Apparently the press brought out close to 50 books over its lifespan. Not done digging but wanted to put this up.