Prattle Tales by St. Stephens and St. Agnes Middle School Literary Magazine (1998)

 Prattle Tales

St. Stephens and St. Agnes Middle School Literary Magazine

Alexandria, VA

(c) 1998

Oversized kids magazine of poetry and drawings. These kids are adults now. 

 

The New York Wits : The Pamphlet Poets

Simon and Schuster

New York, NY

(c)1927

The New York Wits: The Pamphlet Poets published by Simon & Schuster in 1927. It’s a chapbook, a paperback chapbook as chapbook-y as any I have ever heard or written about. They did exist before the 1940s. In the same dimensions and staple-boundness and everything. Wow. So now my “starting point” for poetry chapbooks goes back even 2 decades earlier. I seem to also remember another early one I have written about, not bubbling to the surface right now but it might later. 

Note the back cover image and the list of poets involved in the selection of the poems included. I am aware of some of these men, as old men, but here they are much younger and in demand. The logo is even different. The Press was 3 years old when this "pamphlet" came out. Quite the find (am keeping it) 

Kangaroo Virus by John Kinsella & Ron Sims (1998)

Kangaroo Virus

John Kinsella (with Ron Sims)

Fremantle Art Centre Press

Western Australia 

(c)1998

John Kinsella is the poet. Ron Sims is the visual artist. Together they collaborated on this book with CD. When I saw this on a bookshelf in a local bookstore all I saw was the tiny spine (the little sliver of nothing) but when I pulled it out and looked at it I instantly recognized the name because I saw him read in person several years ago at Georgetown in DC. 

I appreciate to multi-disciplinary elements at play with this project. 

Listening to the CD enhances and alters the experience of the book entirely. While there is a great focus throughout the recording of the first two poems in the collection. "Death of a Roo Dog" and "The Visitation", the sound experiment that accompanied changes the reading of the text, adding a complexity that is absent when merely reading words on a page. The complexity enhances the experience even with the repetition and looping effects throughout the 31 minutes of sound. 

Brilliant.