First Touch by Glenn W. Cooper (2005)

First Touch
Glenn W Cooper
Bottle of Smoke Press
Dover, DEL
(c)2005

Just getting familiar with BOSP and they do some interesting work. Books in clamshell boxes. Specialized work. Famous poets (and lesser known ones) like this gent, Glenn W. Cooper. Oddly enough, I already wrote about a previous chapbook by this guy. Forgot about that one. This one is signed. One of 200 signed. I am not all that impressed with the work in this collection, sorry to say. It's difficult to separate the blogger/critic in me from the publisher in me from the poetry reader in me. Sorry, not loving this one. But I absolutely respect the work of this press and look forward to reading more of the books they publish.

Chapbooks 21

Some Natural Things
Glenn W. Cooper
Kamini Press
Stockholm, Sweden
© 2007

The beauty of this blog is when I happen across the “globalization” effect of small presses, take for example the new small press out of Sweden Kamini Press. Poet/artist and now publisher Henry Denander has created a new line of finely made chapbooks. One of the first two is by Australian poet Glenn Cooper. His poetry is well written. The chapbook is very handsome indeed. Cover art by publisher, overall completely worth checking out.

What I most appreciate about the whole thing is that a Swedish publisher brought out an Australian poet’s book that I found out about since this publisher greatly admires a poet that my Press, Plan B Press, just brought out (Mark Terrill’s ‘Something Red). The song “it’s a small world after all” is playing in my head.


First Lie
Ann LaBar Russek
Black Spruce Press
Anchorage, Alaska
©2000

Ann Russek is always writing about where she’s been years after leaving. This collection of poems was written and published in Alaska about her time in the Midwest. Her Alaska poems were written in Pennsylvania, 2 years later, when I met her. This handsome chapbook with a reproduction of the Adam and Eve story is full of fine poems. Well made chapbook, finely crafted poems. Worth finding.



The Unraveller Seasons
Eugene Ostashevsky
Self published
San Francisco, CA
©2000

This 18 page chapbook by Ostashevsky features work created and performed in San Francisco between 1998-1999. The cover was created by Eugene Timerman. It appears to have been self published. Good poems, Handsome chapbook.

Should I Wash My Hands Before or After Love?
Charles London Cyndian
Pygmy Forest Press
Springfield, Oregon
©2007

SAVE A TREE!

Shirazad
Collected Writings from Shirazad.com
Bowmansdale, PA
©2001

This anthology of work is the brainchild of founder and designer Alexandria Hartman. It represents the Harrisburg, PA region and represents it well. Many talented writers are within and tons of lasting images and catchy lines. (a couple of pieces in fact by a poet named stevenallenmay) It’s a time capsule of the late 1990s – a worthy effort brought off marvelously.

Thanks Alexandria, wherever you are!