3 views of Aaron Simon

Wrote this about Aaron Simon on this blog in #11:

Carrier
Aaron Simon
©2006
Insurance Editions
Jackson Heights, NY

Insurance Editions makes quality chapbooks, period. Carrier by Aaron Simon is no exception. It’s a small book, 6 3/4 X 5 1/4. The paper stock and quality of printing are to be commended. I will note that the book was printed at Oscar Printing Company of San Francisco, CA and it is a superb job. The 34 prose poems are equal to the production of the book. I would say that this is a fine book and if you not yet familiar with Mr. Simon’s work, as I was not, it behooves you to find and read whatever Aaron was brought out. You are in for a treat.


Nobody writes about chapbooks for God's sake, and our first child, Julia, was born and I was the "stay-at-home" and I was there with our daughter and I started to write about chapbooks because I publish chapbooks (via Plan B Press) and because of a single chapbook I found somewhere -

- and I started to gather them, and once I started blogging about chapbooks some small presses in Brooklyn started sending copies to me for review which (remember the whole "having a newborn baby at home thing? that was real") and newborn babies need a LOT of attention. Anyway, Carrier was one of those that arrived from Insurance Editions, thank you Insurance Editions!"

then, I got :

Periodic Days
Green Zone
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2007

: this from Green Zone, another of those small Brooklyn presses. This is a departure from the first book. These are not prose pieces. These are more structural. Very good poems. Thank you, Green Zone.

These two chapbooks have been in one of my growing number of plastic bins filled with chapbooks since 2006, and recently I decided to see if Aaron was "fineable" on the net - yes, he's in San Francisco and he would love to sign my copies of his books! I send them to him, very happily. I love having authors sign their books! And to my surprise, he adds :

Senses Himself
GreenZoneEditions
Brooklyn, NY

: which he also quite graciously signed. This collection mirrors the second. Great poetry!
All three are very good collections. Thanks, Aaaron, for the work!

Chap*books 23

6 X 6
Ugly Duckling Presse
Brooklyn, NY
©2002

I have written in the past about this great little collective, Ugly Ducking Presse, which hails from Brooklyn. In this series of little poetry journals, they acknowledge their debt to Russian Constructivism with wallpaper covers of a unique shape and size. The poetry by Joe Elliot, Arielle Greenberg, Lewis Warsh, Carlos Blackburn, Mark Lamoureux, and Alicia Rabins is also fantastic. If one were a collector of fine chapbooks, it would behoove them to get the work by Ugly Duckling!


I’m Going Home
Leslie Breeding
Green Zone Editions
Brooklyn, NY
©2007

Sadly, I have to say that I wish this chapbook had gone home, or stayed home. The cover art is not the best I have seen on a Green Zone book, and the poetry isn’t the strongest I have ever read in a Green Zone chapbook. SAVE A TREE!


A Hollow Destination
Jim Swill
Self published
© 2006

This is a tree wreck. Worse than a train wreck, trees were felled to make this horror. A pulping I did go, a pulping I did go. SAVE A TREE!!!!


In the Late Summer Garden
Barbara Crooker
H&H Press
Middlebury Center, PA
©1998

Barbara Crooker has been mightily busy over the past few decades, having a number of books come out including this well made little gem published by H&H Press. Crooker writes a good deal about Pennsylvania and there is some of that here as well. 23 pages, cover illustration by Natalie Kennedy. A fine little chapbook.

Concerned Poets on the Move
Sharon Leonard Goodman, ed
In The Tradition Press
Philadelphia, PA
©1986

This is one of those important collections that captures a moment, this moment is the aftermath of the terrible Osage Avenue fire that was the result of the confrontation between members of MOVE and the City of Philadelphia. This collection, 33 pages of frustration and rage and heartfelt sense of loss, has a clearly Afro-American hue to its writings and stance but it’s necessary to have this reaction to what some have seen as a clearly forceful response against an Afro-American group. It’s an important document and I wish it were made available again for a wider audience.

oh please, no (1)

just one this time

March-and-Fiesta
Four Short Plays
Wade Savitt
Green Zone
New York, New York
©2008


This has to be one of the worst books that Green Zone has brought out in years. SAVE A TREE!

Chapbooks 19

Irritant
Kostas Anagnopoulos
Ugly Duckling Presse
Brooklyn, NY
© 2007

This is a great little book. Ugly Duckling Presse continues to impress. Anagnopoulos comes at us with 38 bits of poetic observations, short blasts of reality/absurdity. So this is where the New York school is now. Packaged beautifully in this compact punch. Kudos to Ugly Duckling.


Becoming
Emma Rossi
Green Zone Editions
Brooklyn, NY
© 2007

This odd sized book is a wonderful thing. Ms. Rossi writes prose poetry, and writes it well. With an interesting cover by Kate Parnell, hey cover design is hard work!, this book is a great addition to any collection. AND Green Zone actually has its address in the book so one can contact them and thank them for all their wonderful books.



a familiar album
erica kaufman
The New School Chapbook Series
New York, New York
© 2006

It’s great to see a chapbook coming out of the New School Chapbook series. Ms. Kaufman has written a moving, personal tribute to her family is an interesting treatment on the whole notion of ‘the family album’. For me, however, there needed to be more images or none at all. The black & white photos were a tease. As this was one long prose poem, perhaps that determined the number of photos in the book. Yet, the format could have been ‘toyed’ with a bit more.

I also want to note that Ms. Kaufman is involved with running the Belladonna series in New York which has produced many fine chapbooks over the past few year. Bless you, Erica for all your hard work; your rewards await you in heaven.


a gravure and five drawings with text
Elaine Galen & Edward Colker
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
New York, New York
© 1963

This is less a ‘chapbook’ as a loose collection of drawings with text. As the title suggests. The text was provided by Elaine Galen with the etchings by Edward Colker. It’s a beautiful experiment. One that works. One of only 100 made.

Bird in the Overhang
Jennifer Gittings-Dalton
Springfed Chapbook Series
Foothills Publishing
Kanona, NY
© 2007

I must defer to El Lissitzky who wrote in 1931 "The book must be the unified work of the author and the designer. As long as this is not the case, splendid exteriors will constantly be produced for unimportant contents, and visa-versa." Unfortunately, that’s what has happened here. The wonderful poems by Jennifer Gittings-Dalton are wrapped in a frankly boring cover which does no justice to the work. I understand that this is the publisher’s decision, and as this particular volume is number 65 in this series but - he has been milking the cover design for all it is worth. Seriously, invest in hiring someone who can do something ELSE with the covers. PLEASE!!!!!


Hot Water Review 1981
# 4
Peter Bushyeager, editor
Philadelphia, PA
©1981

Bright pink cover with red lettering, Hot Water Review 1981. This is a great collection of text with images, well ahead of its time, featuring Philadelphia legend Joel Colton, who died at Mount St. Helens eruption, along with the editor, Peter Bushyeager, Andrei Codrescu, Richard Kostelanetz, Ron Padgett, and others. It’s a shame that sometimes the most interesting work has the shortest lifespan. This is a great volume. I would imagine rare as hell to find, but – FIND A COPY! (no, you can not have my copy)

chapbook16

Chapbooks 16


Back from the Park
Denee Dubeau Zah
Green Zone
New York, New York
© 2006

Zah’s chapbook opens with the poem, Ming, which has the opening line “This book is so well-made I can’t bear to write in it”. Whether irony or hyperbole, that’s about the highest praise this book can give. Self praise. The poems are not breathtaking and the stapled 8 1/2” x 11” size makes for an awkward storage issue. If in fact this chapbook was meant to be saved; or stored. The cover is from a beautiful painting by ‘J. Brooke’, uncredited. It’s got to be an early Green Zone chapbook – a learning as one goes book – since the quality of presentation simply is not visual here. Later chapbooks by the same mystery publisher are extremely well done. This one was not. I fear that the tree was wasted in this effort – SAVE A TREE!!!!


Emergency #3
Ammi
New Orleans, LA
© 2000

A 48 page rant by Ammi, whose Emergency #3 I got first-hand when a swarm of New Orleans writers and poets descended on the city of Brotherly Land back in 2002. It was a most curious evening and a series of curious chapbooks on display. I scooped up one of everything and have been picking through them in this blog. I do so as much to bond with the city that that mob of writers came from as for the merit of their work. As is the case here, It’s a bit of whiny post Gen-X angst. SAVE A TREE!!!!!!!!

The Portuguese Letters
Steve Dalachinsky
Sisyphus Press Chapbook series
© 2000

Steve Dalachinsky has been published by several small presses. This effort is one of the better ones. Green cover with cover art by Yuko Otomo. Contains 5 letters (poems). For those familiar with his work from his Free Jazz collaborations, it’s worth collecting his written work as well.


Yukon Poems of Robert W. Service
Sourdough Edition
Filter Press
Palmer Lake, Colorado
© 1967

For those who love to read the poems of Robert Service, or of any of a list of 47 other writers in this series by Filter Press, this book is quite a find. Fully illustrated with period piece images, it sings of the time. Definitely worth it for those in the know. (not my cup of brandy though)


Dances in Dialogue
Sharon Rees Eiferman
Zenobia Press
Bryn Mawr, PA
© 1991

This is a 30-page chapbook with cover image of unknown married couple, parents or grandparents of the author. There are some poems in this collection that are very good and it would have been interesting to see what might have happened had the author concentrated on only poems about writing, the muse, and poetry itself. Yet this is not a tight and focused grouping of poems and the various strands unwound for me upon reading.

Ms. Eiferman has been a fixture on the campus of Philadelphia Community College and has conducted workshops across the region for many years. I am unaware of any additional books of hers, nor of the press itself.

Chapbook14

Chapbooks 14


Wit’s End with Bric-A-Brac
Jessica Dessner
©2006
Green Zone
New York City


What is it about Green Zone that is most intriguing and beguiling? The incredible talent with the complete absence of publishing information? That’s it! Jessica Dessner’s work is funny and profound. The book is another testament to the work presented by Green Zone. It’s a book worth finding, if one can.

Dacotah Territory 6
Special Native American Issue
©1973
Dacotah Territory
Moorhead, MN

This small journal, edited by James L. White, has work by Joy Harjo and several other Native American writers included as well as images by Jim McGrath. These 56 pages are stuffed with great writing. It’s a treat for the eyes and the mind. I have been told that the journal is still producing issues at Moorhead State College which is quite impressive in these days of instant gratification and disappearance. Dacotah Territory was a proud member of COSMEP. How many current publications can make that claim?

Axe Factory III
Louis McKee/Joe Farley, ed.
©1990
Philadelphia, PA

Published by Axe Factory and edited by Lou McKee and Joe Farley with cover art by Jeff Vetock, this issue is a time piece into the Philadelphia poetry community of 1990. In addition to work by Lynne Savitt, Tina Barr, Greg Geleta, Ann Mennbroker, and others, there are book reviews by books of Greogry Djanikian and Christopher Bursk as well as a listing in the back of received journals and zines. A must for anyone serious about collecting Philadelphia based publications.


Sex Toy
B.L. Kennedy
©2002
12 Gauge Press
San Clemente, CA

Don’t let his disclaimer throw you; B.L Kennedy is a serious artist who is intent to follow in the footsteps of d. a. levy and Kenneth Patchen. This small sliver of a book is a fine art book which might have been a little more polished but as it is, is a great book. The pages are a series of “picture poems” done in 2002. It’s an incredible merging of image and text. If you want more than black ink on white paper, this book is for you!



Standing In the Sky
Karen Bashkirew
new moon press
Lenhartsville, PA

This fine book by Karen Bashkirew is quite the find. These 26 poems in this well made little book are accessible and well crafted. I can’t help but also hear Suzzy Roche’s voice since one of Bashkirew’s poems have become a “song” on Roche’s album, Zero Church. I look forward to more work by Bashkirew.