two chapbooks found in a DC bookstore

Poems by Peppino
self published
Fairfax, VA
©1998

One of the poems in this 29 page collection is entitled “Everyone is Born a Poet”. There are more letters of certificate in this staple-bound nightmare than poems. And no, dear poet, you are wrong: not everyone is born to be a poet any more than everyone is born to walk on the moon. And I am being generous to this author. My guess is that he wrote most of his life and wasn’t really taken serious as a poet except by poetry societies around the country. But as Groucho Marx famously observed, “I would never be a member of any organization that would have me as a member.” (Okay, I am slightly paraphrasing). But, alas, I will acknowledge the man. He probably was a dear man at that. His kind of poetry is a disservice to modern poetics all the same and I pulped this chapbook the moment I posted this.


Voices from the Struggle
Poetry from the Movement to End Poverty
Published on the University of Pennsylvania campus
©1996

Poems from homeless and former homeless people in the greater Philadelphia region representing a number of End Poverty organizations. It’s an interesting object. The poems come from the gut and the street. They are raw. There is no polish, no attempt at refinement. That’s not what this is about : it’s a call for action. Unfortunately, the action that is what is called for is unlikely to be achieved without a revolution and that won’t end poverty either, really. It is the treatment of the poor that needs to change. These are not lepers, they are fellow citizens who for whatever reason have slipped off the grid. The Wall Street crowd may dismiss them as “takers”, the way Mitt Romney did during the last Presidential campaign but they are like any other citizen of this country – only poorer. Poverty is not in and of itself a sign of failure any more than wealth is a sign of success. Many wealthy people were born into that privilege. It’s a matter of birth. It ought not to be inherited but it is. In the same way, helping people out of poverty ought to be a priority of the policy makers in Washington, DC. but it isn’t. Special interests rule the day. That’s the saddest commentary I can make on this tiny chapbook, it needs to be remade every year! EVERY SINGLE YEAR

2 from the shelves of a public library....

It's an odd thing to find chapbooks on the shelves of a public library since they are little slivers of nothing and who on earth (besides me, apparently) looks for them? The two I found in Alexandria, VA have been languishing in their nearly invisible state for 13 years or more. I am likely the first person to take them out in a decade. I am surprised they weren't purged, honestly. It must be that they were local and gifted to the library. and they are :
Coming Through the Wry
Viette Sandbank
Praying Mantis Press
Alexandria, VA
(c) 1982

A local author on a local press. Never heard of Praying Mantis Press before. Could be that the author was also the publisher. 1982 is a long time ago now. This copy is signed by the author. 30 page staple-bound chapbook. No meat on the bone here. Am acknowledging the existence of the book.

Ingeborg at St. Elmo's
Ingeborg Carsten-Miller
self published
(c) 1999

This chapbook was created for a specific reading which took place at St. Elmo's (coffee house) in the Del Ray section of the city of Alexandria, VA. So, another local author on a local press. There is nothing rewarding within. It meant something to the author since in 1999 St. Elmo's was a new swinging thing. It isn't anymore. The poetry is very vanilla pudding. There's a poem in the chapbook for the nursing house that the author lived in. YYYYYYYYYEAH.

Ezra Pound: A Critical Essay by Marion Montgomery (1970)

Ezra Pound: A Critical Essay
Marion Montgomery
William B. Eerdmans/Publisher
Grand Rapids, MI
(c)1970

Part of the publisher's "Contemporary Writers in Christian Perspective" series of booklets made during that period of time. 48 pages. Staple-bound.
Ah, yeah, there are and have been so many different topics covered in countless chapbooks. This is yet another. I am acknowledging the existence of this particular one so that I can immediately pulp it. Done, and done!

In the Fold of a Hill by Desire Vail (2000)

In the Fold of a Hill
Desire Vail
Foothills Publishing Kanona, NY
(c)2000

This one of 3 chapbooks published by Foothills of Ms. Vail's work. Like many Foothills chapbooks, this one is hand-sewn and unpaginated. Foothills has grown beyond its Upstate New York origins. Unfortunately, it suffered a devastating loss a few years back when a fire burned down Michael Czarnecki's house. They have rebounded and continue to produce work to this day. They have been part of that under-acknowledged Upstate NY publishing community. However, I find their choices similar to those made by Finishing Line. Not always keen on the books they bring out.

Peaches: The Yes-Girl by Shelly Taylor (2008)

Peaches: The Yes-Girl
Shelly Taylor
Portable Press at Yo-Yo Labs
Brooklyn, NY
(c)2008

I meant to write about this chapbook several months ago but it got lost in my many stacks of things, unfortunately. What prompted my interest in writing about this chapbook is that I went to Ms. Taylor's website and she lists this chapbook as "out-of-print". Well, I have a copy of that right.....it was just, it is right....somewhere, and that somewhere kept not appearing anywhere. Bother!

The chapbook was published by the incredible Brenda Iijima at her Portable Press. The work is likely good, a mix of poems and prose poems. Great starting point, as with every poet; first books are in some ways the most unique. It's the starting point. Needle on the record, first sound - first rush. Amen.

All Fall Down by Bernadette Mayer (2015)

All Fall Down
Bernadette Mayer
Benevolent Bird Press
Delmar, NY
(c)2015

Benevolent Bird Press is the publishing arm of Rootdrinker Institute located in Delmar, New York. They have been a very busy and productive press since emerging. This is #127 of 200 printed. Bernadette Mayer is a highly influential poet and the publication of this chapbook is quite the coup for the Press. Kudos all around.

Lightfall by J. Phoenice (1957)

Lightfall
J. Phoenice
The Guild Press
Crayke, York, Great Britain
(c)1957

First off: J. Phoenice is a woman. Second off: I have never heard of the Guild Press nor the Guild Poets before this writing. Thirdly, it's a handsome chapbook. Hand-sewn. 15 pages, with multiple poems per page. Thus: teeny tiny poems. They are well crafted.

St. George's Castle published by The Lisbon City Council (1974)

St. George's Castle
Published by the Lisbon City Council
Lisbon, Portugal
(c)1974

Handy little history book of the castle complete with enclosed map. Originally printed in 1959. Printed in English for us tourist types. Staple-bound. 26 pages.

Houses by Joel Oppenheimer (1981)

Houses
Joel Oppenheimer
White Pine Press
Buffalo, NY
(c)1981

Joel Oppenheimer was, among other things, the first director of the St. Marks Poetry Project. He was associated with both the Black Mountain and New York School poets. This single poem chapbook was published in 1981 by White Pine Press. It had appeared in a different form in the Chicago Review. The existence of this chapbook does not appear on his wikipedia page. I suppose that makes this rare. It's worth having. Truly.

Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears T. Underwood with Amanda Crowe (1956)

Cherokee Legends and the Trails of Tears
Adapted by Thomas Bryan Underwood
Cover design and illustrations by Amanda Crowe
S. B. Newman Printing Co.
Knoxville, TN
(c)1956

Next to the deplorable history that the United States has with it's slave population (a history still being rewritten and re-fought) is the even more deplorable history that the United States does not accurately teach and all too quickly dismisses: how the Europeans stole the very land that makes the United States from the Natives who were here for hundreds if not thousands of years before. One of the most painful episodes of that long and terrible conflict was the "Trail of Tears", the forced relocation of entire tribes of Natives to what would eventually become Oklahoma by order of Andrew (the Indian Killer) Jackson.

This 32 pages booklet adds to the tears. Adapted by T. B. Underwood from the Nineteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, this telling account of the Trail is based on the first-hand witness Private John G. Burnett, Captain Abraham McClellan's Company, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Brigade, Mounted Infantry, Cherokee Indian Removal 1838-39. It is a damning accounting. I had to fight back tears reading of the senseless loss of lives. Manifest Destiny had many victims. Since Natives never really counted in the country from the very beginning (3/5 of a man in census taking)

It's an important document. It should be a MUST read for all students in the United States.

how dusk sweetens the meadows by Haniel Long (2013)

how dusk sweetens the meadows
Haniel Long
Rootdrinker Institute
Naples, NY
(c)2013

Such a tiny little chapbook provoking such a big ripple.

The ripple is not from the work itself. This unpaginated staple-bound collection is what it is: a decision by the publisher to bring this forward. Objectivity versus subjectivity. Did the publisher have a personal relationship with the author? Rootdrinker and Benevolent Bird Press are intertwined, and this is the grape of that binding.

What motivates a publisher? What criteria does one follow? This poet, Mr. Long, died in 1956. This tiny collection was published in 2013. Was it published because the work had to do with "place"? Which place then - he died in Sante Fe, New Mexico. The publisher is in upstate New York. Ah, there is a connection to place after all; Mr. Long wrote about the Finger Lakes. He came from the region. Some of his poetry sings of that earth - praises that land. The Finger Lakes. Okay, that makes sense.

That this tiny collection was published for a specific presentation also makes sense. Regional interest. One of their own. As such it is worth finding and reading. It is slight, though. Both is size and in scope. Tiny poems in a tiny book. All too easily overlooked.

Hill Farm by Kathleen M. Tenpas (1985)

Hill Farm
Kathleen M. Tenpas
Arachne, Inc.
Jamestown, NY
(c)1985

I have to admit that I like this collection very much. The work is solid. I had to remind myself that a woman wrote these poems. Her work has a no-nonsense air to them that is appealing and none of the poems deal with "women's issues" directly.

Arachne Inc. is/was a not-for-profit quarterly published in Jamestown, NY. This is the first awareness I have had of the publication or of the poet. Glad to mention them both.

russian folk music song book (1947)

The Thrift Press
Ithaca, NY
(c) 1947

So, once upon a time there was a press in Ithaca, NY which specialized in not only regional but ethnic chapbooks as well. And not only that, but songbooks. This one has music notation and table of contents in Russian and English language lyrics at the end. 1947 staple-bound. The publisher probably didn't think of it as a "chapbook" but as a cheap, sturdy music book for their distinctive cliental.

No indication who transcript the Russian into English nor the name of the printer. But it's very interesting, and if you like Balalaika music, you probably need this book!

road/house 7 (1979)

road/house #7
todd moore, editor
Belvidere, IL
(c) 1979

20 pages stapled journal. Irregularly published. 9 of these pages were dedicated to one poem, The Farmer's Manifesto by Tom Montag. Cover illustration of man next to a tracker, sort of visually sets the tone here.

Found Gil Williams (in upstate NY)

A simultaneous thing happened when I took a chance and contacted the poet Steve Lewandowski: it opened up the entire upper half of New York State to me. I had not thought that there was much regional poetics happening outside of "the apple" and Buffalo, but further north toward the Lake and Canada were in fact many Presses and poets. As I have been learning.

I mentioned earlier that I had a chapbook from Bellevue Press by Al Glover entitled Paradise Valley. I hadn't thought to try and contact the publisher of that chapbook until my interest in Upstate New York was piqued. I also mentioned that I had bought some photo postcards from a seller on ABE who turned out to be the Williams'. Deborah and Gil. They have since responded. Not surprisingly, the Press did not make them any money. Chapbook/small presses are supposed to make money? No, I didn't think so.

There is now something called Bellevue Literary Press which has nothing to do with the Williams' operation. I have yet to ask for the history of the Press so I don't know their start and stop dates. I am interested in what they might have left from their inventory. I am, after all, a collector as well as a publisher on hiatus.

If you are interested in learning more or seeing their books, you should contact them : Gil's Book Loft/PO Box 365/Binghamton, NY 13905-0365. Gil likes mail, you know, the kind with actual writing and stamps and that? Send him something. Oh, Bellevue Press did several series of poetry postcards - so send him a postcard!

Apple: An Anthology of Upstate New York Poets (1979)

Apple:An Anthology of Upstate New York Poets
Judith Kitchen,editor
State Street Press
Pittsford, NY
(c)1979

This is a very concise anthology of 22 poets in 26 pages ably (or perhaps, "appley") assembled by Judith Kitchen and published by State Street Press. Pittsford, NY is in the extreme northern section of NY close to Lake Ontario. There is a loose network of poets and other regional presses located up there. I came to know even this little bit from my on-going correspondence with poet Steve Lewandowski. Along with Lewandowski, this collection is graced with work by Joseph Bruchac, Carl Dennis, and Carol Frost (among others).

I notice that the printer of this collection was The Geryon Press in Tunnel, NY which printed a number of books of this region and that's really what this collection embodies; place. Also, apples. At least in this collection. Apples. Everywhere. No need for Johnny Appleseed, this book has a bushel full.

Not the Same Tramp You Dumped by Andy Doyle (2011)

Not the Same Tramp You Dumped
Andy Doyle
self published
(c)2011

I am sad that trees were felled for this chapbook. Yuck.

pack rat sieve by Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge (1983)

pack rat sieve
Mei-Mei Berssenbrugge
Contact II
Bowling Green
NYC, NY
(c)1983

There once a small press in a city of Publishing Megatrons, and this tiny little PO Box location press brought out some stellar little bits - like this one. Mei-Mei's Wikipedia page lists the publisher of this 17 page chapbook as "Cambridge Graphic Arts".

Her work is generally associated with both the New York School and LANGUAGE poets. A shadow across both fields. The work in this chapbook had previously appeared as a special supplement for Contact II issue No. 27/28/29.

Barbaric Yawp vol. 10 #1 (2006)

Barbaric Yawp
Volume 10 number 1
May 2006
BoneWorld Publishing
Russell, NY

This staple-bound journal is from a Press I didn't know about before, a town I never heard of before, and publishers I was completely unfamiliar with. New York up-State. 53 pages. Published by John and Nancy Berbrich in Russell, NY. Disclaimer: one of the poets in the journal is Kenneth DiMaggio, who Plan B Press published in 2007. The interesting thing for me is that John Berbrich wrote a column in the journal called "Book Beat" and some of the books he reviewed I have also received that year. Ah, 2006. Yes. Klyd Watkins, t kilgore splake. The column provides me with names and chapbooks all new to me. Within a journal, fresh nuggets.

Great stuff. Great, great, good and so-so. The rainbow of criticism. I will focus on the new stuff. There's even a writer in here from the tiny town of Adelanto, California where I was stationed in the USAF from 1975-1977. High Desert.

No matter - more for me to learn about!

Total Stranger by Terence Winch (1982)

Total Strangers
Terence Winch
The Toothpaste Press
West Branch, Iowa
(c)1982

Terence Winch was one of the linchpins of Some of Us Press. He and Michael Lally, and Ed Zahniser. The story of SOUP is an important story which I will be releasing like air bubbles from the deep archives. There are several books published by them that are rarer than hen's teeth. Toothpaste Press is one of my favorite small presses. Their books are works of art. This one is a hand-sewn chapbook with illustrations by Gaylord Schanilec. This copy was numbered (259) and signed by Terence.

The writing is crisp. Here's the opening sentence of his piece Low Life : "The rock and roll jellyfish virgins, eating the socks off the commuters, licking the little black hairs off their shins, biting on their ankles till they start to smile, begin to dance." So does the language throughout; it begins to dance. Right off the page.