In the Voice of A Minor Saint

I received a wonderful chapbook from Sarah in January, and I have now read it from beginning to end four times. The book is filled with lovely and thought-provoking poetry from the cover art to the last page. Sarah's poetry is filled with striking image, wonderful sounds, sly and wicked humor, ripe with intelligence but it is it's thinking human heart that makes her one of my favorite authors. I have not yet decided if I have a favorite, as they are all wonderful. The book is available from Tilt Press for 8.00 dollars, as Sarah says on her blog only 36 cents a poem. A steal at that price. I give it two thumbs up. Check it out.

I realized yesterday that when I archived my old posts several links were lost, so I am going through the archives restoring a few links and reposting a few older posts. I am out of town in New Mexico this week, and hopefully will be taking off Friday to spend a long weekend with my husband. I had a relaxing weekend and spent it being home, working a bit in the garden, cleaning, reading, and working, truly working on my chapbook. I took one of the those Facebook quizzes that had you list poets/writers that were influential to you, after I took the quiz, I tagged several of my poet friends and asked them each to recommend someone to read. I am always reading, not like normal people, from beginning to end, but more like allowing the fates to pick for me, I open the book and where it naturally opens, is where I start. I do this for poetry and for my Bible, something my Gran told me once, that she let God pick what she needed to hear. My Gran left me her study Bible, I keep it in my desk at work, and I find myself reaching for, allowing it to open, and reading, I find her notes in the margins, folded slips of papers, and it is like she is there with me still holding my hand. Below is the list of poetry books I bought on the recommendations of my friends. I have read at least a couple of poems out of each, and will be reading more in my fit and spurt way over the next couple of months. I bought these five books plus three others for less than 40 dollars including shipping at Abesbooks.com.

Ham on Rye ( Charles Bukowski--John and Jacob)

Weather of Words: Poetic Invention ( Mark Strand--Larina)

A New Selected Poems: (Galway Kinnell--Jayne)

The Great Fires: Poems, 1982-1992 ( Jack Gilbert--Chrissie)

Four Questions of Melancholy: New & Selected Poems ( Tomaz Salamun--Sarah)