I'm holding my second chapbook, Other Four-Letter Words, which just came in the mail. It's available from Finishing Line Press and it's a beautifully printed book. Here's the link through Finishing Line:
http://www.finishinglinepress.com/NewReleasesandForthcomingTitles.htm
The book should be available via Amazon very soon, as well.
If you want to see (and hear) other poems so you have a feel for my work, go here:
memorypalacewalk.com
I just went to the link for A Walk Through the Memory Palace, and I made the mistake of listening to "Archaic Fragments." Harvey is the primary reader in that poem, and I am just destroyed to hear his voice.
On this, the day that we first met 24 years ago, it's fitting that I hold in my hands the book dedicated to him.
FOR HARVEY
SONG OF SONGS 5:16
That verse isn't on the dedication page. Here's my translation from the Hebrew.
His mouth is sweetness itself; he is altogether lovely.
This is my lover and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Harv was sweetness itself, and he was altogether lovely. I know I'll never have another lover; I'll also never have another friend like Harvey.
Instead of the sweet mouth, I taste my own brackish tears. Sorrow pervades everything that I do, even the happy moments. It's my own yard, as WC Williams' speaker puts it in "The Widow's Lament in Springtime;" it's also my shade garden, my rose bed, the plot of land I bought for our marker.
REWIND: I forget for a few seconds that he's gone. The first impulse I had was to call Harvey and tell him, Hurry home, honey, and bring the champagne. He would have enjoyed the serendipity of the book showing up today.
FAST FORWARD: I remember a line from a poem ("Rehearsal for Living Without You," in the new book): These garnets I hold are cold fire. Harvey loved to give me garnets--I'm wearing one of the rings today. Neither of us knew they were the widow's gemstone. Garnet to Garnet--Is this the way? wrote Emily Dickinson. Is it? Is it? Is it? The needle's frozen in that song's interrogative groove.
4 comments:
Congrats! Finishing Line does great chapbooks. I'm going to add it to my order list. :)
I hope you find solace in your own words;
I hope you find comfort in their healing powers;
I hope you find remembrance in that connection with what will never fade;
This is my hope for you.
Congratulations on your new book, ma'am. I know your words can do for others what I pray they do for you.
HUGE GRINNING CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!
Thank you all! I am so appreciative of your congratulations and commiserations.
Pamela
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