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Sunday, November 17, 2013

Your Sunday Poem

This by Joann Rusch from the new book of poetry published by our own Coalesce Bookstore in Morro Bay.  It's a second publishing venture by Coalesce Press and is a rare and wonderful thing -- a lovely book of poetry by four talented local poets.  "Where our palm rest . . ." poems by local Beverly Boyd, Carol Alma McPhee, Joann Rusch, Bonnie Young is available at Coalesce.

Signals in Space

Doors have closed, but windows,
cracked by the cold, have opened to sun
since the cold spring years ago
when you drifted to the sea.

I've tried vision quests, Monk's jazz
and Billie Holiday.  I've met new men
and old monastics and fallen in love
with grandchildren and with Charlie Rose
on late night TV in the bed that fit
better with you.

Now that you're on the other side, do you
still have a passion for questions
without answers?  I pray no repose
of the soul for you, captured in a plot
of earth.  Rather, I wish you startling
skies, planets aligning, and now and then
a paraboloid homing between us. 


11 comments:

Alon Perlman said...

Global chaff storms burst into our living rooms, while quiet quality resides a step away, next door.

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

Lovely, lovely. And sad, too of course.

Churadogs said...

I love her vision of a soul locked under the ground vs. sailing the universe and for this person, she wishes flight. Lovely.

JH said...

Hello Ann, a reader of your blog visited our bookstore and told us you were posting their poetry without their permission. Please inform people that the book is available to purchase at Coalesce. Thank you! :-)

Sewertoons AKA Lynette Tornatzky said...

You would think that the writer would be grateful for the publicity of a book, which beyond family members and friends (if that), is an unlikely purchase for most.

No telling if any of this is real, or just another posting by an anonymous blogger who is angry at Ann and exhibits this anger in questionable anonymous ways.

Churadogs said...

JH. Thanks. I'll also give Coalesce a call. If you read this blog and read the sample I posted above, (that you're commenting on) you'll see I listed Coalesce up front and urged the reader to get to Coalesce and buy a copy. (Which I had already done.) I try to post a sample from books I've already bought, citing author, book title, publisher, and always urge the reader to go buy the book. So few people read poetry, let alone, buy books of poetry, especially poetry by local authors or new authors, that I was hoping that a sample or two will give the reader a "taste" of the work so they'll go buy a copy.

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Ann. As long as it's just a taste, we're okay!

Churadogs said...

You're welcome. My whole idea with the Poetry Sunday is to give people a sample of a poet I've discovered or to share examples from a new book they've just published. (Which I've just purchased) Lots of people just aren't comfortable with poetry so I''m hoping if they get a feel for a particular "voice" (especially a new one) and like what they've read, they go out and get the book. Of the poems I've shared on this blog, I've bought all the books I've quoted from, (an expensive "hobby" and a labor of love, I can tell you!), and always give full credit/info on the poet, publication, and urge the reader to go out and support their local poet, bookstore, and buy the D***d book!

I'm hoping that by sharing some of these "voices," people will be encouraged to get brave enough to dive in themselves and explore further on their own. I am especially happy to share the voices of "Where Our Palms Rest" since "new" poets are muchly in need of support and encouragement and because Coalesce is to be absolutely commended for publishing these poems. That's a brave thing to do and a wonderful thing to do.

So to any of my readers, I will say again: Support your local poet, support your national poet, support your international poet, support your bookstore: If you have loved the voice/s of any of the poems you've sampled here, Please do yourself a favor. Go buy their Books! Go looking for new "voices" on your own. Tell your friends about them. It's all good.

And then, keep in mind, Christmas is coming, hint-hint.

Ron said...

Ann writes:

"If you have loved the voice/s of any of the poems you've sampled here, Please do yourself a favor. Go buy their Books!"

And when you do, please tell the nice clerk that you're buying the book because you saw it on Calhoun's Can(n)ons.

I mean, really? Someone really walked into Coalesce and whined that Ann is giving free advertising to local poets and Coalesce Bookstore? Lemme guess: In their whine, they failed to mention that Ann goes out of her way to tell her readers, "Go buy their Books!"... at Coalesce.

JH, you wouldn't happen to have a name, wouldja? It'd be interesting to know who's trying to sabotage Ann : -)

Churadogs said...

Everybody, calm down. nobody's trying to sabotage anyone. They just wanted to make sure I was letting people know that while they're enjoying this "sample" they need to know where to go BUY THE BOOK! Which I listed. And I hope somebody will go into Coalesce and say, "I saw this poem on this blog and loved it and want to read more, Where's the Book? I want to buy it and support a poet today." That'd sure be nice.

Ron said...

Ann writes:

"... nobody's trying to sabotage anyone. They just wanted to make sure I was letting people know that while they're enjoying this "sample" they need to know where to go BUY THE BOOK! "

Just to be clear, if you double-read what I wrote, I'm not saying Coalesce is out to sabotage you, but, if what JH (whom, I'm assuming, is associated with Coalesce) says is true, that means someone walked into their store, and tried to get you in trouble.

Coalesce, obviously, is cool with your Sunday poem.

The "somebody" who walked into their store to whine about you, obviously, is not.

Sooooo... why? Why would someone do that? It makes no sense.

Well, UNTIL, we start to examine motivations.

For example, again, for example...

Ann's 11/4/13/ post is not so good for County Supervisor, Bruce Gibson.

Now, there's a local campaign strategist named Tom Fulks. Fulks gets paid thousands of dollars from local politicians, like Jim Patterson, to, uh, "help" with their campaign strategy.

Now, according to Bruce Gibson, Fulks is Gibson's "evil genius in the back room."

Soooooo... and just thinking out loud here, if Calhoun's Can(n)ons is publishing blog posts that are not favorable to Fulks' client, it's Fulks' job to DO something about it, like, oh, I don't know, maybe attempting to destroy the messenger by sneaking around the "back rooms" and bashing Ann to anyone that will listen.

In fact, if you think it through, if Fulks does NOT do that -- and the "destroy the messenger" tactic applies to ANYONE that is critical of Fulks' client [wink, wink] -- well, then Tom isn't doing his job.

So, IF JH's mystery person actually was Tom Fulks, or one of his "employees," well, that'd be very interesting to know, yes?

Of course, the mystery person could have just been someone that's VERY sensitive to the slightest bit of perceived copyright infringement, no matter how beneficial it is to the authors, AND the bookstore, but, I doubt it.