|
SOMEWHERE IN THE STREAM
by Duncan McNaughton
"In this day and age,/it's dark, a poem needs a small flashlight/and a cordless power drill with which to/remove the screws./It
needs to be a kiss/that stings." New poems from Duncan McNaughton.
2019.
5.25”x8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
HIGH NOON
by Noel Black
It’s a showdown on the deserted streets of
the millennial west in these terrific new poems
by Noel Black.
2018.
5.25”x8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
AMERICAN ACCEPTANCE
by Edward Ainswoth
These are songs of experience. It's clear that
this poet has been there & done all of that, yet
the mystery remains, more or less intact, salvation being little more than a throw of the dice. Ainsworth knows that the
difference between the sacred & the profane is all in how you tell it & within the narrative spun through these poems
his dazzling linguistics continually surprise and delight.
2015. 5.25" x 8", hand-stitched. $10.00
FALL FOR YOU
by
Todd McCarty
This
is poet Todd McCarty’s first published collection,
&
it is a blast. The poems are very tight, tough, and
somehow
transcendent. Deftly negotiating
unexpected
hairpin turns as they skid from humor
to
tenderness
to simple awestruck wonder, these lyrics
confidently
claim that rare place between language
&
thought, as poetry should. Dig the music & the
measure,
as the strange, the familiar, &
the
inevitable
collide, bouncing off each other in
ways
you
never thought possible.
2012.
5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
PATIO POEMS
by Edward
Ainsworth
This crystalline
set of lyrics is reminiscent
of Coleridge’s
Conversation Poems, if they
were written
by a lovesick De Quincey doing
his best
Keith Richards imititation. The tone
is often
meditative, drawing on memories that
fit the
rhythms of the present, day to day,
struggle
to claim the simple complexities of the
heart, and
“Ain’t that just a pretty little burden”,
writes Ainsworth
in the lead-off poem “Acts of
Love (1)”.
Bare knuckle sincerity, nimble
Chaplinesque
pirouettes, and sheer poetic nerve
drive the
measure and the emotion built into the
narrative
these poems create. It is a variegated
narrative
thread that could unravel anyone’s
chainlink
kimono, maybe even yours.
2012. 5,25” x 8”, hand stitched. $10.00
GREEK TO ME
by Michael Wolfe
The classical Greek remix that underscores
these poems serves as both a reference & a
backbeat to the lyric resilience of the poet's
voice. Time is a measure, as is timelessness,
& Michael Wolfe's wristwatch is also a sun-
dial. In these verses the light in the dark
& the dark in the light create a stunning
chiaroscuro, leaving you with the feeling
that you've returned to a place you've
never been before.
2012. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched.
$10.00
 BOLINAS POEMS
by Jim Carroll
Poet Jim
Carroll, who died in September 2009,
moved to
the small counterculture enclave of
Bolinas,
California in 1973 and lived there for 5
years. Bolinas during that time was home to a
remarkable
number of poets, including Joanne
Kyger, Lewis
MacAdams, Robert Creeley, Duncan
McNaughton
and Bill Berkson, to name a few. Of
his time
in Bolinas Jim said “I was a total recluse,
just using
the landscape” He was also attempting
to kick
heroin. The 10 previously uncollected
poems now
published under the title Bolinas Poems
were written
during this time. They offer a lyric
window that
opens and shuts on a landscape that
is both
external and internal. These are tough,
beautiful
and essential poems by one of the
purest poets
to ever snap off a rhyme.
Cover photo by Mary K. Greer.
2010. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched.
$15.00
  **OUT OF PRINT**ALTOON'S FROG
by Duncan McNaughton
A selection of 12 poems mysterious & droll & terrific.
The arrows of desire making
a u-turn smack in the center of a heart-shaped bullseye.
Cover
by John Altoon.
2009. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched.
$10.00
COSTANZA
by Bill Berkson
A three page poem that hinges upon a visit to the Getty Museum & the portrait bust of Costanza Bonuccelli by Gianlorenzo Bernini
that the poet never gets to see. There is an amazing Cendrars-like song quality to the poem, to my ear at least, with historic short-hand digressions & lyric somersaults. A brilliant work. Also included are Berkson’s “Notes on the Poem”.
2010. 7” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
SPINNING THE DIAL
by Edward Ainsworth
The story behind the story like the pipes
of redemption, with the crackle of old vinyl
or the pop of a damaged CD, yet lifted from
there in this extended set of short poems
sung to the static of a heart beating right on
time. The goof &
wonder of it as the lyric
segue preempts the contraband cell phone
while the clincal diagnosis takes 12 steps back,
turns on a dime, & queues up Louie-Louie on
the iPod.
Cover
by Kevin Opstedal.
2010. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched.
$10.00
POACHING THE KING'S PUSSY
IN THE DOVER WOOD
by Duncan McNaughton
A four page poem that will scatter your poor brains
hither & yon. A truly beautiful work from a master
poet. Originally published as part of the Blue Press
Portfolio in 2007.
2007. 7.75” x 10”, side-stapled. $10.00
AGAINST THE WEATHER
by Owen Hill
You'll dig the measure, the sly humor and
the sledgehammer accuracy of this sweet
suite of 13 poems.
Cover by Kevin Opstedal.
2008. 5.25” x 8”, saddle-stitched.
$7.00
IN THE CITY OF WORD PEOPLE
by Noel Black
A truly inspired lyric set of ruminations,
permutations & bi-polar drive-bys with all
the goof, wonder & clarity that can only
come from an authentic poetic soul.
Cover painting by Marina Eckler.
2008. Paper, 5.25" x 8", saddle-stapled.
$7.00
DON'T SAY A WORD
by F.A. Nettelbeck
Highgrade, heavy-duty lyric torque
from the last of the great Amerikan
poets. 18 new poems all laying it
down solid. "I doubt anyone will be /
the same again." 2008. Paper,
5.25" x 8", saddle-stapled. $7.00
**OUT OF PRINT**THE RIVER: BOOKS ONE, TWO & THREE
by Lewis MacAdams
Lyrically resonant, like the call of a lute in flames.
"Read this book as if it were an ancient scroll
written in a very hip language..."
- Los Angeles Times Book Review.
Revised 2nd Edition 2007. Paperback,
perfect bound. $15.
USER'S MANUAL TO THE
PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY
by Kevin Opstedal
Poems shot full of west coast high-
grade roadtrip neon. Published by
SEVEN FINGERS PRESS of
Boulder,
Colorado. 2007. Paperback, saddle-
stapled. $10.00
FROM CHANSONNIERS
by Patrick Dunagan
A tender lyric sequence like a tight-rope
walking tuba band performing without a
net 20,000 feet above your tired eyes.
Cover by Ryan Coffey.
2008. 5.25” x 8”, saddle-stapled.
$7.00
More Books
|
 |
|
Copyright (c) Blue Press, 2011.
|
|
|
|
AMSTERDAM SOUVENIRS
by
Joanne Kyger & Bill Berkson
In
1978 these two poets, who were both
living
in
Bolinas, CA at the time, were invited to
take
part
in the P78 One World Poetry event in
Amsterdam.
This book is a collaborative
poetic
journal
recounting their whirlwind visit to
Holland.
Inside jokes turned outside,
ruminations
on the Dutch masters, minor
&
major
irritations, & a liberal
sprinkling of lyric
epiphanies
fuel the narrative of this
delightful
work
composed by a pair of world class
poets.
2016.
5.25”x8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
2012
by
Joanne Kyger
A suite
of 9 exquisite poems by one of he West Coast's finest poets. Read a great review here.
2013.
5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
THE POETIKAL WORKS OF DUDE THE OBSCUREby
Kevin Opstedal A nice set of 9 poems, gritty
and windswept. Published by Seven Fingers Press
of Colorado, and available from Blue Press. 2014. 5.25" x 8", hand-stitched. $10.00
New from Seven Fingers Press...
MEMORY FOAM
by
Kevin Opstedal
"Here,
in Kevin O land, the Rimbaud epigraph feels
wholly
apt. California's long, lean Pacific coastline
is
Kevin O’s exilic Red Sea refuge.
The difference is,
the
surfer’s pen still works. The
landscape may look
narrow
(until you glance out to sea), but his
topic,
life’s
evanescence—is vast. 'Burnt Orange' sets
the
tone, but feel free to dive in anywhere."
-
Michael Wolfe
2013. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
THREE WHEELS
by
Joanne Kyger, Lewis MacAdams, & Kevin Opstedal
Three poems by three poets. A special limited edition
published to commemorate
their reading sponsored by the SFSU Poetry
Center on September 8, 2012.
2012. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched.
$10.00, not signed
$20.00, signed by all 3 poets
GYPSY
& POET
by
Michael Price
Torch
songs, ballads, & lullabys in the heart’s smoke-filled back-room, these beautiful poems by Michael Price are loaded
with lyric echoes of Wyatt, Campion, or maybe Andrew Marvell, thus furthering that poetic tradition into the 21st Century
situational ethics of the windswept Colorado this poet calls home. “There is a healthy / Dependence on truth / And love’s
nameless / Dream,” he says, and he means it. But “her voice from below / crawled into my dark mood / and took
up home where the mystery / of feeling normal continually / plays Judas to my Steve McQueen”. There’s no other poet I know that can pull off the old switcheroo like that. Price has the chops, the know-how, and an ear so finely tuned to the lucid ambiguities inherent in the
American language, that it is simply dazzling. It is a true pleasure to experience
his poetry as it plays out upon the page.
2012. 5.25” x 8”,
hand-stitched.
$10.00
The Varieties of Religious Experience
by Kevin
Opstedal
This sequence
of prose poems is a rogue’s tour of
a kind of
West Coast/Dude the Obscure
consciousness
owing nothing to William James
except for
the stolen title. Joanne Kyger says,
“A very succinct paragraph form for the long
road back with your punk Taoism. We’re delighted.
And also with PW’s [Philip Whalen’s]
geography of
Europe.”
2012. 5,25” x 8”, hand stitched.
$10.00
 
LYRICS BY LEWIS MACADAMS
“The beautifully achieved line and tone, natural as can be―a 65 year-old teenager,
best of both innocence and experience, perfectly fused into
the third form of being, adamantly optimistic. Clean as a whistle with a ton of art
behind it.
There’s been so much bullshit for years re: “the lyric”―from
all sides, friendlies
and not. All of it imbecilically ignorant, finally, of the
real rules of the game. LYRICS is a gift. I regret that
John Wieners is not around to read it. Love poems
that get it." -Duncan McNaughton
Cover painting by Ed Ruscha.
2009. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
WORLD AT LARGE
by Donald Guravich
These
poems range from Canadian backwoods snow
flurry
epiphanies, small town political union hall & strip
mall
generosity
(with telepathic details carefully
measured),
to red
dust Mexican incantations, all with
clear-eyed
lyric precision.
World
at large
gets larger Door opens
so large it disappears
A
beautiful collection, augmented with elegant line
drawings
by
the poet, World at Large is published in
a
limited edition of only
175 copies.
2011.
7” x 8.5”, hand-stitched.
$15.00
  DREAMLAND COURT
by Dale Herd
Known for his brilliant
short prose pieces as published in the books Early
Morning Wind, Wild Cherries, and Diamonds, Dale Herd is a meticulous
recorder of the language we move around in, and he possesses the skill and the
guts to take it all the way.
His underground novel Dreamland
Court is simply a masterpiece. Written
in the 70’s, 80's and 90's, and never published, the novel
is a collection of monologues that often overlap
so that they occur simultaneously on the
page. The effect is totally Rashomon. This Blue Press edition prints the first chapter of the novel. It provides a tantalizing
peek into the swirling maelstrom of voices that inhabit
Dreamland
Court.
Cover photographs by Dale Herd.
2010. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
 
PARADISE: READING NOTES
by Michael Wolfe
These thirteen poems patiently invent a primary language of intelligence,
grace, & expectation. Whatever dances around the next corner, the light & the dark of
it intertwined. Clear as a bell jar ringing on the ocean floor.
Cover
image by Pamela Dewey.
2010. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
DRINKING & THINKING
by F.A. Nettelbeck
Outrageous, sad, funny, courageous,
this collection of a dozen poems
are pure unadulterated Nettelbeck. You
can peg him as a latter-day beat, an underground hero, a
mad wordsmith, a booze-driven shaman, but all that really
matters is that this man is one hell of a poet. Get this book & set fire to your mind.
Cover
photograph by F.A. Nettelbeck.
2010. 5.25” x 8”, hand-stitched. $10.00
GOODS AND SERVICES
by Bill Berkson
A fine, classic, and classy set of 9 poems.
Clear, keen-eyed, subversive hilarity, “A
panoply of perfect / luster bouncing” in
sharp perceptive lines.
Cover painting by Mitch Temple.
2008. 5.25” x 8”, saddle-stitched.
$7.00
THE YEAR OF THE MOTHER
by Michael Price
Poems smuggled in from a dirt floor
cantina in an undisclosed location in
Central America. Tough, true and forever
in your debt, Triste...these are the kind of
road songs Deke Thornton forgot to telegraph
Townes Van Zandt that night in El Paso.
2007. Paperback, Paper, 5.25" x 8", saddle-
stitched. $10.
|
|
|
|
|
