Tag: Poetry
Bassam on Wax Poetic
Swimming with Elephants Publications’ own Bassam was interviewed by Wax Poetic, a Canadian based poetry podcast that you can listen to for FREE! (and as poets, we sure love free things, don’t we?) They talk about their SWEP release, bliss in die/unbinging the underglow and more…
You can check out the podcast here!
And don’t forget to like Bassam on Facebook and support them further by buying their book on Amazon; while you’re there, don’t forget to check out their new release from Gen Z Publishing!
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Bassam 
(they/them or xe/xim) is a spoken word poet, proud auntie, and settler residing on the traditional territory of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant (Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendatt, and Mississaugas of the New Credit). they are a member of the League of Canadian Poets, an executive board member with Spoken Word Canada, and has toured Turtle Island performing spoken word. Bassam earned title of national poetry slam champion at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) in 2016 with the Guelph Poetry Slam team, and Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (CIPS) finalist in 2017. they were editor-in-chief for ‘these pills don’t come in my skin tone’, a poetry collection exclusively by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) on the topic of mental health and illness, released in fall 2017. a (gender)queer, Jewish person of Middle-Eastern descent and a long-time sufferer of body dysmorphia, bipolar and eating disorders, bassam believes in radical kindness as resistance to colonization, that there is no peace without justice, and that intersectionality is vital in the struggle against kyriarchy.
Bookwork Book Release: Mary and Aja Oishi’s Rock Paper Scissors
Mother daughter poets, Mary & Aja Oishi, read from their new Swimming With Elephants Publications collection, Rock Paper Scissors.
“…this collection carries both the beauty of human resilience and the searing pain of postatomic burning carnage. The poetry, like hope, is an obstinate and sturdy survivor, for ‘what could i do but write songs.’ These verses often push the envelope, asking questions that make more sense than our grammar. ‘are you out there in the stealth night on the edge of blue? listening/ are you loving me for sending you this fix of heartbreak/ slid down metal, taut and wound. electric. are you?’ …haunting, resonant odes and the rhythmic power of promises and truth, poems spread across Hiroshima and Barcelona, Laos and Albuquerque. These poems bring the world into a familial embrace, but spit out the naked power of truth, both personal and political, as if it were a well-chewed chicken bone, gnawed raw. Through it all, this mother-daughter poetic duo reminds us that, in the beauty of human hope, ‘nothing sacred can be lost.’”
–Carmen Tafolla, State Poet Laureate of Texas
Mary Oishi has two poetic voices: one stark and simple like that of her Japanese ancestors, and one that echoes the rhythms of preachers from her upbringing by her American father’s fundamentalist relatives. Both voices sing her songs of truth and social justice. She is the author of Spirit Birds They Told Me (2011) and is one of twelve U.S. poets in 12 Poetas: Antologia De Nuevos Poetas Estadounidenses (2017), a project of the Mexican Ministry of Culture. Her poems have appeared in Mas Tequila Review, Malpais Review, Harwood Anthology, Sinister Wisdom, and other print and digital publications. Oishi is a public radio personality since 1996, most at KUNM-FM Albuquerque, where she hosts The Blues Show.
Aja Oishi lives in northern New Mexico. Her writing draws from ecology, anthropology, and the years she spent in Spain, Japan, and New Zealand. She revels in the uncaged world and makes a living (and a life) by fighting for prisoners as an appellate public defender. This is her first collection of poetry.
Event date:
Friday, June 8, 2018 – 6:00pm
Event address:
4022 Rio Grande Blvd NW
Albuquerque, NM 87107
Pick up this new release from Bookworks ABQ or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Beau Williams Live in ABQ
Join New England poet Beau Williams on his Nail Gun and a Love Letter tour as he performs at El Chante: Casa de Cultura on Monday, June 4, 2018 from 7pm-9pm.
Heralding from Portland, Maine, Beau Williams describes himself as a “fairly optimistic” poet, and what better way to describe his newest collection of poetry from Swimming with Elephants Publications than as “fairly optimistic.” Bittersweet journeys to bar floors and the bottoms of bottles, Nail Gun and a Love Letter is reminiscent of beat poetry days and the pilgrimages we must take to find ourselves.
Click here to learn more about this collection by reading the review by Maxine Peseke.
The show will be at El Chante Casa de Cultura (804 Park Ave SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102) on June 4, 2018. It will begin at 7 pm with a short Open Mic, following by the featured performer, Beau Williams.
Copies of his latest release, Nail Gun and a Love Letter, will be available for purchase and signing.
You may also pick up Beau Williams’, Nail Gun and a Love Letter, from Bookworks ABQ or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Keep your eyes open for Beau Williams as he continues his tour across the country. He may soon be coming to a town near you!
Swimming with Elephants Poets in Public Service: MJR Montoya
During the month of April, the City of Albuquerque created a video series called Poets in Public Service to recognize the work local poets do in the community. Several of the poets interviewed are authors with Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Check out this video of Manuel (MJR) Montoya.
MJR Montoya’s book, The Promethean Clock or Love Poems of a Wooden Boy, was published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in late December 2017.
Click here to find Swimming with Elephants Publications on Facebook and ‘Like’ our page.
Find more videos and information regarding poetry events in ABQ at ABQtodo.com.
Swimming with Elephants Poets in Public Service: Katrina Crespin
During the month of April, the City of Albuquerque created a video series called Poets in Public Service to recognize the work local poets do in the community. Several of the poets interviewed are authors with Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Check out this video of Katrina Crespin.
She is published with Swimming with Elephants Publications as Katrina K Guarascio.
Click here to find her publications.
Click here to find Swimming with Elephants Publications on Facebook and ‘Like’ our page.
Find more videos and information regarding poetry events in ABQ at ABQtodo.com.
Swimming with Elephants Poets in Public Service: Mary Oishi
During the month of April, the City of Albuquerque created a video series called Poets in Public Service to recognize the work local poets do in the community. Several of the poets interviewed are authors with Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Check out this video of Mary Oishi.
Mary Oishi is one of the authors of Rock Paper Scissors, one of Swimming with Elephants Publications most recent releases.
Click here to find Swimming with Elephants Publications on Facebook and ‘Like’ our page.
Find more videos and information regarding poetry events in ABQ at ABQtodo.com.
Swimming with Elephants Poets in Public Service: Manuel Gonzalez
During the month of April, the City of Albuquerque created a video series called Poets in Public Service to recognize the work local poets do in the community. Several of the poets interviewed are authors with Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Check out this video by Albuquerque’s Third Poet Laureate and author of …But my friends call me Burque: Manuel Gonzalez.
Click here to find Swimming with Elephants Publications on Facebook and ‘Like’ our page.
Find more videos and information regarding poetry events in ABQ at ABQtodo.com.
Featured SwEP Author: Bill Nevins
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Bill Nevins.
Bill Nevin’s collection, Heartbreak Ridge and Other Poems, was published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in August of 2014.
“Heartbreak Ridge is a campfire of the resistance, a place where all kinds of poems—from jeremiads, scourgings, and passionate rants to absolutely beautiful works of love and loss—gather between its covers. Bill Nevins is a truth-teller,and what he has to tell us about the last half century of American life and politics is a matter of highly charged poetic urgency.”
Terence Winch, author of Boy Drinkers,
“When New York Was Irish” and many other works of poetry, music and fiction.
Pick up Bill Nevin’s, Heartbreak Ridge and Other Poems, from Bookworks ABQ during the month of April or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Bill Nevins
Bill Nevins grew up Irish Catholic near and in New York City in the 1950’s and 60’s. He moved to northern New England and raised his three children, one of whom, Special Forces SFC Liam Nevins, died in combat in Afghanistan in 2013. Bill has lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico since 1996.
His poetry has been published in Malpaís Review, Green Left Weekly, The Rag, Central Avenue, Sage Trail, Adobe Walls, Más Tequila Review, Special Forces Charitable Trust online, Maple Leaf Rag II, The Cornelian, KUMISS, and other publications. His journalism is found in The Guardian, Forward Motion, Z Magazine, RootsWorld, Hyper Active, Trend of Santa Fe, EcoSource, LOGOS, Thirsty Ear, ABQ ARTS, Local iQ, TM Transmission, The Celtic Connection, Irish American News, An Scathan/Celtic Mirror and other journals.
Bill continues to perform at Voices of the Barrio, Fixed and Free, Jules Poetry Playhouse, Sunday Chatter and other Albuquerque poetry gatherings. He has recently performed at SOMOS in Taos, NM and The Maple Leaf Readings in New Orleans.
Bill has retired from teaching and divides his time between homes in the towns of Albuquerque and Black Lake, New Mexico, and traveling.
Featured SwEP author: Jennifer E. Hudgens
Swimming With Elephants Publications would like to reintroduce you to Jennifer E. Hudgens, author of Girls Who Fell in Love with War. Jennifer was born and raised in Oklahoma City. She has always danced to the beat of her own drummer, just ask her mom. Using poetry as a means of expression and survival, Jennifer lives poetry. She watches the sky the way most people watch television. Jennifer is terrified of clowns, horses, and animatronic toys. That damned Snuggle bear is secretly trying to steal souls.
Girls Who Fell in Love with War is Jennifer’s first full collection of poems. She has plans to release a couple poetry chapbooks and her first novel in 2016. Jennifer promises the novel is quite murdery. She is also working to bring more diversity and light to the amazingly talented poets in the Oklahoma Poetry Community.
Jennifer is currently pursuing her Bachelor’s degree in English and Creative Writing at the University of Central Oklahoma with plans to teach high school students after graduation. She teaches creative writing classes for the Oklahoma City Arts Council and is a pretty rad substitute teacher.
Jen genuinely hopes you like her poems. If you don’t, that’s okay too.
Recently, she released a collection, Paloma, with Blood Pudding Press. So it goes…
You were the only one who believed me when I said what he did hurt
You were the only one who knew I was burying myself in too much fat and flux
Paloma kickstarts with 1996, a punk rock war-cry of nostalgia and a final lingering note of sadness. This, like many others in the collection, is a poem that resounds with everything oh-so-90s; but make no mistake, this is meant in the best possible way. A mixed tape soundtrack that plays like growing up, it sets the tone to whom this collection is dedicated– as much funeral dirge as it is love song for a sister and friend. The final line of the first poem rings melancholic: “Who’s gonna take care of us strays now?”
It is this echoing theme of finality, of trying to grasp the concept of loss, that carries on through the entire collection, questions of mortality and suffering scattered like the ashes of the departed, asking the question specifically in Lauren Kate is Dead: “Where the hell is this better place people are always talking about” and present in lines like:
How is it life if we aren’t suffering
Pain keeps us still {here} latched to gravity
With each poem thereafter comes a chapter of both closure and reawakening old memories; Paloma is remarkably bittersweet in the tug-of-war of saying goodbye to somebody who can no longer hear you, and Hudgens’ voice is so clear and combative against adhering to traditional standards. If nothing else, it is clear that Hudgens proves to be anything but a traditional poet; she rocks the reader’s thoughts, with gruesome details suggesting unkempt murder, encouraging one to further unravel the mayhem behind a sudden loss. Nonetheless, this proves to be a beautiful read, a true work of dedication and memory even with scattered wishes to be unseen, like that found in Bizarre Love Triangle:
You always saw me
Now
I’m trying not to be seen
And isn’t that so like loss, and how we process it? Loud as bombs, but in the quiet, in solitude, trying to process in peace, even if the death was anything but peaceful. But with this thought, I wonder at the intention of the book title: Paloma– a name that means peace, it is perhaps, with this offering, the dearly departed (because judging by Hudgens’ words, Lauren Kate was, indeed, so very dear) may be at peace, too.
Overall, as with all of our SwEP family, I can only offer heartfelt recommendations to reach out and read more of Jennifer Hudgens’ work. You can purchase her full-length title, Girls Who Fell in Love with War, published with Swimming with Elephants, on Amazon, and keep an eye on her wordpress for more news directly from the author.
Featured SwEP Author: Kat Heatherington
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Kat Heatherington.
Kat Heatherington’s collection, the bones of this land, was published in 2017 after winning first place in a SwEP’s 2017 chapbook competition.
“The Bones of this Land is an exquisite collection of poetry and craft at its apex. Heatherington is an expert at subtle but powerful verse. Her words read like a whisper but resonate like a bomb. Here is a book that will leave you satiated, but curiously enough, hungry for more. ”
~Jessica Helen Lopez,
author of Always Messing With Them Boys and a recipient of the Zia Book Award
Pick up Kat Heatherington’s the bones of this land from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Kat Heatherington
Kat Heatherington is a queer ecofeminist poet, sometime artist, pagan, and organic gardener. She has been living in Albuquerque since 1998, when she moved here to earn a Master’s in English at UNM.
In 2007 she collaborated with a group of three other unrelated adults to buy land in the Rio Grande Valley and form Sunflower River intentional community, sunflowerriver.org. Ten years and many life lessons later, Sunflower River is still going strong, and still providing plenty of material to write poems about.
Kat’s work primarily addresses the interstices of human relationships and the natural world. She has several self-published chapbooks, available from the author at yarrow@sunflowerriver.org. Her work can be read at https://sometimesaparticle.org.
Featured SwEP Author: Jessica Helen Lopez
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Jessica Helen Lopez.
Jessica Helen Lopez’s chapbook, cunt.bomb., was the first book published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in December of 2013. Her follow up collection, The Language of Bleeding, was published with SwEP in preparation for her travels to Nicaragua.
Listen to Jessica Helen Lopez perform at Ted X ABQ:
Jessica Helen Lopez’s chapbook, cunt.bomb. and The Language of Bleeding, from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Jessica Helen Lopez
Recently named one of 30 Poets in their 30’s to watch by MUZZLE magazine, Jessica Helen Lopez is a nationally recognized award-winning slam poet, and holds the title of 2012 and 2014 Women of the World (WOW) City of ABQ Champion.
She’s also a member of the Macondo Foundation. Founded by Sandra Cisneros, it is an association of socially engaged writers united to advance creativity, foster generosity, and honor community.
Her first collection of poetry, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press, 2011) made the Southwest Book of the Year reading list and was also awarded the Zia Book Award presented by NM Women Press.
She is the founder of La Palabra – The Word is a Woman collective created for and by women and gender-identified women. Lopez is a Ted Talk speaker alum.
You may find some of Lopez’s work at these sites –LaPalabra.abqnorthwest.com, thebakerypoetry.com, and asusjournal.org.
Her work has been anthologized in A Bigger Boat: The Unlikely Success of the Albuquerque Slam Scene (UNM Press), Earth Ships: A New Mecca Poetry Collection (NM Book Award Finalist), Tandem Lit Slam (San Francisco), Adobe Walls, Malpais Review, SLAB Literary Magazine and the upcoming Courage Anthology: Daring Poems for Gutsy Girls (Write Bloody Press).
Featured SwEP Author: Wil Gibson
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Wil Gibson.
Wil Gibson’s full length poetry collection, Quitting smoking, falling in and out of love, and other thoughts about death, was published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in April 2016.
Listen to Wil Gibson perform his poetry here:
Wil Gibson’s full length poetry collection, Quitting smoking, falling in and out of love, and other thoughts about death, from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Wil Gibson
Wil Gibson was born from a good idea and a bottle of bourbon and raised in some of the poorest communities in northern Illinois and eastern Arkansas. He has had work appear with Midwestern Gothic, Radius, Yellow Chair Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, and Electric Cereal (among others), was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2015. He would like to talk to you for hours on end about lighthouses and random other things. (also, in the interest of full disclosure, he has already started smoking again) He currently lives in California, but the locals call it Jefferson.
Featured SwEP Author: Matthew Brown
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Matthew Brown.
Matthew Brown’s collection, Verbrennen, was published from Swimming with Elephants Publications in January 2014 marking it one of the earliest publications by SwEP.
Listen to Matthew Brown perform a poem from his collection here:
Pick up Matthew Brown’s collection, Verbrennen, from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Matthew Brown
Matthew Brown is a young poet born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Though relatively new to slam poetry, he has preformed alongside some of Albuquerque’s most seasoned poets, and represented New Mexico two years in a row as a member Unidos Poetry Collective at Brave New Voices. Matthew Brown’s poems expose social, racial, and economic inequalities from both a Hispanic and African American perspective.
Featured SwEP Author: Paulie Lipman
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Paulie Lipman.
Paulie Lipman’s chapbook, from below/denied the light, is fresh of the presses being published in January of 2018. Lipman’s chapbook was the first collaboration between Sugar Booking Entertainment and Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Listen to Paulie read from his collections here:
Pick up Paulie Lipman’s chapbook, from below/denied the light from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Keep your eyes open for Paulie Lipman coming to a town near you!
Paulie Lipman
Paulie Lipman is a former bartender/bouncer/record store employee/Renaissance Fair worker/two time National Poetry Slam finalist and a current loud Jewish/Queer/ poet/writer/performer. His work has appeared in the anthology ‘We Will Be Shelter’ (Write Bloody Publishing) as well as The Emerson Review, Drunk in a Midnight Choir, Voicemail Poems, pressure gauge, and Prisma (Zeitblatt Fur Text & Sprache).
Featured SwEP Author: Kristian Ashley Macaron
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Kristian Ashley Macaron.
Kristian Ashley Macaron’s chapbook, Storm, was published by Swimming with Elephants Publications in June 2015.
Kristian Macaron’s first chapbook of poetry features her various experiences in New England during the midst of some of the most powerful storms to pass through in the last several years. Her poetry is raw, honest, and revealing. This is a wonderful for collection for anyone who has experience the confusing effects of natural disaster as well as those who may have never had such an experience.
Kristian Ashley Macaron’s chapbook, Storm, from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Kristian Ashley Macaron
Originally from Albuquerque, NM where she attended the University of New Mexico, Kristian received her MFA from Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts and thus melded her love for the colorful Southwest with the stunning New England coast.
Kristian’s first poetry chapbook, Storm (amazon), was released in July 2015 from Swimming With Elephants Publications in Albuquerque, NM. Her other publications of fiction and poetry are published in The Winter Tangerine Review, Philadelphia Stories, Duke City Fix: The Sunday Poem, Lightning Cake Journal, The Bellows American Review (The [BAR]), Ginosko Literary Journal, Elbow Room New Mexico, Watermelon Isotope, and Medusa’s Laugh Press.
She has taught scriptwriting at the Emerson College Pre-College Creative Writers’ Workshop and currently teaches English at the University of New Mexico-Valencia Branch. View Kristian’s work at Kristianmacaron.com
Featured SwEP Author: Liza Wolff Francis
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC would like to reintroduce to you to Liza Wolff Francis.
Liza Wolff Francis’s chapbook, Language of Crossing, was published in the fall of 2015 by Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC.
Liza Wolff-Francis’s Language of Crossing is a collection of poetry that mirrors the true heart-stories along the US/Mexico border. Giving face, voice and humanity to all those who make their way across fronteras, her work is that of a necessary endeavor. She writes of a reality that must be ignored no longer. It is the struggle, strife, and violence that is endured by those who flee their country in hopes of a better life. Her poems, brutally honest and minute, rouse compassion as all good poetry must and begs the question of accountability. Language of Crossing is a political outcry, a finely tuned collection of endurance of a people, and a passionate advocacy for all to take notice. Wolff-Francis is a real activist planting poetic prayer flags across the vastness of a desert.
Liza Wolff Francis’s chapbook, Language of Crossing, from Bookworks ABQ
or order from Amazon or Barnes and Noble today!
Already own a copy? Please write a review on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Goodreads, or submit a review to swimwithelephants@gmail.com for publications on this site.
Liza Wolff-Francis
Liza Wolff-Fra
ncis is a poet and writer with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She was co-director for the 2014 Austin International Poetry Festival and a member of the 2008 Albuquerque Poetry Slam Team. She has an ekphrastic poem posted in Austin’s Blanton Art Museum by El Anatsui’s sculpture “Seepage” and her work has most recently appeared in Edge, Twenty, unseenfiction.com, Border Senses, and on various blogs. As a social worker, she has worked with Spanish speaking immigrant populations for twenty years. She wrote the play “Border Rising” from interviews with undocumented Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. She currently lives in Albuquerque, NM.
Swimming with Elephants Publications Returns to Bookworks ABQ
Celebrate Poetry Month with Swimming with Elephants Publications and Bookworks this April!
During the month of April 2018, you will once again be able to find Swimming with Elephants Publications titles on the shelves of Bookworks, known as one of Albuquerque’s best local, independent bookstore.
Available titles range from our newest releases to our classics, but our supplies are limited so get there early and don’t pass up a purchase because it may not be there on your next visit.
All SwEP titles available in the store will be specially priced for $10, except of a small group which will be priced at $5 a book, while supplies last.
We will celebrate Poetry Month with Bookworks at our reading on April 21, 2018, from 3pm-5pm.
Check out our titles at Bookworks ABQ including these New Releases
from below/denied the light
Poetry by Paulie Lipman
Out of Denver, Colorado, Paulie comes “from below” and rises to join our parade of writers. A two time National Poetry Slam finalist, Paulie Lipman is a loud Jewish Queer poet, performer, and writer. His work has appeared in the anthology ‘We Will Be Shelter’ (Write Bloody Publishing) as well as The Emerson Review, Drunk In A Midnight Choir, Voicemail Poems, pressure gauge, and Prisma (Zeitblatt Fur Text & Sprache).
Nail Gun and a Love Letter
Poetry by Beau Williams
“This collection of poems alternately pierces the reader with astute and heartbreaking observations (Good Drums is a particularly devastating musing on white, male American-ness) while at the same time using evocative language to spar with and challenge the ideas of belonging and connection and love. These poems invite the reader to contemplate what it means to come from somewhere, and how it feels to long for a place that isn’t home but could be. They invite us to see the mundane as essential, and to see and celebrate the things that connect us to our identity. The title of this collection is apt; like a nail gun, these poems violently pierce, but do so in service to building something sturdy and sheltering, and everyone is a love letter to the dance that makes us who we are.”
– Sherry Frost, Educator
I Bloomed a Resistance From My Mouth
Poetry by Mercedez Holtry
“Mercedez Holtry’s poetry speaks to the origin stories of her Chican@ and Mestiz@ people. It is a mixed bag of mixed blood and the celebratory songs of family, culture and the history of the la tierra that she has blossomed from. Her poems are resistance and resilience. She is a fierce page poet warrior who also casts her spells from the stage, as a true bruja does. Oppressors beware. Holtry mixes up curses, prayers and incantations with her poetic brew. This is a poet who uses her mas palabras for healing and retribution. Her collection de poesia es muy firme, a true reckoning of what is to come from a generation of woke poets who have much to say and aren’t afraid to say it. “
-Jessica Helen Lopez, ABQ Poet Laureate
Wild Horses
Poetry by Courtney Butler
“Courtney A. Butler has written a book that manages to be strong and fierce while remaining innocent and full of wonder. Balancing the line between jaded adult and hopeful youth while painting the clearest picture of why the writing evokes that same sentiment- this is a fun, emotionally fulfilling collection that I will enjoy the 37th time as much as the 1st. I’ll be pre-ordering her next book, as there will surely be many more.”
-Wil Gibson, Author of Quitting Smoking, Falling In and Out of Love, and Other Thoughts About Death
The Promethean Clock or Love Poems of a Wooden Boy
Poetry by MJR Montoya
“These poems are a way of telling you what I saw, at least the remnants of those things. My poems have codes in them. They have forms that have long since lost favor. They have rhyme schemes and syllabic structures of old and new places. They have formlessness that abides by current trends, but embraces none of them wholesale. They are, as Milton once wrote, poems that attempt to champion the unnamable and the indeterminable. Mine are the equations of empty sets and irrational numbers as much as they are of ritual and nostalgia. I have decided not to appease all critique. I am at rest, because the people I trust most have said that there is something in them, something of where I am from, what became of my home, and what is becoming in the world. And for the first time in a long time I’m not ashamed of my part in this story. With all that I am, let these poems be a part of my apology to the world and to my beloveds, an apology for each moment as it passes to the next…”
~from the preface
the bones of this land
poetry by Kat Heatherington
“The Bones of this Land is an exquisite collection of poetry and craft at its apex. Heatherington is an expert at subtle but powerful verse. Her words read like a whisper but resonate like a bomb. Here is a book that will leave you satiated, but curiously enough, hungry for more. “
~Jessica Helen Lopez, author of Always Messing With Them Boys, cunt. bomb., Language of Bleeding and a recipient of the Zia Book Award
Now Available: bliss in die/unbinging the underglow
Now Available from Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC
bliss in die/unbinging the underglow
Poetry by
Bassam
“Bassam writes poems that feel like slow motion car crashes where, at every turn, you’re also reassured that it’s ok to feel like this, like even if nothing is going to be ok, there is strength to hold like a parking brake, like the axis of a planet. Bassam’s words are a gut punch, a pull to beating heart chest, a hand that holds yours in the bleak. One senses that the act of poetry for Bassam is truly one of survival. What a strength it takes to show our deepest insecurities, to not ask for forgiveness. To not be the hero of your own story. Bassam is a bright non binary voice. One that asks not for acceptance, but simply is, and tells the stories of body and mind that is so intimate and accessible to those of us who endlessly battle with our shapes, our selves. What a gift to give.”
—Charlie Petch, Spoken Word Artist, Playwright, Musician
About the Author
Bassam (they/them or xe/xim) is a spoken word poet, proud auntie, and settler residing on the traditional territory of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum Belt Covenant (Anishinaabe, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendatt, and Mississaugas of the New Credit). they are a member of the League of Canadian Poets, an executive board member with Spoken Word Canada, and has toured Turtle Island performing spoken word. Bassam earned title of national poetry slam champion at the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word (CFSW) in 2016 with the Guelph Poetry Slam team, and Canadian Individual Poetry Slam (CIPS) finalist in 2017. they were editor-in-chief for ‘these pills don’t come in my skin tone’, a poetry collection exclusively by Black, Indigenous, and People of Colour (BIPOC) on the topic of mental health and illness, released in fall 2017. a (gender)queer, Jewish person of Middle-Eastern descent and a long-time sufferer of body dysmorphia, bipolar and eating disorders, bassam believes in radical kindness as resistance to colonization, that there is no peace without justice, and that intersectionality is vital in the struggle against kyriarchy.
Order today from Amazon or Barnes and Noble
Have you met Paulie Lipman?
Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC is excited to welcome poet Paulie Lipman to our Parade. Paulie’s collection, from below/denied the light, will be released February 2017 and available during Paulie’s next tour, as well as online retailers.
Click here to preorder your copy today!
Get to know Paulie by reading some of his previously published work online:
Coming Soon: “from below/denied the light” by Paulie Lipman
Welcome, Paulie Lipman, to the Swimming with Elephants Publications family!
Out of Denv
er, Colorado, Paulie comes “from below” and rises to join our parade of writers.
A two time National Poetry Slam finalist, Paulie Lipman is a loud Jewish Queer poet, performer, and writer. His work has appeared in the anthology ‘We Will Be Shelter’ (Write Bloody Publishing) as well as The Emerson Review, Drunk In A Midnight Choir, Voicemail Poems, pressure gauge, and Prisma (Zeitblatt Fur Text & Sprache).
A magical individual, I’ve had the chance to share at least one meal with Paulie in a group setting during the 2015 Denver 40 oz. regional slam; from there, I can recollect Paulie’s genuine kindness, their welcoming spirit, their talent in writing and performing, their endless inspirations and ideas, and their sort of soft loudness that allows others to be heard while their voice lifts in passionate intervals. At the time, I was a “newbie” to competitive slam, but it was with that interaction that Paulie, a veteran to slam to my eyes, made me feel heard throughout the group conversation, going so far as to ask me questions personally so I might be involved in the busy-ness that often overwhelms when you’re sat at a table full of poets.
Their upcoming title with SwEP, “from below/denied the light,” is a deep exploration o
f addiction, sobriety, spirituality, and identity. With micro-poem interludes, Paulie captivates with self-recognized flaws from the beginning, sharing with readers:
I am a snob when I have no right to be
I judge people who don’t read
Even though I’m a recovering junkie, I have
little tolerance for current onesI love and help those who deserve it, don’t
ask me how I determine that
Nevertheless, he shines as an example in this brutal self-recognition of knowing he may be “horrible to love”; and still, his work is so easy to fall into as he touches on subjects of his queer identity and how it conflicts with his Jewish blood, and his path into recovery as he addresses past self-destruction.
Of course, with all this to consider, as the title may suggest, Paulie’s book is not a “light” read. Combatting demons throughout, Paulie has managed to create a subtle journey into sobriety and spirituality without overwhelming in its occasional anger and the quiet sadness of providing his own funeral dirge (in a poem aptly named Dirge). And even then, there is a tenderness on the final, lamentful line (but I’ll leave that to mystery).
Beautifully worded and artfully ordered, “from below/denied the light” is available for pre-order on Paulie’s site.
You can also follow them on Facebook or catch them on Instagram.
Wil Gibson just can’t quit…
…being phenomenal.
Of course, such a grand sweeping word as phenomenal fails to do Wil Gibson’s work, in his most recent published collection, any justice whatsoever. It’s my belief that a simpler word might better suffice, if only for the phenomenal simplicity of what Wil’s words make you feel. An oxymoronic statement, maybe, but it’s just that — the beautiful simplicity — which Wil brings to both written and performance poetry.
It’s his most recent publication with Swimming With Elephants Publications, Quitting smoking falling in and out of love, and other thoughts about death that draws close that beautiful simplicity. As life-changing as an arrival to a safe haven, or a departure from the only place you’ve ever known, reading this book was like coming home, wherever home may be. With a broad array of landscapes and cities throughout the United States mentioned, I felt a strong sense of connection to place in reading. It was, undoubtedly, a journey; more than that, it was a pilgrimage.
For that reason, this book needs to be savoured (like a cigarette, if you will, or five after you’ve quit for the umpteenth time). Not to say I didn’t have the urge to rush through each part and eat it all up, but I found it most enjoyed as a slow read, taking the time to dog-ear pages and underline phrases that struck me (and as I say to many writers: sorrynotsorry for dog-earring books, for lack of post-its to use as markholders, and for marking up your books — this, to me, is a testament of love for the work put in, as I find connection to it).
The contrast and connection between each section was so well-constructed, from a writing and editing standpoint, I could certainly see the love that was put into this book, too. From the numbered poems and the slow stream of falling in love over and over again in the first part, The part where I fall in love and a bunch of people I love die to the numbered days in the second part, The part where I quit smoking and more people I love die that are almost comical at times in their display (days 16-18, especially; any smoker or former smoke can certainly relate to the feeling of fuck you that Wil puts so adequately on the page), a conversational tone carries throughout.
Thinking back to when I first heard Wil perform, it’s that conversational tone that holds him as one of my most highly recommended poets for anybody first entering the slam/performance poetry scene; I believe there’s something unique in drawing your audience in without the grandeur of the typical “slam voice.” Instead, Wil’s poetry has always offered this drift back to something reminiscent of the “original” spoken word artists of the Beatnik movement. But there’s that modern touch of artistry in his work, too.
It’s in The part where I fall out of love and more people I love die where Wil’s artistry as a written poet really shines. With unexpected construct like the poem titled simply as Purple, to the constant self-recognition of using cliches to his best ability (and the simple notion of the necessity of cliches), there’s a heartwrenchingly beautiful notion presented in the level of vulnerability that Wil provides in the third and closing part of his collection. Here is vulnerability as a lover, as a smoker, as a writer, as a human. And isn’t that what writing really needs to be? Vulnerable conversations, the shared recognition that we’re all cliches, we’re all just quitting something to start again, that we’re all falling in and out of love with ourselves constantly; Wil’s poetry reminded me that we’re all on a phenomenal pilgrimage through life, and we’ll get there whenever we damn well please (and maybe quit smoking, eventually).
In parting, I would tell anybody skeptical not to be swayed by the ominous title of Wil’s most recent book; instead, let it be an offering that allows you to feel absolutely, phenomenally, simply… human.
You can find Wil’s book on Amazon and Goodreads, along with other books in the Swimming With Elephants Publications family. And don’t forget to keep up with him on his website and Instagram as he continues to tour and scatter his words across the country.
Coming Soon from Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC
The results of our summer Chapbook Competition has gifted us three amazing new authors and three amazing new titles.
Kat Heatherington’s the bones of this land was released in October.
Courtney A Butler’s Gypsy Horses is looking at a November release.
Manuel Montoya’s The Promethean Clock –or- Love Poems of a Wooden Boy should be available in December.
We have a few other titles on the plate for consideration giving us a very busy end of the year. Keep your eyes on our website for more updates in the coming weeks.
Want to support our press? Pick up one or five of the publications we offer. Find links on our website. Also, you may simply donate to our small business via the Paypal link on the home page (we’d rather you bought the books, but hey, support is support).
All Things Grow… even in the crisp autumn cold.
Lately I find myself in a transition phase of recognizing where my own trauma and anxieties end and I begin. This poem, “All Things Grow” by Lydia Havens, performed with Kate Noel, at this summer’s National Poetry Slam in Denver, paid tribute to that transitional phase; and while I didn’t get a chance to see the poem performed in person, I read reactions to it left and right and, upon reading it (and seeing the video), felt a growth inside of myself.
I believe that’s the true meaning of poetry: feeling yourself grow and flourish in the moment, alongside another person, because of another person’s experience and words. I think there’s something especially enchanting about poems like that, and furthermore something enchanting about Lydia — they have this remarkable talent of being explicit and raw and shaping it into something beautiful, something that… grows, far beyond the usual expectations of what one thinks of when they walk into a poetry slam. And that might be one of my very favourite things about Lydia Havens as a writer, too: they are so far beyond the typical slam artist. Instead, they are the true definition of a poet. In a few brief words, they are walking, talking, magical, lizard-y poetry themselves.
“All Things Grow” by Lydia Havens, performed with Kate Noel
bless every poem about trauma,
& struggle, & loss i have written
thus far, for getting me this far.
bless all the space they needed to take up. bless them for knowing
when to step away.
bless all the songs i cannot
listen to anymore because
nostalgia & association will be
the death of me. bless the fact
that i am not dead yet. bless
the fact that i don’t know
where my abuser is anymore,
and i am okay with that.
it doesn’t mean i’ve forgiven him,
but it does mean i’ve forgiven myself.
bless my mother for believing me.
bless my mother for driving me
to all the psych wards, then picking me
back up after discharge. bless
my mother for believing in me.
bless my friends for carrying me home.
bless my friends for making me a home.
bless the city of Boise. bless all the light
it gives us, even at night. bless all
the rivers, even when they want
to overflow. bless the scars on my arms
that faded, and the ones on my face
that didn’t. bless all the ways i spill
like metal secrets against the floor.
bless the glitter always on my hands,
and the becoming. bless the way
my hair is growing out. bless the meds
that worked until they didn’t. bless the way
i never stopped working.
bless the fact that once, i thought
i didn’t know how to write a happy poem.
so bless all the cliches i am learning to love
because i like being a happy person
more than i like being a good writer.
bless vulnerability. bless bravery.
bless whatever it is i’m doing right now,
because everyone that’s ever hurt me
has tried to make me quiet—drown me
in the frantic water i just learned how
to endure. this is not a survival song.
this is the song I sing because I’ve survived.
the opportunity for the joy i have always deserved,
because i have always deserved to take up space.
that’s all. that’s all.
(text posted with permission)
You can visit Lydia’s website, here, and further support them by buying their book, “Survive Like the Water” and, of course, watch the video performance of “All Things Grow” again and again.
Don’t forget to follow them on instagram for magical selfies, and on twitter for more updates about poetry and their life in Boise.
The Book You Need to Have
When the manuscript of Language of Crossing first crossed my desk, I immediately knew it was an important work which profoundly reflected upon some of the most disturbing issues concerning immigration in America. In light of recent events, the building of “the wall” and American relations with Mexico, it is even more important than ever.
Through poetry, Liza Wolff-Francis tells the stories, demonstrates the horrors, and gives a human face to those people who are so greatly affected by the immigration. The struggle continues. This is not a reflection of what is past, but a collection of what continues. If you want to truly understand the strife of the undocumented, start here.
Order the Language of Crossing from Amazon for only $10.95 by clicking here.
About the Publication:
Liza Wolff-Francis’s Language of Crossing is a collection of poetry that mirrors the true heart-stories along the US/Mexico border. Giving face, voice and humanity to all those who make their way across fronteras, her work is that of a necessary endeavor. She writes of a reality that must be ignored no longer. It is the struggle, strife, and violence that is endured by those who flee their country in hopes of a better life. Her poems, brutally honest and minute, rouse compassion as all good poetry must and begs the question of accountability. Language of Crossing is a political outcry, a finely tuned collection of endurance of a people, and a passionate advocacy for all to take notice. Wolff-Francis is a real activist planting poetic prayer flags across the vastness of a desert.
Reviews from Amazon.com:
“In Brownsville there’s a hundred
stash houses where they keep the immigrants
once they’ve crossed over in north heaven.
The coyotes take their shoes from them,
take their clothes so they don’t run, keep them
behind locks. Quiet. Callados.
En silencio, until the next trek
on into the land of the free.
(from the poem “In Brownsville there’s a stash house where they keep the immigrants”)
The poems in Language of Crossing by Liza Wolff-Francis will break your heart. Is this the America we live in? Yes it is. Is this the way we treat the poor and the needy? Yes it is.
Whatever happened to: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” –The New Colossus, by Emma Lazarus
These words have become the Myth of America. Wolff-Francis brings the tragedy, the reality of the true faces of the immigrants to life, not the myth…she paints us a picture of what is going on right now on our southern borders. She gives individuals crossing our borders a human face, a human heart, and a human longing for a better land, a better place, a simple place where you can raise your family without the fear of death at every corner. And for many of these immigrants, what they find is everything but. Wolff-Francis doesn’t pull any punches. What she writes about, we can not ignore, we can no longer turn a blind eye to. This is an important collection of poems, and you need to read it.
I’m so glad I was able to get a copy of Language of Crossing. As I’ve been listening to NPR and hearing about humanitarian crises in Africa and the Middle East, I’ve kept wondering at how strong our national political policies must be, that we turn a blind eye to what’s happening at our threshold. Before the book launch reading at La Resistencia Bookstore in Austin, I knew there were people crossing the border, and many if not most of those journeys did not have a happy ending. But I hadn’t realized there was a humanitarian crisis in progress, so I feel that I’ve at least had my eyes opened in a way that allows me to look at what’s going on more critically and realistically. Not that I’ve saved any lives yet, per sé, but I’m glad to be able to read about your perspective, rather than only hear the President’s. And the found poem that opens the collection, “Border Trauma,” is still haunting me months later.
About the Author:
Liza Wolff-Francis is a poet and writer with an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from Goddard College. She was co-director for the 2014 Austin International Poetry Festival and a member of the 2008 Albuquerque Poetry Slam Team. She has an ekphrastic poem posted in Austin’s Blanton Art Museum by El Anatsui’s sculpture “Seepage” and her work has most recently appeared in Edge, Twenty, unseenfiction.com, Border Senses, and on various blogs. As a social worker, she has worked with Spanish speaking immigrant populations for twenty years. She wrote the play “Border Rising” from interviews with undocumented Mexican immigrants in Los Angeles. She currently lives in Albuquerque, NM.
Michal by Sarah Allred
Michal
by Sarah Allred
I see these women
bags under their eyes
and blissfully unshowered
and I envy them
who get to pour
their love into one or
two or maybe three
finite little creatures
who haven’t had the
chance, yet, to be
terrorized by the world
As I sit here
with my flat belly
in a clean quiet house
and I remind you
to call your therapist
before it’s too late
and I listen to my boyfriend
talk about his exwife
and I remind a good friend
every time I see him
he is a good, generous man
and I call my mother
and I miss my sister
and it hurts to love
this way, this much
Hannah /6&26 by Sarah Allred
Hannah/6&26
I am not afraid of anything
not even a Tyrannosaurus rex
she says cheeks plump
in the yard I pick
tiny yellow flowers from
between thorns I think they
look like berries
I nod and agree
I am afraid I will never
be able to love again
she says cheeks plump
in the yard I exhale
smoke and wish I could
say anything true that would
let us feel better but
I nod and agree
Our Year, Our Future
Thank you to everyone who have followed Swimming with Elephants Publications and to all those whom we met in 2016.
This year meet with some rocky times, and SwEP did not escape some of that downfall. We slumped in sales which lead to fewer publications than in past years. We had to end our quarterly anthology series due to lack of funds and low submissions. Also, a powerful project, entitled “Woke,” fell through which lead to disappointment for this Editor in Chief.
However, the year can not be denied some excellent successes. We have had some amazing author’s join our Parade including Wil Gibson, SaraEve Fermin, and Jennifer E. Hudgens.
One of our most popular titles, They Are All Me by Dominique Christina, has been picked up by the Women’s and Gender’s Studies, Sociology, Public Health, and Gender/Cultural Studies Department at Simmons College in Boston, MA. Also, one of our authors, Manuel Gonzalez of …But My Friends Call Me Burque, was named ABQ Poet Laureate and continues to perform prolifically around the New Mexico.
We also continue with our charitable causes by participated in putting together anthologies for All Access and Voces, an ABQ based youth program. We continue to work closely with various members of the community to create publications to spread awareness and give the youth a voice.
Most importantly haven’t gone bankrupt yet and are hopeful that we will be able to fund future projects.
The new year looks promising with an upcoming release from Gigi Bella, a chapbook contest guest judged by Jessica Helen Lopez, along with some other hopefuls projects peaking around the corners.
We have also started a new monthly feature series and have already received a grip of submissions. Learn more about this series here and keep those submissions coming.
If you are one of our authors, please remember that your success does depend on your hustle. We will support you in every way possible, but the best (and most profitable) way to get your books into people’s hands is to place them there yourself. Share your work publicly by booking features or mini tours.
If you are one of our readers, please continue to check out our latest publications and submit reviews to Amazon, Goodreads, or send us a review for the website. We are always looking for more reviews and more readers.
Thank you to all for your support. We will be seeing you in 2017.
Saltwater Under Brittle Sky: A Review by SaraEve Fermin
Saltwater Under Brittle Sky: A Chapbook of Poetry
Lori DeSanti
A Review by SaraEve Fermin
They say that we are made of about sixty percent water, give or take. Some of us more—babies, men, maybe water signs. Imagine a world of blues and greens. Close your eyes, water everywhere—lapping at your feet, falling gently into your cupped hands, misting gently to envelop your face. Water warm and gentle, water cleansing and bright.
Lori DeSanti’s Saltwater Under Brittle Sky is a lot like taking a walk through a sun shower on your own island, like waiting for the clouds to break and dry any wet that remains on your cheek—from dew to tears. This collection of poems is compact but beautiful, unpretentious in their succinct on page presentation. Each of the nineteen pages is no more than two pages long, and the collection is small enough to tuck into a back or inside coat pocket, a collection asking to be read in the open air, under trees and next to running streams.
In ‘The Artist’, DeSanti manages to capture the sharp beauty of South Shore, Bermuda. She gives the cove a personification that renders this land ancient and begging to be discovered, reminding us of how small we are in God’s palms-
…hurricane
god cupping teal water in his palm as it
dripped in big gulps from his chin.
There is a vein of darkness that runs through this collection, shadows that hide among the breeze. These poems temper the lightness of DeSanti’s work; keep the poems from floating away. The ‘Brittle’ of the title can be found in ‘Disclosure’-
I am full of sin and it’s growing.
How can you not know what
I’ve let his hands make of me?
Still, we return to water, like a stream empties into the ocean, like tears evaporating. There is a reminder that sadness can be all encompassing, that sorrow can be the beginning of healing-
Sometimes the rain is cathartic—sometimes I find myself
drowning in a puddle without even getting wet.
-The Continuum
There is a triumph to this collection, my favorite part. There is a reminder that in the mess of a struggle sometimes you have to ground yourself. Sometimes the only thing that you have to rely on is yourself. DeSanti reminds us that survival is attainable by metamorphosis, like in ‘Metaphor’:
We can grow scales in
the darkness or we can forget
there is venom building
up
in our teeth.
DeSanti reminds us to revolt against the water in our bodies. This brave collection carefully examines relationships with the earth, the self, with love and with her wild ocean heart. For who are we if not people constantly thrown into a current of emotions, forced to navigate the waters of humanity, each of us paddling our own boat madly, looking to make a connection with another? DeSanti reminds us that there are islands out there, waiting to be inhabited and perfumed with love. All you need to do is reach for them.
Let the ocean beat you
down to size. It teaches us.
-Bury That Moment
Saltwater Under Brittle Sky is available now from Swimming by Elephants Publishing. Order from Amazon here. To learn more about the author visit loridesantipoetry.wordpress.com.
Book Reviews by SaraEve Fermin:
SaraEve is a performance poet and epilepsy advocate from New Jersey. A 2015 Best of the Net nominee, she has performed for both local and national events, including the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam and for the Greater Los Angeles Epilepsy Foundation 2015 Care and Cure Benefit to End Epilepsy in Children. The Editor in Chief of Wicked Banshee Press, a Contributing Editor for Words Dance Magazine and Book Reviewer for Swimming With Elephants Publications, her work can be found or is forthcoming in GERM Magazine, Words Dance Magazine, Drunk in a Midnight Choir and the University of Hell Anthology We Can Make Your Life Better: A Guidebook to Modern Living,, among others. Her first full length book, View From The Top of the Ferris Wheel, will be published be Emphat!c Press in 2016. She believes in the power of foxes and self publishing. Learn more here: http://saraeve41.wix.com/saraevepoet
Book Review: GNARLY
There is beauty in breathing razorblades and exhaling a painted sunset as delicate as it is too much to behold; that’s what Danielle Smith accomplishes in her first publication, GNARLY. And “gnarly” is the perfect description of Smith’s words as she takes you for a rollercoaster through first loves and heartbreaks, all playing out like a soundtrack under the visual madness of a New Mexico skyline. Smith has lit a match that burns just as bright as one of those remarkable sunsets.
And she manages to set the reader on fire, too, turning your heart into the campfire that might light the night as she whispers in your ear bittersweet-everythings; because this is the human experience. It is raw, gritty, soiled, messy, gnarly. From the truth showcased in teenage romance, in poems such as Minerals and Freckles, to the raw and heartfelt honesty of (His) Tie Dye and Making Nothing Out Of Something, Smith manages to take the reader down a new route where so many have tread before. She’s just wearing new shoes and holding a machete, fierce as a bleeding heart, to bushwhack her way through the bramble of her own thinking.
Her book reads like an indie record, but you want everybody to hear this one. Other poems, like Super 8, showcase true artistry, peppering the reader with hidden messages like whisper-kisses, finally ending on the “title track”, Gnarly which is everything and nothing you’d expect upon reaching the end: all madness, all frantic, all knees knocking, lip biting, nail scratching grit.
Overall, both deeply touching as it is a shock that such a young voice could carry so much wisdom and experience.
Her book, as with all Swimming With Elephants Publications, can be found online on Amazon and goodreads, where you can leave a review for this up-and-coming brilliant poeta.
Swimming with Elephants Publications 