Pick up Matthew Brown’s chapbook “Verbrennen” from Amazon today.
Tag: Swimming with Elephants
Welcome Dominique Christina and her Latest Publication “They Are All Me”
Dominique Christina
Dominique Christina is a mother, an educator and an agitator born and raised in Denver, Colorado 40 years ago. She holds two Masters degrees in English Literature and Education respectively. A licensed educator, Dominique taught in the Denver and Aurora Public school systems in Colorado for ten years, directed college prep programs and taught in an adjunct capacity at Community College of Aurora and Metropolitan State University of Denver. She believes that words make worlds. In the slam world (competitive poetry) Dominique began in 2011. That same year she won the National Poetry Slam Championship. In 2012 she won the Women of the World Slam Championship. She won it again in 2014. She’s the only person to win that honor twice.
She is a Rocky Mountain Women’s Institute fellow. Her work has appeared on TV One’s season 3 Verses and Flow show. She has performed with Cornel West and was an invited guest to Washington DC to read her poem “Emmett Till” for the Till family and the parents of Trayvon Martin, a young man who was killed in Sanford, Florida. Her first book of poetry, The Bones, The Breaking, The Balm, was published by Penmanship Books 2014. Her second book, a collection of poetry, essays, and writing prompts, is set for publication in October 2015 by Sounds True Publishing. Her work also appears in numerous literary journals, anthologies, and magazines and has been featured in Huffington Post and Upworthy several times.
Dominique’s family was critical in the civil rights movement. Her aunt Carlotta Walls-Lanier was one of nine students to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock Arkansas. Her grandfather was a shortstop, Hall of Fame baseball player for the Kansas City Monarchs in the Negro Leagues before baseball was integrated. When he left, Jackie Robinson, who would later go on to integrate baseball, took his place. Dominique’s mother, Professor Jackie Benton, is named for Jackie Robinson. She is mother to four wildly expressive children who never use inside voices…ever. But they are the raw material of possible and give her plenty of reasons to praise.
Best Selling Chapbook: Storm by Kristian Macaron
Storm
Poetry by Kristian Macaron
Available at Amazon for $10.95
Cover Art by Gwendolyn Prior
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.
In a Word: Nepal
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEPAL BENEFIT AND BOOK RELEASE BRINGS TOGETHER TWO EARTHQUAKE SURVIVORS AND TWO AWARD-WINNING ARTISTS FOR ONE AFTERNOON AT THE ALBUQUERQUE MUSEUM ALBUQUERQUE, NM –
On April 25th, 2015 a magnitude 7.8 earthquake tackled the
country of Nepal. Over 8000 are dead, and counting. The country’s antiquated infrastructure was not built to withstand the natural disaster that left an already fragile economy flat, and many with our homes, food and water.
On Sunday, July 12th at 2pm, Inaugural Albuquerque Poet Laureate Hakim Bellamy and acclaimed visual artist Joanne Lefrak host a fundraiser to benefit their newfound family and network still recovering from the quake. Two hundred (200) numbered, limited edition copies of Bellamy’s new book Prayer Flag Poems (Swimming With Elephants Publications) will go on sale at the event with all proceeds going directly to the organizations, schools and families that Bellamy and Lefrak befriended on their 2014 trip to Nepal. Lefrak (Director of Education at SITE Santa Fe) will join Bellamy at the July 12th event to share photos and context for their 2014 trip that began as a collaborative artistic project and resulted in an a life changing experience.
The event will also feature special guests Dr. David Stryker and UNM Economist Lee Reynis. Stryker and Reynis are Albuquerque residents who found themselves trekking the border between Nepal and China when the April 25th earthquake occurred. They
will share stories from their experience of being stranded for days after the earthquake, and their safe return to Albuquerque.
IN A WORD: NEPAL will be held at 2pm on July 12th, 2015 at the Albuquerque Museum of Art & History (2000 Mountain Rd NW, Albuquerque, NM 87104). This educational community event is open to the public and appropriate for all ages.
Charitable donations can be made with cash, check or credit card at the event.
For more information please contact Hakim Bellamy at beyond.poetry@writeme.com or
505.750.7226.
New Review: Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems): Bill Nevins
Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems): Bill Nevins
Published: by Swimming With Elephants Publications
Edited: by Pia Gallegos
Reviewed: by Seamus Ruttledge
The true nature of poetry is to first give us an insight into the heart and consciousness of the poet, then the collective consciousness of the society that influenced and nurtured that poet.
With his latest collection ‘Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems)’ Bill Nevins fulfills both of these criteria. His influences stare back from the pages of this collection: the poet’s Catholic upbringing, his Irish roots, his immersion in the popular culture, his sense of justice, and the ideas of his time, inform all that appears between the covers of ‘Heartbreak Ridge(and other Poems)’.
Nevins also draws on the American civil rights and peace movements. When the writers, poets, musicians and artists of the “Times They Are A-Changin” generation opposed wars, domestic and foreign, Nevins was positioned at the vanguard of the excitement: he relished their enthusiasm, idealism and the promise of change.
He leads us gently into where the heart of the poet lies, and for Bill Nevins that heart speaks both from the ancient stones of an ancestral land, and a new cultural landscape, with different mores and values where the public voice of discourse impinges heavily on the consciousness of the individual. ‘Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems)’ explores how all of these emotions interact, from the deeply personal to the public. Nevins shares with the reader an understanding of how this melting pot moulded him as both person and writer.
In ‘New Skibbereen’ Nevins gives us the Ireland of the emigrant heart. He does not spend time in deep longing for a romantic past:
“…so that’s how they sang back in the bad old days, for Erin’s sake.”
While referencing the famous early verse of Patrick Carpenter, that gives us insight into the cruel days of famine and penal taxes, Nevins quickly moves to a very modern notion of Ireland: the homeland of his ancestors, populated by articulate people.
While still engaged in a fight and a deep longing for independence, the Irish manage to emancipate themselves through the most powerful of personal freedoms: that of free expression, expounded through singers and songs, through writers, poets, and other freedom fighters:
“Bobby Sands, the dying soldier-prisoner-poet….”
In the poem ‘New Skibbereen’ we see Nevins’ ancestral home Éire once again finding voice and healing through its spiritual and artistic heritage, as it had done through the late nineteenth, and early twentieth century writers and poets of the Gaelic Literary Revival.
To understand the soul of America, we need to read ‘Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems)’ where the private citizen comes face to face with the noble ideals of a nation conscious of its role as the defender of freedoms: a role labored on the backs of Americans by the wider world, who lambast and laud it, all in the one breath.
To this ideal Bill Nevins and his family paid the ultimate personal sacrifice, losing their son Liam in combat in Afghanistan:
“Embracing, we kiss thy lips, thy wounds in peace, even in death, even in teeth of your death prayers upon us, we ash-cross your brow.” (Why Are We In Afghanistan?)
Echoing Rudyard Kipling’s call to a son lost in a different war, Bill Nevins and his family now yearn “When do you think he’ll come home?” yet the poet does not display any bitterness for this personal loss. Instead he very ably expresses his absolute dismay, utter confusion and anger about the way successive administrations have misrepresented the true feelings of the American people, at home and abroad, in times of crisis.
In poems like ‘Heartbreak Ridge’, ‘Why Are We In Afghanistan?’, ‘Dover Base’ and ‘Warrior Transition Units’ Bill Nevins repeatedly asks whether war and rage are giving America the answers and the healing that it needs.
It gradually becomes clear that Bill Nevins believes peace is attainable more through peaceful means rather than war, or other ‘security options’ that have been so favored by US administrations in recent times. In ‘Days of Death Letters,’ he throws a cynical glance to the military and its empty post-death rituals. Steeped in military glory and its trappings, these rituals of war and death represent little but the re-affirmation of American military power. They serve only to condemn families to a state of continuous grief:
“I have the folded flags and medals to remind me of that.”(Days of Death Letters)
In ‘Fateful Lightning: The Hoodie and The Republic’ Nevins remembers the injustice of Trayvon Martin’s death, which was to herald a number of similar deaths of African-Americans in racially-related incidents:
“Speak to holy rage in Jesus
To the emptied temple and the empty tomb
To the peace in Trayvon’s soul”
In this collection Bill Nevins points constantly to the ability of our artistic souls to express pain, anger and rage. This is what keeps us from revenge; this is what keeps us from violence; this is what keeps us functioning as human beings:
“…poets make everybody else
taste what they taste.” (No Prisoners).
The residual effects of a Catholic upbringing and religious power are strong and moving forces in Nevins’ writing. When best to take control than at the very first sacrament after baptism, the very first personal encounter between the Church through its priest, and the very impressionable young boy at first confession, who has come to be relieved of the burden of his sins:
“…staring at the cold stone Christ whipped by Romans
when Fenton in his stiff Jansenist cassock found me wanting in dogma
expelled me from first confession” (Transubstantiation)
‘Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems)’ clearly shows us the sacrifice of American families to the universal values and ideals of a free and democratic world. It takes us on a journey through symbols and symbolism, of ideas and ideals, of the artistic, and the spiritual self, that creates a healing space, but most of all we are on a journey with the poet seeking a personal truth.
Bill Nevins opens for us the conscience of a nation deeply confused about its ideals, its history of a noble purpose, and the role foisted upon it by the world. Through Bill Nevins’ poetry and personal loss, we glimpse the real soul of America. There is the private and the public; both are intertwined in stories of love, peace, death, tragedy and the truly personal biography of a lost child to war.
He questions the idea of war and the whole culture and mythology built around it. As did Springsteen years ago with ‘Born in the USA’ Nevins lets us in on more of the truth about this almost mythical place that means different things to so many. Like Springsteen before him, Bill Nevins gives us a glimpse into the consciousness of the individual, and thereby, into the soul of a nation.
Through Bill Nevins’ poetry the reader pieces together a multi-layered depiction of citizen, and country. His historic, spiritual and cultural references reveal how from tough and harsh realities, the American Dream has sustained its people so well; giving birth to an idealism and a sense of purpose, that is unique to itself in the world.
At his best Nevins brings us face to face with our deepest selves, challenging each reader to look into their own value system: to note how society nurtures or impinges on those values and in turn on our lives and how we are allowed to live them. We are measured in the end by our response to how our society and big government corrupts our personal value system.
While ‘Heartbreak Ridge (and other Poems)’ deals with the loss of a beloved son to a war with uncertain objectives, Nevins never allows his great personal loss to dominate the collection. Rather, this great loss influences every question he asks about the value and the sacredness of life.
“The Spring will come,
joyful births will happen again,
the kids will dance
the gifting dance,
every bit as happily as ever young Jesus danced” (If We Make it Through December)
Reviewed by Seamus Ruttledge (May 2015)
Gina Marselle Bookworks Release This Weekend
Join us this weekend for the official release of Swimming with Elephants, LLC latest publication: A Fire of Prayer, a collection of poetry and photography from Gina Marselle.
The title will be released at Bookworks ABQ, Sunday March 29, 2015 at 3pm, accompanied with a reading by Ms. Marselle. Other SwEP authors will be on site to support the release of this new title.
Come out and join the fun! Support your local press, your local artists, and your local bookstore all in one swoop.
About the Author:
Gina Marselle, M.A.Ed, resides in New Mexico with her husband and children. She is a high school English teacher, and finds enjoyment in being creative through poetry, painting, and photography. She has been awarded three grants for various philanthropy poetic projects. In addition, she has published poetic work with The Sunday Poem Online Series, in the Alibi, the Rag, SIC3, Adobe Walls: An anthology of New Mexico poetry, Catching Calliope, Fix and Free Poetry Anthology I and II, and La Palabra Anthology I and II.
Gina reads her poetry at local coffee shops, art galleries, and has been a featured poet at the Church of Beethoven (now known as Sunday Chatter). She has one chapbook (self published) titled ‘Round Midnight (2012). Furthermore, she has coordinated the poetry event for the Summer Open Space Series sponsored by The City of Albuquerque since 2009. Currently, she is honored to be part of the collective La Palabra: The Word is a Woman, which is a writer’s collective founded by poet Jessica Helen Lopez.
Beyond poetry, she is an accomplished photographer. Her photos of New Mexico poets have been featured in the Santa Fe magazine Trend (March of 2011).She also photographed the cover of Jessica Helen Lopez’ poetry book, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press, 2011), and has her photography featured in September: traces of letting go a poetry book by Katrina K Guarascio (Swimming With Elephants Publications, 2014).
A Fire of Prayer: A Collection of Poetry and Photography is her first full length collection.
Titles for Retirement
A quick note to our follows to inform you that a few of our titles will be retired at the end of March. The reason for the retirement is either due to author choice, out dated anthology, or poor sales.
The following titles will be no longer available as of April 1, 2015:
Available Soon: A Fire of Prayer by Gina Marselle
Gina Marselle, M.A.Ed, resides in New Mexico with her husband and children. She is a high school English teacher, and finds enjoyment in being creative through poetry, painting, and photography. She has been awarded three grants for various philanthropy poetic projects.
In addition, she has published poetic work with The Sunday Poem Online Series, in the Alibi, the Rag, SIC3, Adobe Walls: An anthology of New Mexico poetry, Catching Calliope, Fix and Free Poetry Anthology I and II, and La Palabra Anthology I and II.
Gina reads her poetry at local coffee shops, art galleries, and has been a featured poet at the Church of Beethoven (now known as Sunday Chatter). She has one chapbook (self published) titled ‘Round Midnight (2012). Furthermore, she has coordinated the poetry event for the Summer Open Space Series sponsored by The City of Albuquerque since 2009. Currently, she is honored to be part of the collective La Palabra: The Word is a Woman, which is a writer’s collective founded by poet Jessica Helen Lopez.
Beyond poetry, she is an accomplished photographer. Her photos of New Mexico poets have been featured in the Santa Fe magazine Trend (March of 2011).She also photographed the cover of Jessica Helen Lopez’ poetry book, Always Messing With Them Boys (West End Press, 2011), and has her photography featured in September: traces of letting go a poetry book by Katrina K Guarascio (Swimming With Elephants Publications, 2014).
Her first collection of work, A Fire of Prayer: A Collection of Poetry and Photography has been published by Swimming With Elephants Publications (2015).
A Review of Periscope Heart by Rich Boucher
A Review of Periscope Heart
by Rich Boucher
Right off the actual bat, I should quasi-recuse myself and say that personally speaking, poems and books of poems that mostly address the notion of love for another generally don’t do anything for me. It’s just a taste thing. So with that context understood, Periscope Heart, Kai Coggin’s first full-length collection of poems (and the twentieth publication from the marvelous Swimming with Elephants Publications, LLC) really had its work cut out for it. No joke; I’m being serious. I have read and heard a lot of poetry that addresses some kind of romance/desire with the big R, and much of that just makes me really tired really fast. Maybe I’m not mature enough – who knows? Hand me another beer, love.
But the thing is this: I just haven’t got tired yet; in fact, the work found in Periscope Heart is at times stimulating, energizing and enervating, surprising even me. I stroll on the paths in this book and frequently some soft tendril of very, very careful neologism and pun-craft loops around my torso, and I can’t move. I think Kai Coggin knows this. At some points in this book I’ve suspected Coggin of witchcraft. Kai made a believer out of me and believe me, something in me resisted. Love just isn’t in my wheelhouse; on any given day I’d be more given to burying myself in poems about fetishizing panties and hails of gunfire. And many of the poems (not all) in this volume carry the love as their banner into battle. And I found myself right beside Coggin and marching along.
I’m going to take the magnifying lens to a small handful of poems in this review, but I want you to get this book and sit with it on either an early Saturday morning or a late Sunday night. And I’m being serious about that, too. Maybe you don’t like being told what to do. I feel for you; I really do, but I’m telling you what to do anyway. And I’m the one holding the riding crop. My eyes got pulled to the title “Alchemy” right away, as this is a kind of pet favourite subject of mine. Coggin here gifts us with powerful turns of phrase (“…my tongue knew of only churches inside you…”) and takes the notions of fusion and dissolution and mutability and cleverly finds their examples in this examination of attraction and desire (“…only a touch of alchemy in my bones remains/because you have loved me to earthen clay in your hands….”). Any book that contains a poem that closes with the standalone line “I have turned into gold” is worth both the price of admission and its own weight in the precious metal.
“Planting Stars” is just one of those quietly glorious poems that founds itself upon an arresting image (“…I buried a handful/of stars deep into the soil…”) but it’s more than just one of those glorious poems, because where another, lesser poet might dally too long, fascinated by their own scintillating creation, Coggin takes only the amount of time necessary to bring to our line of sight what she sees, leaving us to choose how long and how often we’ll gaze upon such a pretty, miraculous concoction. As it turns out, we keep coming back to it over and over again.
Some poems, only the real good ones, can mimic the soul and feel of music, of a song that’s both sad and up in one measure, and “Siren” satisfies this tall, tall order very nicely. I think of lines like this one from “Siren”: “…wanting nothing but homecoming/nothing but a respite on the open shores of someone’s thighs…” and I know without a doubt that where the casual reader will silently gape, the reader who is also a writer will gasp at the easy, unhurried majesty found in Kai Coggin’s poetry.
And not for nothing, but this poet knows how to top off her poems with titles that pull you and tease from the tableau of contents (“That Day I was Jesus Christ (Total Eclipse of the Heart)”, “This is how to eat your past:”, “Willing My Body Parts”), and in a nice reversal of a coup de grâce, Periscope Heart comes to you wrapped up in a very handsome, deep-blue package featuring some captivating cover art by Arkansas artist Joann Saraydarian. There are fifty-four poems in this first volume; think of yourself as truly getting away with it when you buy this book.
Visit Kai’s website to order a book straight from Kai, or pick one up on Amazon today.
Now Available: …but my friends call me Burque
…but my friends call my Burque
Poetry by Manuel Gonzalez
Available at Amazon and Createspace for $10.95.
Available at SwEP events at discount pricing.
About the collection:
The first complete collection from beloved New Mexico poet Manuel Gonzalez contains many of his most popular performance pieces along with poems he has used and shared in classrooms throughout the state.
Manuel states: “I’m proud to be from New Mexico, and to me it’s more than just green chile and desert. It’s seeing the value of famila and respect. It’s the Rio Grande valley and Santuario de Chi-mayo. It is feasts, dance, poetry and prayer.”
This collection honors New Mexico, her traditions and her beauty.
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 Nevins hosts second-Wednesday monthly poetry readings at The Range Cafe in Bernalillo, New Mexico. He can be contacted at bill_nevins@yahoo.com and at Bill Nevins on Facebook.
Bill Nevins’ collection of poetry, Heartbreak Ridge, is now available from Swimming with Elephants Publications.
author photo credit: Mark Fischer
Now Available: Catching Calliope Summer 2014
I am very excited for this edition. We have an eclectic array of poets, including several new voices and alongside some of my favorites from the local community. I am hoping all who contributed and are included in the pages of this anthology will be pleased with the outcome and their representation.
Catching Calliope Summer Edition 2014 is now available for order on Amazon and Createspace.
We will have copies available for all contributors at The Second Saturday Slam on August 9th at Café Bella Coffee in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. If you are unable to attend the release, please send us an applicable mailing address at your convenience and you will receive your copy in late August.
Thank you for your submissions and for your support of the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community. If you would like to learn more about our organization, please visit our blogsite and continue your support by picking up a copy of one of our previous published editions of Catching Calliope (available in the ABQ/Rio Rancho area and on Amazon.com).
Cover Art: Adrienne Smith
The Moon’s Gravity
~Reed Bobroff
Reflection
~Manuel Gonzalez
Skin Tags
~Levi J. Mericle
Alchemy
~Kai Coggin
Mothers
~ Sarita Sol
Through Their Eyes
~Josephine Barela
They Call It a Crush Because It Is Orange and Carbonated
~Rob Sturma
I wanna
~Gabriella Reyes
The Lost Boy who cried at the Moon
~ Alicia Borillo
Wind
~Jude Marx
Minerals
~Danielle Smith
Watermelon
~Josephine Barela
Second First Dates
~ John Parker
Despedida para Breaking Bad
~Reed Bobroff
Albuquerque, a Woman
~ Gangadharan Esakki
Willing My Body Parts
~Kai Coggin
Doublets
~Rob Sturma
Cigarette
~Lissa Baca
La Curendera
~Manuel Gonzalez
Louder Than the Color Red
~Megan Young
A Convenience Store Revisited
~Amoja Sumler
Deep Sea Ghost Divers
~John Parker
I dreamt you
~Katrina K Guarascio
It Should Have Been Me
~Tapestry
Remember
~Wil Gibson
Now Available: the fall of a sparrow
A new collection of poetry by Katrina K Guarascio, entitled the fall of a sparrow, has been released from Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Find this new collection on Amazon .
Learn more about this unique collaboration of art and verse by reading an except from the foreword, penned by Swimming with Elephants Publication author Zachary Kluckman.
An except from the forward:
Here is a collection of poetic wonderment, musings on the ineffable universal experience of beauty as it is. Real, at times veiled by the uncertain consequence of letting go or giving in, yet always an experience on the lip of the chasm, preparing for wild success or the wailing dismay of failure. Guarascio’s poems are filled with beautiful creatures, metaphoric animals crawling amongst the words, haunting the reader with their subtle, but necessary presence. In these poems are love, loss, resignation, breathlessness, intimacy and touch; the edge of the blade pressing against the plump flesh of the fruit or the slight swell of hipbone under a lover’s hand.
Acknowledging the Elephant!
I
t’s time this elephant officially came out to play!Save the evening of June 14th to hear poetry from some of our wonderful authors and save your dimes to buy their books. Hosted by the Artbar on Gold and Second Street in Albuquerque, NM, this event is basically an open-house for our authors to share and talk about the works they have published or been a part of and the future of this emerging publishing company.
Founded by Katrina K Guarascio, SwEP is an independent publishing agency that publishes/promotes the community-minded, working artist/writer, and raises funds and awareness for youth writers in the community. Blue-collar artistic elephants!
t’s time this elephant officially came out to play!Save the evening of June 14th to hear poetry from some of our wonderful authors and save your dimes to buy their books. Hosted by the Artbar on Gold and Second Street in Albuquerque, NM, this event is basically an open-house for our authors to share and talk about the works they have published or been a part of and the future of this emerging publishing company.
Founded by Katrina K Guarascio, SwEP is an independent publishing agency that publishes/promotes the community-minded, working artist/writer, and raises funds and awareness for youth writers in the community. Blue-collar artistic elephants!
On hand will be current (and near future) published SwEP authors and contributors like Zachary Kluckman, Jessica Helen Lopez, Katrina K Guarascio, Gina Marselle, Benjamin Bormann, and more!
Also, musician extraordinaire Keith Sanchez will open and close the show with his awesome musica!
Special Pricing: All books are $10.95 credit/check or $10 cash.
Swimming with Elephants Publications Available for Purchase at Event:
Anthologies:
Catching Calliope Winter 2014
Catching Calliope Spring 2014
Cumulus Collections
Light as a Feather
To The Last Word 2014
Catching Calliope Winter 2014
Catching Calliope Spring 2014
Cumulus Collections
Light as a Feather
To The Last Word 2014
Nika Ann’s To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer
Emily Bjustrom’s Loved Always Tomorrow
Matthew Brown’s Verbrennen
Katrina K Guarascio & Gina Marselle’s September
Katrina K Guarascio & Shawna Cory’s my verse,
Zachary Kluckman’s Some of it is Muscle
Jessica Helen Lopez’s Cunt.Bomb.
Emily Bjustrom’s Loved Always Tomorrow
Matthew Brown’s Verbrennen
Katrina K Guarascio & Gina Marselle’s September
Katrina K Guarascio & Shawna Cory’s my verse,
Zachary Kluckman’s Some of it is Muscle
Jessica Helen Lopez’s Cunt.Bomb.
First Review of Light as a Feather
First Review of the new anthology Light as a Feather.
After reading the first few pages, I realized what they were writing was exactly what I went through. I do not think that people have any idea how many girls are afflicted with this disease. This book needs to read by every middle school and high school student. Teens need to know that this disease will affect every aspect of your life, sometimes for the rest of your life! Thank you so much for compiling this book.
Order you copy today!
Shameless Promotion Weekly Feature: September
Thank you to everyone who checked out and reviewed last week’s Shamless Promotion of Some of it is Muscle by Zachary Kluckman.
This week, SwEP will be shamelessing promoting the work of Katrina K Guarascio and Gina Marselle in their collection of poetry and photography entitled September: traces of letting go.
There are two editions of this book currently available via Amazon.com, or for those of you in the Albuquerque are you can pick up a copy of September at Bookworks Albquerque and support not only a small press but a local independent bookstore.
Special pricing is available via Amazon and Createspace.
Check the links below for availablity:
Bookworks
Amazon
Createspace
Amazon Review of September:
Katrina K Guarascio is a personal favorite. This collection of hers is something I am extremely proud to own. The addition of Gina Marselle, and her photography, makes for a well balanced book,and a nice assortment of emotions. I would recommend this to anyone in love with words, because the context in which Guarascio sets hers is unlike the majority of poets I’ve experienced. This is definitely a positive thing, too. It shipped without any complications, very quickly, and arrived in perfect condition.
Now Available: Light as a Feather
Swimming with Elephants Publications has released it’s most recent anthology, Light as a Feather. Featuring a collection of writers from around the world, this collection ranges from the weary to the hopeful. It includes the struggles with body images, eating disorders, and depression which are an unfortunate effect of the society we have created for ourself.
Light as a Feather will be available very soon from Swimming with Elephants Publications!
Hear what is being said about Light as a Feather:
Light as a Feather transports readers into the bleak landscape experienced by so many of us who suffer from eating disorders and depression. We are swept into an exploration of bones clinking “like wind chimes,” “blubber like chain mail,” “nights so black,”and “making friends with bullets.” These poems are raw and revealing yet communicate hope through perseverance and love.
Lucretia E. Penny Pence
Associate Professor of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies
“I ate today”. This simple statement, which opens the poem Falling, is the perfect embodiment of the simple necessity and stark power of the work contained in this collection. With themes centered on eating disorders and mental health issues, many may hesitate to pick up this collection, expecting either a morose and somber compendium of struggle, or perhaps thinking there is nothing here they can relate to. They would be wrong on both counts. Light as a Feather is a potent and surprisingly gentle assemblage of voice and experience threaded together with a delicacy that almost belies the harsh, at times almost violent, brutality of body image, external perspectives and self doubt that go hand in hand with the issues being discussed. The authors included herein have strewn themselves in vulnerable and fearless positions throughout these pages to speak truth, empathy and encouragement to anyone reading and frankly the result is an impressive, urgent and altogether timely message. Sometimes the simple act of feeding yourself makes you a lighthouse. There are shipwrecks within these pages, and for every one of them, there is a survivor hugging the coastline of their own body, holding a lifeline and refusing the sea’s invitation to determine their shape.
Zachary Kluckman
Author of Some of it is Muscle and Animals in Our Flesh
The writers in this collection range from poets who have published more than one book, to high school students just embarking on their writing careers, but they all write about these difficult subjects–depression, eating disorders–with passion and honesty. This book, which showcases human experience carefully crafted into poems, ends up being more uplifting than bleak, and reminds us that “everybody wears beauty exquisitely.” An important collection!
Lisa Chavez
Associate Professor at the University of New Mexico
Meet our contributors:
Victoria Alexander is trying to take over the world using poetry and kittens, after all, no one wants to kills a kitten. It’s purrrfect.
Nika Ann is a writer. She enjoys reading poetry out loud to her cat, playing tag with the snooze button on her alarm clock, and drinking beers while watching Austin City Limits. She is not known for taking author bios very seriously. Please follow her blog site: nikarasco.wordpress.com
Blythe Baird is a 17-year-old actress, poet, feminist, and hopeful future member of Pussy Riot. She lives just outside of Chicago, IL. Other publications include Banango Street, GERM magazine, The Postscript Journal, and Weird Cookies Poetry.
Angela Blasi is a wandering wordsmith from the Garden state who’s been in love with performing since childhood. She is an unabashed dreamer whose work reflects a mind that is constantly wondering. A writer since she could first hold a pencil, her work is unwavering in its honest look at the world we have created for ourselves and our roles in it, examining everything from the socio-political to the passion of erotica.
Alicia Borillo is a lovely girl who likes elephants and writing poetry for the world to see. She has big dreams of inspiring the world.
Lurana Brown is a massage therapist, pianist, and mother. Her poetry has appeared on The Blue Hour and in Penny Ante Feud 13: Dying Words by Shoe Music Press.
Marian Dragomir is from Romania; He is a poet with 2 books of poetry published, “Verses for the Big life” in 2010 and “A book with mask” in 2012. He has participated with poems in more than 20 newspapers from Romania and in more than 15 anthologies, and she has also published more than 20 book reviews in different newspapers from Romania.
SaraEve is a performance poet and epilepsy advocate from Union City. She is currently the editor-in-chief of Wicked Banshee Press (2014) and has competed in the 2013 Women of the World Poetry Slam. The 2012-2013 Jersey City Slam Co-Slammaster performs locally, regionally and nationally and is a regular volunteer at National Poetry Slam events.
Karen G (Garrabrant) is a decades plus poet and organizer from the Atlanta area. She co-founded Cliterati, the once a month reading at Charis Books & More, the oldest feminist bookstore in the country. She’s also served Poetry Slam Inc. as a trustee, Tournament Director and slam manager. Loving poetry in all forms, she also works in a library.
SethWilson I. Gray is a Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community youth poet. Currently a student at V. Sue Cleveland High School, he is also a member of the High School Poetry Community and the Storm Slam Team. He is the former state champion for Poetry Out Loud, participating in the National Finals in Washington D.C. in 2013.
Katrina K Guarascio is a writer and teacher living in Albuquerque, NM. She sponsors the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community and The Second Saturday Slam.
Jennifer E. Hudgens originally from Oklahoma, has been previously published in Kill poet, Decomp Magazine, Pedestal Magazine, Requiem, Divine Carcass & Artistica. Jennifer has put out several chapbooks & spoken word CD’s and has been featured on Indiefeed Performance poetry. Jennifer released chapbooks 1729 in 2012, For the Ghosts We Were and The Curious Lives of Harriet Turbine in 2013.
Mikel K is a poet and memoirist living in Mableton, Ga., a suburb of Atlanta, with his photographer-artist partner Just Joan, and their three dogs, two cats, two turtles, and bird. K was voting best Atlanta Poet, the last two years in a row, by readers of Creative Loafing, Atlanta’s weekly newspaper.
Jessicah Kean was born in small town South Carolina and raised on any given country road. On a dare from a high school teacher she began her writing career that transcends the page to the stage and has given her a network of support over the years. When asked her reason for writing…”It’s cheaper than therapy.”
Hillary Kobernick is a three-time member of Atlanta’s Art Amok! Poetry Slam Team. She holds a Master’s of Divinity from Emory University and currently pastors at a church near Chicago. Her poetry has appeared in literary magazines in the U.S. and Canada, including decomP, Paper Nautilus, and Bellevue Literary Review. Her work can always be found at http://hillarykobernickpoetry.tumblr.com/.
Benjamin Longfellow is currently an Adjunct English Instructor and Head Rugby Coach at Adams State University. He has a M.Ed from Antioch University Midwest and will finish his MFA in Creative Writing, Poetry at Western State Colorado University this summer.
Katelyn Lucas is a Bay Area-based writer and performance poet who has represented the Bay Area at National Poetry Slam events since 2010. She is the co-founder of The Voice of a Generation, a local business pairing artists with opportunities and dedicated to the enrichment of arts programs in local schools.
Levi J. Mericle is a twenty-six year-old poet and spoken word artist from Tucumcari, NM. He enjoys writing and submitting work in the forms of poetry, lyrics and children’s literature. He has struggled with mental illness for about fifteen years. His goal in life now is to help people (kids and teens especially) and be an advocate for life.
Piper Mullins is a survivor and activist. She is the Slammaster of the Denver Mercury Cafe Slam and was a competing member of the 2013 Denver Mercury Slam team. Her work has been featured in such publications as Metrosphere and La Palabra: The Word is a Woman.
Barbara Rockman teaches poetry and multi-genre writers workshops in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her poems appear widely in journals and anthologies and have been twice nominated for Pushcart Prize Awards. She is the author of “Sting and Nest,” winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award and the National Press Women Book Prize. A graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing, Barbara can be reached at motherpoet@aol.com.
Barnamala Roy a UG 3 student of Presidency University, Kolkata, India. Her poems have been published in Voices, The Statesman, the South Point High School magazine, Ascent and a few little magazines.
Danielle Smith a student and poet and V. Sue Cleveland high school, enjoys Pina Coladas and getting caught in the rain, and aspires to exceed five feet tall and spread music and energy to the world.
Sarah Smithson is a tenacious young woman who has blossomed into a poet. She is the only person who knows how to correctly use the masculine grunt at poetry slams. She greatly enjoys the nerd life, frequent existential crises, her two best friends, and calling her dog a fatass in a wittle flubby wovey voice.
Mojdeh Stoakley is a 4x award winning bi-racial writer, performer, photographer & teaching artist. Her photography & writing have been published by many media sources and journals such as WBEZ online, Alarm Press, F News, and Muzzle Magazine, among others.
Sarah Van Alsten is a 17 year old from Connecticut with a passion for dogs, reading, and biology. She is intent on seizing life with a vengeance and seeing the world.
Genevieve Vigil is a wandering artist and dreamer who is currently rooting herself back home in the central desert of Albuquerque , NM.
Kirstina Ward is a sophomore at Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee, Oklahoma. She is studying Psychology with a creative writing minor. Her work has been featured heavily on her mother’s fridge and read aloud at many a slam competition.
Emily Warzeniak is a biology major at UNM planning to specialize in nutritional and alternative medicine and healing arts. My biggest mission is to unite the opposing worlds of art, science, and spirituality within myself as a poet and one day as a healer.
Laura Welsh was born and raised in College Station, Texas. Now in her mid-twenties, she owns and operates a business training and competing jumping horses in the Olympic equestrian disciplines. Laura participates in slam poetry, and performs her own original work. She represented her home community in the 2014 Women of the World Poetry Slam.
Abigail Wyatt, a former teacher at Redruth School, writes poetry and short fiction from her home in Cornwall and hopes for the best.
Now Available: Catching Calliope Spring 2014
Swimming with Elephants Publications is proud to announce the release of the spring edition of Catching Calliope.
Catching Calliope is a quarterly publication benefiting the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community. All proceeds from sales will go to supporting the community and the youth program. Buy your copy today to show your support for poetry and the youth. You do support poetry and the youth, don’t you?
Find your copy at Amazon or CreateSpace.
This is the second edition of this quarterly publication. All Catching Calliope publications will be benefiting the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community (a non-profit collective focusing on bringing poetry and freedom of expression to Rio Rancho, NM and surrounding areas).
Submit to the Summer 2014 edition of Catching Calliope May 15-June 15th. More information to come.
Catching Calliope Spring 2014
featuring:
Victoria Alexander
Melissa Baca
Gigi Bella
Emily Bjustrom
John S Blake
Alicia Borillo
SethWilson I Gray
Katrina K Guarascio
Mercedez Holtry
Gina Falcone
Damien Flores
Zachary Kluckman
Jessica Helen Lopez
Jesus Lucero
Ryan Magee
Gina Marselle
Jasmine McSparren
Susana Rinderle
Vogue Robinson
Bianca Sanchez
Danielle Smith
Sarah Smithson
Jon Sturgess
Felicia Vigil
Brooke Von Blomberg
Amy Waltner
Kirstina Ward
Charles Sanzone-Wood
Accepted for Catching Calliope Spring 2014
Thank you to those who submit to the Spring 2014 Edition of Catching Calliope! After careful review, the editors have chosen the following works in our Spring Edition. Our Spring Edition will be released in early May. Our next submission period will run from May 15th – June 15th. Like our page to stay updated.
4,101~Victoria Alexander
A Triple Crown of Separation~Danielle Smith
Grandfather~Kirstina Ward
Tamales~Sarah Smithson
Or Flight~Jessica Helen Lopez
Grandpop’s House~Brooke Von Blomberg
Unabridged~Danielle Smith
Beth Road~Gina Falcone
First Memory~Zachary Kluckman
Primer~Damien Flores
I Take My Poet Friends to (Briefly) Meet My Dad ~Jessica Helen Lopez
Write a Poem about It ~Mercedez Holtry
A Junkie like Me ~John S Blake
The Safety of Words ~Alicia Borillo
These Arms~Jesus Lucero
Cricket ~Gina Falcone
A Ride Home~Emily Bjustrom
To the girl in my English class~Gabriella Reyes
Forty Turns of the Screw~Zachary Kluckman
Sadness is worn into his skin.~Sarah Smithson
An Unedited Heart~Gina Marselle
I Wish I could Fall in Love~SethWilson I. Gray
Death Bell ~Charles Sanzone-Wood
Sunsets ~Bianca Sanchez
Kites ~Jasmine McSparren
Stardust~Amy Waltner
Left Not Right~Alicia Borillo
Love Cage~Susana Rinderle
We Were Never Really Any Good At Goodbyes ~Felicia Vigil
Aisle ~Vogue Robinson
Wind Chime~Brooke Von Blomberg
Book Stained~SethWilson I. Gray
Outage ~ Jon Sturgess
Vapor~Charles Sanzone-Wood
River~Melissa Baca
Four~Gigi Bella
Morning ~Ryan Magee
Spring is an adolescent ~Susana Rinderle
Now Available: To The Last Word
Swimming with Elephants Publications is proud to announce its newest publication: To the Last Word an anthology of poetry from the 2014 ABQ Unidos slam team. Currently the book is available through Createspace and Amazon.com
To order from amazon: To The Last Word
Or to order from creatspace: To The Last Word
Featuring:
Victoria Alexander
SethWilson I. Gray
Bianca Sanchez
Sarah Smithson
Amy Waltner
Claire Wimborne
Cover Art design by Bianca Sanchez
All proceeds from the sales of this collection will go directly toward raising money for the 2014 ABQ Unidos Slam Team. Support the youth of ABQ while getting your hands on some great poetry. Available for Special Event Pricing at all Unidos Fundraising Events, Cafe Bella Coffee, and local bookstores.
Coming Soon: To The Last Word
To the Last Word
an anthology of poetry compiled
for the members of the
2014 ABQ Unidos Team
Featuring:
Victoria Alexander
SethWilson I. Gray
Bianca Sanchez
Sarah Smithson
Amy Waltner
Claire Wimborne
All proceeds from the sales of this collection will go directly toward raising money for the 2014 ABQ Unidos Slam Team. Support the youth of ABQ while getting your hands on some great poetry. Available at all Unidos Fundraising Events, local bookstores, and Amazon.com beginning May 1, 2014,
Now Available: Loved Always Tomorrow
Now available on Amazon.com and Createspace, Emily Bjustrom’s Loved Always Tomorrow.
About the collection:
Emily Bjustrom’s work applies truth like healing; the uncovered wound, the blood, the sting, the cool breath, the forehead kisses.
The most explicit topics are slid under our vulnerable doors with internal rhymes, consonance, and diction that soothes us into unlocking every lock. We let her in, not because we’re afraid she’ll break down our doors, but because we have to see the face tethered to a voice we know we could never live without.
Her sound is the sweet violin amidst burning buildings, the piano in the desert. Loved Always Tomorrow is our moment to smile a tear off our itching cheeks before returning to the rubble.
John S. Blake – Author of Beautifully Flawed, Pushcart Prize nominee, Teaching Artist
Pick up this latest collection from Swimming with Elephants Publications today!
A Review of “Verbrennen”
Matthew Brown’s Poetry Book, “Verbrennen” is Angry
a review by Mikel K
The poems in Matthew Brown’s book, “Verbrennen,” which is published by Swimming With Elephant Publications, are direct and have a lot of purpose. They are also angry poems, which given the subject matter of the poems is understandable if you have a heart and a soul. The bio on the back cover of his book states that Matthew’s poems “expose social, racial, and economic inequalities,” and that is exactly what they do, except for the first poem in the book, “Jose,” which starts off being about his grizzly grandfather and then twists into being about the narrator himself and his bad temper, which seems to have been passed down to him from his grandfather. “Jose,” is an intense poem; the twist in its direction adds to the energy of the poem.
The second poem, “Choice,” is about abortion, or more aptly about the two sides taken on the issue of abortion. The poem is addressed to a woman named Tara who we learn in the poem’s introduction is “a campaigner against reproductive rights.”
“It doesn’t matter who won
over the ban on abortion
because you and I won’t stop fighting for what we believe in,”
is how the poem starts.
It ends with,
“The difference is that my mother knows mercy, loss,
and acceptance
Something that you and your church
know nothing about.”
In this poem, as in all the poems in his book, Matthew has a clear voice. You know where he stands on things. He doesn’t mince words, or beat around the bush.
The third poem in the book, “Feast,” is a searing indictment of the white man’s treatment of the Indians in this great nation of ours. Key lines from the poem are,
“Our relatives will flee from their minivans
like the pilgrims fled from the Mayflower,”
and
“And in the true American tradition
They will take advantage of
other people’s hospitality,”
and
“Use the water from the Trail of tearsto fill our crockpots.”
By now, we all know that the Indians got screwed by the white man, but Matthew is more eloquent than most of us could be in his description of the cruelty and self-justification that the white man exhibited in “founding” the “new” land.
“Enola,” is a poem that deals with the Americans bombing of Hiroshima. It would seem that the death and suffering of such a large, large number of people is ignored by most of us, but Matthew is on target in his observations of the occurrence in this poem.
“It’s interesting that when minorities are poor
we call it a statistic
But when whites can’t afford to pay their mortgage,
we call it a recession,”
are key lines from the poem, “Recession,” which speaks of the discrepancies and unfairness that exist between rich folks and poor people using the recent recession to highlight these differences.
“Cake,” “Valor,” and “Blood Diamond,” are angry outbursts at Paula Dean, American usage of drones, and the diamond industry. Each is a fine poem, thought provoking, and original.
This book would not be enjoyed by a conservative Republican is my guess. It does not portray the Amerika that was taught to us in school. It tells the truth.
Verbrennen is currently available through Amazon and CreateSpace for $10.95. Check it out today.
Also, check out Verbrennen and other fine poetry books at:
https://swimmingwithelephants.wordpress.com/
Mikel K
A Review of “To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer”
Poet Nika Ann has an Amazing Book Out
a review by Mikel K
I think that I discovered the poet Nika Ann on Facebook, though I’m not sure how. Her poetry immediately grabbed me and I followed her to her website nikarasco.wordpress.com. There I found a treasure chest of amazing poetry.
Nika Ann has just come out with a book on Swimming With Elephants Publications called, “To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer,” and like Nika Ann’s poems on Facebook and her website,
the poems in this book are amazing.
The book starts with a bit of flash fiction wherein the author explains the title of the book:
“It can be lonely to love a writer, especially when the lover does not have a time consuming interest or practice that requires their focus while the writer is lost in their private universe. Even at the high point of a relationship, there is always something calling the writer away, a need, a craving for some necessary solitude to write. Solitude many people cannot understand.”
The brutal honesty that this paragraph conveys is evident in every poem in the book. Alienation, loss, suicide are prevalent themes in the book.
The poem, “What you need to know about depression, “starts off with the lines, “you need to know that the sun does not guarantee a good day and the promise of a friend and cold beer will not always be enough to lure me from my self-made cave,” and goes on to eloquently explain what I am to assume are the authors experience with and feelings about depression. It is both confessional and explanatory at the same time and, as are most all the poems in this book, refreshingly honest and insightful.
“Come Back,” is an amazingly moving poem. It speaks of a girl who ruined her hair and gave the narrator of the poem her grandmother’s watch two days before she killed herself.
“Earthquake,” is another one of my favorites from the book. It is the narrator quirky response to someone who asked her to marry them.
“Remembers,” “Bird,” “Shed,” “Fly,” “Prayer,” and “Confession,” are other poems that I found outstanding and that I think you should check out.
I read this book in one sitting and then re-read it in another sitting which is a good thing. In other words, it was a book that I didn’t want to put down until I had finished it. Nika Ann has a bright future as a poet. You should head over to Swimming With Elephants Publications and buy a copy of this fine book.
To learn more about poet and review Mikel K, please visit his Open Salon: http://open.salon.com/blog/mikelkpoet
To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer is currently available through Amazon and CreateSpace for $10.95. Check it out today.
Emily Bjustrom
Emily Bjustrom is a sad lonely French girl who enjoys green tea, wearing black T-shirts and reading philosophy to her cat, Mr. Kitty Whiskers.
She still lives with her parents, but hopes to rectify that situation soon. She’s working towards a very practical and useful degree at the University of New Mexico.
Pick up Emily’s first chapbook Loved Always Tomorrow upon it’s release this April.
Coming Soon: Loved Always Tomorrow
Swimming with Elephants Publications is excited to release the announcement of a new chapbook by Albuquerque Poet, Emily Bjustrom. Entitled Loved Always Tomorrow after the drunken scrawlings on the bottom of a living room stool, this is Emily’s first chapbook publication and SwEP could be more excited to represent this young author on her poetic endeavors.
Loved Always Tomorrow will be released during the month of April and made available via Amazon and CreateSpace.
About Emily:
Emily Bjustrom is a sad lonely French girl who enjoys green tea, wearing black T-shirts and reading philosophy to her cat, Mr. Kitty Whiskers. She still lives with her parents, but hopes to rectify that situation soon. She’s working towards a very practical and useful degree at the University of New Mexico.
Spontaneous Shameless Self- Promotion Tuesday!
Spontaneous Shameless Self Promotion Tuesday
Once a month Swimming with Elephants Publications will offer special pricing on select titles for 24 hours.
The titles will change every month, so check back regularly to get a good deal when you purchase on-line.
The following titles will only be available at this on-line discount from noon March 18 to noon on March 19, so stock up now.
Today only we have special prices on:
Matthew Brown’s Verbrennen,
Nika Ann’s To Anyone Who Has Ever Loved a Writer,
& the top selling Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community’s first anthology Catching Calliope Winter 2014.
These titles, usually priced from $10.05 – 12.95, will be available for $7.95. Today only!
Regular pricing will return tomorrow, so place your orders today!
Poet-Provocateur Jessica Helen Lopez drops C**t.Bomb.
Sharing a review of Jessica Helen Lopez’s Chapbook. I thought this one was especially well written.
Cunt.Bomb.
A Chapbook by Jessica Helen Lopez
Create Space Indep. Publishing
38 pages, $10.95
You were stunned — perhaps even shocked and appalled — by the title, weren’t you? That is the intention of poet provocateur Jessica Helen Lopez. She seeks to reclaim the word “cunt” from its current position as a palabra non grata, the equivalent of Lord Voldemort in the Harry Potter series (“he-who-must-not-be-named”). Instead, feminist-activist-slam poet Lopez wants to use the word to wield female power in all its guises.
In the ten poems contained in this chapbook, Lopez explores the many roles that make up a woman, as well as the thoughts and feelings that correspond with each. She explores the dualities in a woman’s life; her persona alternates between tender and tough, sentimental and sassy, spiritual and sexual. She is a woman, a wife, a mother, a sister, a lover, a poet, a…
View original post 1,143 more words
Greetings and Salutations!
Swimming with Elephants Publications is an independent, not for profit, publishing agent focusing on supporting the working poet and local non-profit organizations, especially those which encourage the youth. We represent a variety of poetry and anthologies.
Although not currently open to unsolicited manuscripts, we are seeking submissions for two progressing anthologies (see Call for Submissions) and are always open to queries.
We also sponsor a quarterly anthology which benifits the RIo Rancho Youth Poetry Community. This not for profit publication is open to submissions year around and is publishd in Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. All proceeds from the publications will benifit the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community and be used as on ongoing fundraiser for group activities, further publications, and other adventures.
Please explore the website, order a few of our publications, and contact us at swimwithelephants(at)gmail(dot)com for more information about the fledgling agency.
Some of it is Muscle: a review by Mark Fischer
Some of it is Muscle
Zachary Kluckman
Reviewed by Mark Fischer
Some of it is Muscle is an exercise in strength and perseverance in the poet’s life. Kluckman carefully excises the tough parts, puts them on display in ways that, sometimes, make you confused by how beautiful the scary bits are, and, in doing so, closes old wounds with the love of family and community. The images in this collection will surprise, challenge, and titillate both brain and heart. It is apparent that the poems in this collection were chosen and placed with precision. The poet takes you on a journey from heartache to heart-heal.
I found myself re-reading certain stanzas like puzzles and being rewarded with magical webs of metaphor like tendon and sinew that capture and coalesce into images that are unique to the mind, heart and voice of Mr. Kluckman. For example in the poem The Lions of Dusk he writes “the slow blue impalas swim like neon tetras through the heat haze, windows full of fever” effectively transforming the sinister into survival.
Kluckman plays well with many traditional forms in this collection too, reminding us he is a puzzle man himself. Kluckman is well known for his devotion to the poetry community. He is an organizer of the 100 Thousand Poets for Change program, the creator of the world’s first Slam Poet Laureate program, and editor of Pedestal. He is also a two-time member of the Albuquerque National Poetry Slam Team and a recipient of the Red Mountain Press National Poetry Prize. This second book of poems by southwest poet Zackary Kluckman is worth picking up. It is a book of challenges met, made beautiful, and mended. Some of it is muscle but the whole of it is love.
September: a review by Mark Fischer
September
poetry by Katrina K Guarascio
photography by Gina Marselle
Review by Mark Fischer
September is a book in three parts, three phases of letting go. The majority of poems in this collection speak to fleeting moments, a restlessness in the character, a yearning for something – more realized in exquisite experience of the current moment. The words cascade down the pages in short, clean lines making effective use of crisp white space that many poets underutilized. In this effect, I feel a sense of impermanence, like snapshots taken in temporary bivouacs on a road trip through young adulthood. The never-ending summer. The last days of youth.
There is sadness, insight, worry, and relief sprinkled throughout this collection. Ruminating on love amid campfire smoke or the morning breeze on clean sheets, I am able to feel the conflicts and contemplations. In “Impermanence” Guarascio expertly describes internalizing the past and what it means to not let go when she writes “Like a sunburn, I know you will absorb into me and fade into memory. You cut me under the skin.” September is full of vivid images like this that develop into a cohesive flickering film of transition. The poet is ever seeking sense out of hardships, patterns in roadkill.
The photography that accompanies this collection is superb. Images are well paired with poems. The many super close-ups speak of parts, the shapes of the body, and match the introspection of the poems. Gina Marselle has a great eye for emotion and her work is a well chosen accent to the book. Both Guarascio and Marselle are teachers in New Mexico. It is something to appreciate to discover your children’s lives are being enriched by the likes of strong artists as these women.
September is a strong collection. It’s like a dreamy short film shot on 38MM with a soothing shoegaze soundtrack playing in the background. If you were to make your crush a poetry mix-tape, Guarascio would be on it – twice. Wake me up when September ends.
Guarascio is an active member in the poetry slam scene in Albuquerque. She is responsible for establishing a poetry and spoken word community in Rio Rancho and coaching a youth poetry slam team. She is the founder of Swimming with Elephants Publications which is bringing the talents of many exceptional spoken word poets to print. Order September: traces of letting go from Amazon or Createspace.
Cunt.Bomb. a review by Mark Fischer
Cunt.Bomb.
by Jessica Helen Lopez
Review by Mark Fischer
Cunt. Bomb., the second collection of poems by nationally recognized southwest feminist poet Jessica Helen Lopez, is a small chapbook – coming in at a thin 33 pages. The content however, is anything but. As the title may tell you, this collection of words is explosive. The nine poems are well organized and read front-to-back as a manifesto, a recipe book, a howl across mountains in the night calling all to congregate in the sacred space.
Nine facets of womanhood, from the feisty young grade school feminist to the embodiment of the Goddess Diana, this is the jewel at the center through which Lopez explores identity. Understanding the worship, celebration and exaltation of the feminine in every form appears to be the intent. The poet is embracing her sense of self and exploring her duty to teach self-love to women around the globe.
In this endeavor Lopez is quite successful. The images she conjures are strong and timely. In “Diana the Huntress,” she explores the horrifying murders of women in Mexico and the lone vigilante who fights back on long lonely bus rides as she writes, ”I fear no moon, Lady of Wild Creatures, La Cazadora worshiped by the womanly workers of Juarez.” There are no apologies here, no concessions, and that is what speaks most to the fidelity of this collection.
Jessica Helen Lopez is a member of the Macondo Foundation created by Sandra Cisneros, as well as a Chicana/o Poetics instructor at the University of New Mexico, a two-time Women of the World Poetry Slam Albuquerque City Champion and member of several city teams representing her home town at the National Poetry Slam. Her voice is singular, both sharp and sweet. Like every good storyteller you walk away from her performances both nurtured and haunted. This dichotomy comes through in this collection. One of the “30 Poets in their 30’s to Watch” according to MUZZLE magazine, Jessica Helen Lopez is well on her way to assuming her place along the front lines with the likes of fellow Chicana poets Cisneros, Ana Castillo, and Demetria Martinez. As far as “little black books” go – this is the one to choose.
Pick up a copy of Cunt.Bomb. on Amazon.com or CreateSpace.
Catching Calliope Book Release
Greetings and Salutations!
You are cordially invited to attend the book release for Swimming with Elephants Publications First Anthology: Catching Calliope Winter 2014.
Catching Calliope is a compilation of poetry from members and supporters of the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community.
During the March 8th edition of The Second Saturday Slam at Cafe Bella Coffee in Rio Rancho, you can pick up a copy for only $10. You can also get your copy on Amazon or CreateSpace if you will miss the evening festivities.
All proceeds from sales go to the Rio Rancho Youth Poetry Community.
Our goal is to sell 30 books at the release party to be able to pay for the New Mexico State Slam competition in May.
All contributors are entitled to a free copy which can also be picked up at that time.
We are fundraising in order to take the Sandstorm Slam Team to state, as well as other regional slams during the summer months, and ideally earn enough so we can register as an official non-profit.
Now Available: my verse, by Katrina K Guarascio & Shawna Cory
A new collection of poetry and photography by Shawna Cory and Katrina K Guarascio, entitled my verse, has been released from Swimming with Elephants Publications.
Find this new collection on Amazon or CreateSpace
Learn more about this unique collaboration of art and verse by reading an except from the foreword, penned by Swimming with Elephants Publication author Jessica Helen Lopez.
An except from the forward:
When one woman creates we know this as spell casting. When one or more of these female titans get together with the intent to produce art we call this act of goddess: splitting cells. Lord help us all if they begin to shed clothes, vulnerabilities, secrets, traumas, and metaphors that bounce like agitated atoms. This is the naked truth shook loose from words and physical form. This is poet Katrina K Guarascio and photographer Shawna Cory when they decided to comingle and author a book.
Now they say two women together cannot produce life, that zygote cannot be created without the gamete being fertilized by the sperm. They say fertilization is impossible without the ovum and the spermatozoa. However, I dare any reader to peruse these pages and not feel that a milagro has taken place. The whole world quaked when Katrina coupled with the indubitable photographer Shawna to birth the photopoetic collection that is, my verse. Okay, maybe not the whole world, but I swear to you I felt tremors beneath my feet the first time I opened up the first drafts of the document on my laptop. The book itself is a more than adequate balance between written imagery and the image. The poems take the reader on a sojourn into the topography of modern womanhood and the photos serve to fill in the flesh of the land. This is important work and it should be seen by all. I have high hopes that it will.
Swimming with Elephants Publications 