Harmony Series: Recent Titles

New book by Russell Salamon from Freedonia Books, an imprint of Bottom Dog Press 72 pages...ISBN 978-1-933964-19-5    $14 "Russell Salamon...your poetic images float above the earth without touching; you are a poet from the marrow out." - Ray Bradbury “Russell Salamon returned to Cleveland in the summer of 2007. Did you know that the city knew he was back? On a warm August night in Tremont, while he read, birds flew overhead, the ivy grew up the walls around him. You could tell he was from the heart; you could feel the poems this book would become.”  -Allen Frost

Just Out: The Book We've Waited For Cleveland Poetry Scenes: A Panorama and Anthology Edited by Mary E. Weems, Nina Freedlander Gibans, Larry Smith A collaborative effort at telling the Cleveland poetry story. Cultural Timeline, Articles, Interviews, Profiles. Big 40 Poet Anthology with statements from poets. Supported by a grant from the Ohio Arts Council (cover design by Jim Lang, photo editor) 304 Pages/ 40 photos/ ISBN 978-1933964-17-1 web page link "Poetry has a long and living history in Cleveland, Ohio, and this examination of its past through the lens of its vibrant present  is a treasure in and of itself. They're all here, the great ones who showed the way: Langston Hughes, d.a.levy, Alberta Turner, Robert Wallace, Daniel Thompson. They set the bar pretty high. But as the editors demonstrate, their sons and daughters carry on, bringing the word to the city's streets and universities, libraries and coffee houses." -Ron Antonucci, Cleveland Public Library

d.a.levy & the mimeograph revolution eds. Larry Smith and Ingrid Swanberg “Here is a poet who used everything that he laid hands on to help further creativity, poetry, poets & to help make a better world....In a very pure           sense levy was a true revolutionary. We get a few of these people per  century.”             -Douglas Blazek “I feel brother to levy not only as poet, but as fellow-worker in the Buddha-fields.”   -Gary Snyder Chronology of his life and work/Biographical essays Photographs/ Interviews, Profiles, Statements, Letters Art Work, Collage, Poems Critical appreciations of his writing and art/  “Cleveland Prints” in full color Contributors:Ed Sanders, T.L. Kryss, rjs, Karl Young, Allen Frost, Joel Lipman, Kent Taylor, Mark Kuhar, Ingrid Swanberg, Larry Smith, Russell Salamon, John Jacob, Doug Manson, Michael Basinski, Jim Lang, and others Book includes 2006 dvd of Kon Petrochuk’s film   if i scratch, if i write 1-933964-07-3  276 pages $25

Hunger Artist: A Suburban Childhood by Joanne Jacobson “Magically, brilliantly, movingly, the particularity of Joanne Jacobson’s language captures the universal truths of childhood. I devoured Hunger Artist. It is a fresh and riveting memoir of the highest order.”   -Patricia Volk, author of My Dearest Friends “In her stunning debut memoir, Hunger Artist, Joanne Jacobson tells her story of growing up Jewish in a suburban world comprised not only of new houses and bright gardens and exuberant dreams for the future, but also of frustrated longings and unmet hungers. Her prose is at once gorgeous and meticulous…”  -Richard McCann, author of Mother of Sorrows 132 pages, paper   Harmony Series 978-1933964-11-9, $16.00

Evensong: Contemporary American Poets on Sprituality Edited by Gerry LaFemina & Chad Prevost 240 pages of Profiles, Statements, Poems Francisco Aragón—Robin Behn—Christopher Buckley— Chris Bursk—Todd Davis—Travis Denton— Camille Dungy— Stephen Dunn—Stuart Dybek—Angie Estes—Annie Finch—Patricia Goedicke—Dennis Hinrichsen—Richard Jackson—Mia Leonin—Timothy Liu—Denise Low—Shara McCallum— Alicia Ostriker—Eric Pankey—Tim Seibles—Ravi Shankar—Vivian Shipley—Elizabeth Socolow—Cathy Song—Gerald Stern—Marc Straus—Michael Waters—Claude Wilkinson— Sholeh Wolpé—Charles Wright   "This anthology, Evensong, is a celebration of the rich spiritual tapestry that is contemporary American religious experience. If this book is flawed recall that to be spiritual is to have faith even when one doubts, to see the flaws yet find belief. "When I write poetry, I try to give myself over to the sublime, to that which is great within, to that which knows what I don’t know I know. When I participate in the writing life, I try to be giving to that which has given to me. And, let’s face it, being a poet in America sometimes feels like taking a vow of poverty! But it also provides a community of others who share a belief in the power of poetry to be redemptive, to change the moral, emotional or spiritual landscapes if only for a brief moment. "Please consider this anthology a meeting house: not everyone has shown up to services, but they’re all here in spirit." from "Introduction" by Gerry LaFemina ISBN 1-933964-01-4  $18.00 Out in September 1st, 2006 Order Direct or through PayPal Free EVENSONG pen with first 100 orders.

FAMILY MATTERS: POEMS OF OUR FAMILIES Edited with Introductions by Ann Smith & Larry Smith A Harmony Series Anthology Over 150 Fine Poems of Families Dealing With: Birth—Children—Couples—Parenting            Family Portraits—Family Life—Aging—Death 100 poets— including: Robert Frost, Denise Levertov, Kenneth Patchen, Louise Bogan, Muriel Rukeyser, Galway Kinnell, James Wright, William Carlos Williams, Theodore Roethke, Li-Young Lee, Antler, Joy Harjo, Maggie Anderson, David Ray, Daryl Ngee Chinn, Jim Daniels, Gary Soto, Richard Garcia, Vivian Shipley, Irene McKinney  Hershman John, Peter Meinke, Lynn Powell, Susan Terris, Ron Wallace,Toshi Washizu, and 80 more "The poems in this anthology capture the joys and struggles of families, while clarifying what it is like to be human, or more importantly, while defining what it is like to be alive. The poems center on all family matters or on all that matters within the family, from the most ordinary issues of parenting and birth, to the subtle changes of aging and death." -Katharine Studer, Ohioana Quarterly, Summer 2006   ISBN 0-933087-95-0  230 pages, paper, $16 ($18 postpaid)

120 Charles Street: The Village Journals & Writings 1949-1950 Holly Beye's new book of Journals and Writing Holly Beye’s journals are a remarkable record of a period long gone—post-World War II in the “Village,” New York City’s downtown enclave of artists, sculptors, writers, musicians and playwrights.... It was a time when the entire Village was your neighbor, a cauldron of hopefuls pulsing with the life and determination that would produce a generation of creative artists. You could walk anywhere, and usually did because it was cheaper...and all New York was a neighborhood.... Holly Beye and  David Ruff in 1960 ]   Because this is a journal, written day-by-day, it has an immediacy, a sense of being there, of sharing in the daily struggle to make ends meet while being part of the flow of kindness, fun, courage, rebellion and intense creativity that marked that time and place....We are fortunate these lively, perceptive journals survived, along with their writer.                            -Betty Ballantine, Editor and Publisher Two early Reviews: "This volume of daily journal entries by Holly Beye gives us a tactile, gritty, moving portrait of one year in that singular strata of Village life. . . . Lives lived with honesty and courage, like Holly Beye's, are an examplet to us all." -Brent Robinson Prima Materia, June 2006 "Holly Beye's new book, 120 CHARLES STREET, THE VILLAGE: JOURNALS & WRITINGS 1949-1950 is as disarming as its title. And a myriad times more charming." -Paul Smart (Woodstock Times, June 2006). In our Harmony and Bird Dog Series 240 pages, 0-933087-99-3  $15.00 or Order through PayPal

The Search for the Reason Why New and Selected Poems by Tom Kryss Tom (T.L.) Kryss is an outsider's outsider and as sweet a poet as I've ever encountered. He was part of the Cleveland poetry scene in the Sixties that had d.a. levy as its catalyst and got hammered hard by the police…What Tom Kryss does, more than any poet I know, is strip away excess and cut to the bone. He staked out a modest turf and then hunkered down and stayed there. He has not squandered time and blurred his focus chasing down publishers and polishing his image. So that what he writes is unencumbered and fraught with the particular, which is the unique, which is the only way to get a handle on the universal. What he writes always gives you something and never takes anything away. -John Bennett Out in February 2006 Illustrated by Tom Kryss isbn 0-933087-96-9    200 pgs  $14.00 Include $2 shipping Special Signed Limited Edition with a hand colored print by the author--$35

d.a. levy and the Cleveland  Mimeograph Revolution Double DVD set   d.a.levy (1942-1968): Cleveland Rebel Poet An Interview with Ed Sanders Poet, critic, member of rock group The Fugs, and political activist Ed Sanders remembers d.a.levy and the 1960s Mimeograph Revolution. This is a telling chronicle of those times of underground publishing, coffeehouse readings, and clashes with the authorities. Sanders ends with a tribute poem for martyred friend, d.a.levy: “d.a. levy/ the chaff of / genius/ blown/ up above/harsh Cleveland./ It may take centuries/ to sort him out/ It often does/ with poets/ The issues of/ economic justice/ and personal freedom/ which wore out the good bard levy/ have not yet/ been addressed/ in America...”   35 mins. color. A Koba & Smith Production Remembering d.a.levy: A Reading from levyfest 2005 Host: Mark Kuhar; Poets and Friends: Russell Salamon, Tom Kryss, D.R. Wagner, Kent Taylor, Ingrid Swanberg, George Fitzpartick, rjs (via taped interview). Each of these members of the Cleveland Mimeograph Revolution and intimate friends of the poet reads from a d.a.levy poem and shares memories of the poet and the late 1960s era. levyfest was held at Cleveland State University, Oct. 29, 2005, co-sponsored by CSU Poetry Center, CSU Special Collections, Deepcleveland.com., Bottom Dog Press, and the Ohio Humanities Council.  65 mins  Production by  The Camera Guy Video Productions, Sandusky, Ohio.   *Some poems contain explicit language. ISBN 0-933087-98-5  $17 postpaid if ordered direct or order from PayPal

Paul Laurence Dunbar Series  Herbert Woodward Martin's   Escape to the Promised Land Poems   ISBN 0-933087-92-6 / 88 pgs. $12.95 *A Finalist for Ohioana Best Book of Poetry 2005    “Martin once again shows his virtuosity as a poet with a wonderfully tuned ear and a command of the rhythmical line.... The poems throughout  show the spirit of the poet at work with his losses and loves, and the result is a book of deeply human and poetical power.”   —Len Roberts To order a copy, send $14.50 Postpaid to Bottom Dog Press/ PO Box 425 / Huron, Ohio 44839 429-433-3573/ Lsmithdog@aol.com   http://members.aol.com/lsmithdog/bottomdog Or order through PayPal. $12.95 plus shipping.

America Zen A Gathering of Poets Eds. Ray McNiece & Larry Smith    An Essential Collection With Photo, Biographical Sketch, Zen Statement, and Poems Introduction by the Editors Thirty Poets: * Nin Andrews * David Budbill * Thomas Rain Crowe *  Kathe Davis * Diane di Prima * Stanford M. Forrester * Tess Gallagher * Margaret Gibson * John Gilgun * Netta Gillespie * Sam Hamill * William Heyen * Jane Hirshfield * Holly Hughes Mary Sue Koeppel * Mark Kuhar * Mac Lojowsky * Ray McNiece * Tom Montag *Shin Yu Pai * Paul S. Piper * Maj Ragain * David Ray * Seido Ray Ronci * Andrew Schelling * Paul Skyrm * Larry Smith * Tony Trigilio * Chase Twichell * Anne Waldman Review from Buddhadharma magazine (winter 2004): America Zen: A Gathering of Poets (Bottom Dog Press, 2004) features the work of thirty Zen-inspired poets, from veterans Seido Ray Ronci, Jane Hirshfield and Andrew Schelling to newer faces on the scene, such as Shin Yu Pai and Paul Skyrm. Editors Larry Smith and Ray McNiece include a selection of four or five poems by each contributor, a biographical sketch and a personal statement from the author about his or her relationship to Zen Practice. The poems, with titles like “on the galloping cusp of the new now” and “Old Monks Drinking” are evocative and witty, often filled with a sense of the poignancy and sensuality of the present moment. The introduction provides a brief overview of Zen Buddhism in America and describes the American Zen poetry as a movement  of poets—beginning with the Beats—who experimented with a Japanese aesthetic and were inspired by Buddhist truths.                                  – Holly Gayley, in Buddhadharma (winter 2004). ISBN 0-933087-91-8  $15.00 Harmony Series 224 pages.  6 x 9 Perfect bound To order a copy, send $16.50 Postpaid to Bottom Dog Press/ PO Box 425 / Huron, Ohio 44839  Lsmithdog@aol.com   http://members.aol.com/lsmithdog/bottomdog Or order through PayPal. $15.00 plus shipping.

*2004 Winner of American Poetry Anthology Award SORRY  OUT OF PRINT O TASTE AND SEE: FOOD POEMS    [A Collection of Modern & Contemporary American Poems]   Edited by David Lee Garrison & Terry Hermsen   200 Delicious Pages. Paper Price: $14.00 Poems by: Denise Levertov, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost,Gertrude Stein, Louise Bogan, Frank O’Hara, Pablo Neruda, Allen Ginsberg, James Wright,William Carlos Williams, Maggie Anderson, Susan Kelly-DeWitt, Susan Azar Porterfield, Susan Jelus, Karen Rigby, Jimmy Santiago Baca, Robert Flanagan, Thom Tammaro,Terry Kirts, Edmund Conti, Gabriel Welsch, Barbara Crooker, David Lee Garrison, Ingrid Wendt, Lynn Powell, Lois Beebe Hayna, Daryl Ngee Chinn, Carolyn Forché, Cathy Lentes, Ayelet Amittay, Gail Bellamy, Kevin Prufer, Susan Terris, Susan McGowan, Sarah Kennedy, Stuart Lishan, Li-Young Lee, Wendy Bishop, Grey Held, Grace Butcher, Susan Grimm, Lynn Powell, Ann Stanford, Steve Wilson, Don Bogen, Robert Hass, Deanna Pickard, Hershman, Kathrine Varnes, Julia Levine, Wendell Berry, Ann Townsend, Pattiann Rogers, Allen Braden, Imogene Bolls, Mark Doty, F. Richard Thomas, Jonathan Andersen, James Cummins, Kay Sloan, William Heyen, Myrna Stone, Charles Simic, Yvonne Hardenbrook, Jim Heynan, David Hassler, Annie Finch, W.S. Merwin, Rita Dove, Vivian Shipley, Tamara Kaye Sellman, Rebecca McClanahan, Gerald Stern, Michael Waters, Pamela Uschuk, John Logan, Diane Wakoski, Erica Jong, Natasha Sajé, Larry Smith, Judith Strasser, Joyce Sutphen, David Starkey, Betty Greenway, Karen Kovacik, Kathy Fagan, Paola Corso, Jared Carter, Bonnie Jacobson, Robert Brimm, Tara Miller, Ira Sadoff, Robert Fox, Jane Hirschfield, Billy Collins, Christopher Merrill, Terry Hermsen, Jeff Gundy, William Greenway, Nan Arbuckle, Collette Inez, Francis Smith, Frank Polite, Patti Capel Swartz, Cyril Dostal, Martha Silano, Colleen J. McElroy, Daryl Ngee Chinn, Elton Glaser, Daniel Lusk, Willis Barnstone, Richard Hague, David Petreman, David Citino, Herbert Martin, Andrew Hudgins, Clarinda Harris, Maggie Jaffe, Susan Rich, Eugene Gloria, David Baker, Ralph Black, Cathryn Essinger, Charlene Fix, Linda Kittell To order a copy, send $16.00 Postpaid to Bottom Dog Press/ PO Box 425 / Huron, Ohio 44839  Lsmithdog@aol.com   http://members.aol.com/lsmithdog/bottomdog  Or order through PayPal...$14.00 plus shipping. Harmony Series   ISBN 0-933087-82-9  Harmony Series

Song That Fathoms Home Poems Ray McNiece “Ray McNiece is a born poet and born performer ....  Ray has many sparks to share with those longing for that fire.”     -Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Poet-Laurete of Russia “From Venice, Italy to Venice, California, there’s one poet who dares control the road — Ray McNeice puts pedal to metal, ink to papyrus, mouth to ear. In the Super Heroes of Poetry, he’s Power Man, able to blast meaning at unsuspecting audiences from around the corner and around the globe. Heed him!”          -Bob Holman Ray McNiece Homepage Harmony Series   ISBN 0-933087-85-3 124 pgs. $12.00 To order a copy, send $14.00 Postpaid to Bottom Dog Press/ PO Box 425 / Huron, Ohio 44839  429-433-3573/ Lsmithdog@aol.com   http://members.aol.com/lsmithdog/bottomdog   Or oder through PayPal...$12.00 plus shipping.

Also Available through Bottom Dog Press  Poems by Larry Smith                                         232 pages $20  A WordTech Edition                                Larry Smith’s A River Remains embodies the waterway of its title: in these poems the world is at once evanescent and  permanent, always changing, yet always there.  A collection of large scope built mostly from brief lyrics, narratives and meditations, it stands as the most compelling work from an  already distinguished career. Published by WordTech Communications. "A River Remains is Larry Smith's most ambitious book, and his most rewarding; I suspect readers will develop loyalties to particular sections of the book and return to the poems in those sections again and again. Those new to Smith's work will discover the talent, skill, and insight of one of the wise elders of Ohio's poetic tribe, and those who know, and have known, Smith's work will recognize this for wat it is--his finest book yet." Robert Miltner, Ohioana Quarterly (January 2007) Available from Bottom Dog Press direct: $18.00

The Lecture on Dust: Poems    by Brooke Horvath "Brooke Horvath is a cosmologist of moments, one who maps the meteor showers in the night sky and also in a child's unguarded eye. Upon his maps, we may read the farewell greeting of all things real and near, imagined and far: 'nothing is ever wasted/although nothing lasts.' If these poems were not so beautifully made, they'd be the end of the world. Thank heaven, they are." -Donald Revell, author of Pennyweight Windows: Selected Poems “Through the opening poems of loss and anguish, to the final more objective pieces where ‘the moon [still] gladdens. . .in a sin-sick world,’ Brooke Horvath leads us by  his frayed yet resilient hope. Separation, lost love, a difficult fatherhood, death behind him and ahead, here's a man standing in his suburban garden who plants only what ‘does its growing underground’ because he needs to know possibility does exist, if  only ‘beneath me / fretfully, unseen.’ The collection is deeply felt. The ‘Shoshaku Jushaku’ series is simply wonderful!"  -Alice Friman, author of Inverted Fire "Lecture on Dust is in good part an exploration of the triumph of love and companionship, but it’s much more than ‘All you need is.....’  ‘What the hell’s the deal with serenity anyway?’ the poet exclaims in his extended work, ‘Shoshaku Jushaku.’  Indeed, what’s the deal?  The deal is that poetry is the ultimate exploration.” -Ed Sanders, author of The Family and Tales of Beatnik Glory 104 pages, cover art by James Lahey $14.00 Include $2.00 for shipping.