A happy announcement
Thursday, September 15, 2011 at 11:55PM 
Finally, after months of waiting, I can share with you some happy news: A new anthology of poetry from Mormon poets is being published, and I am in it! And after reading some of the bios of the other poets—Pushcart Prize winners and professors and such—I am quite flabberghasted (and frankly, suspicious) that I was included. Not only included, but five of my poems included, the most that could be included by any one poet in the collection. (But maybe most people have five in there, I don't know.)
After months of delay, it is being released on my best friend's birthday: October 1st. It is available for pre-order and I hope you will consider supporting not only me, but the literary arts. CLICK HERE TO ORDER.
Poetry is not really a career for people. Even the best Canadian poets are not really poets by career; they are professors and poets, or songwriters and poets, or writers and poets, etc. Poetry is something one does because one has to; it's like sex—a release, an act of reverence toward something, a way to communicate and bond oneself to something or someone. It's the most beautiful form of writing, in my opinion, the most transcendent. It's all over the place and there are no rules: just how I like things. Poetry is where the soul of humanity gets documented—not the polished bits but the truths from our subconscious selves, the meaty secrets, the shame, the fantasies, the parts which define us as different from the people next to us and yet the same.
Susan Elizabeth Howe, poet and author of the book's foward, said:
Poets take matter (language, emotion, thought, experience) and make of that matter a new creation, a work of art that did not exist before the poet organized it, a work that has the potential (each poet hopes) to nourish—to make readers see what they did not see before, to offer insight, to create empathy, to provoke thought, or to express beauty, soundness, depth. To offer abundance in place of scarcity.
So, when you support poetry, you support the gifting of innermost selves and high art. You support something that people do just for the love of it. Shouldn't we encourage more of that?
Eric Jepson, Peculiar Pages' founder, said: "Fire in the Pasture is, let’s face it, a major landmark boundary-disrupting game-defining historic unmissable mustread book. And that’s if I’m being modest...."
Don't be intimidated. Much modern poetry is quite approachable and accessible. If you don't get every line, every bit of symbolism, every intended (or unintended) possible interpretation, that's okay. There will be something here that you'll want to re-read, something seductive or inspiring or touching.
Let me know if you purchase Fire in the Pasture, and how you liked it. I know I'm very much looking forward to reading the poetry of some friends and acquaintances whom I feel fortunate to know in the small way I do.
Thank you Eric and Tyler for all your hard and inspired work!
Reader Comments (11)
Congratulations!!! Wonderful news. You are a talented writer/poet. I wish I knew where to start with poetry. I do feel a little intimidated by it, I suppose. I don't get the symbolism right away. I have to ponder it. I guess I am a literal person and poetry is more symbolic and can have many meanings. Not a bad thing of course but fiction is difficult for me let alone the emotions of poetry, I really like the literal non-fictional type of documentary reading. I would be interested in picking up some poetry though not only for me but so I can teach the kids about it over the years. These are things I didn't learn that I would like them to. Do you have an author or authors that I should read (besides/in addition to this book?) Congratulations, again!
Thank you!
Gabby, some of my favourite poems, off the top of my head, (ones that a newbie poetry-reader has a chance of understanding and appreciating) are:
Hate Poem by Julie Sheehan (especially this one, lately)
Adam and Eve's Dog by Richard Garcia ("All scholars agree that it had a white tip on its tail")
From the Manifesto of the Selfish by Stephen Dunn (totally "get" this one)
The Iceberg Theory by Gerald Locklin (conveys my thoughts most-times about contemporary poetry)
These ones are quite funny.
Then there's:
Always by Pablo Neruda (so yum)
Worked Late on a Tuesday Night by Deborah Garrison (so relate to this one)
Fable of the Mermaid and the Drunks by Pablo Neruda (just beautiful)
Poem About Morning by William Meredith ("Life is some kind of loathesome hag / Who is forever threatening to turn beautiful")
i thank You God for most this amazing by e.e. cummings ("greenly" <--swoon!)
The Cinnamon Peeler's Wife by Michael Ondaatje (impossible to not like this poem)
Death of a Young Son by Drowning by Margaret Atwood (wow)
Poem by Al Purdy (good to read more than once, I love him)
Moderation Is Not a Negation of Intensity, But Helps Avoid Monotony by John Tagliabue (good for me to read every month)
Dog's Death by John Updike (heartbreaking, heartbreaking, heartbreaking)
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry ("Practice resurrection")
Perfection Wasted by John Updike (captures perfectly the self-concerned worry of death)
The Devil's Wife by Carol Ann Duffy (LOVE her. She's got so much bite.)
Valentine by Carol Ann Duffy (anti-sentimental)
I Go Back to May 1937 by Sharon Olds (I so relate to this one)
So many more.
Yay! I can't wait to read your recommendations!
Well done, Natasha! I have already ordered the book.
You rock. I wish I "got" poetry, or could write it. I do think a lot of poetry is very, very beautiful and sometimes lyrical. And yet it does intimidate me; I still haven't read all the poetry you have posted on this site.
Thank you, Kimberly.
Working on this anthology was a pleasure, Natasha. I did my best to include a wide range of poetries, so there should be something in there for everyone---and every poet's there for good reason, so you shouldn't be suspicious that you were included. Unless you know something I don't know... ;)
Congrats! I can't wait to read it.
Here are some opportunities I just found. I thought you might be interested in the dark poetry and lyrics antho with Dark eye glances. Although I haven't listened to your poems yet so . . maybe they're not dark?
http://pbackwriter.blogspot.com/2011/09/sub-ops-ten.html
Congratulations on your publication! I'm looking forward to the anthology as well. I was curious to see who else was in it and was pleasantly surprised to find another Canadian Mormon poet! Evidently there's at least two of us :)
BTW, excellent poetry recommendations. If I could offer a few other poems you might like, I'd suggest Philip Levine's "My Father With Cigarette Twelve Years Before the Nazis Could Break His Heart" and "Letters for the Dead," as well as Leslie Norris' "His Father Singing." And pretty much anything from Li-Young Lee's first two books: "Rose" and "The City In Which I Love You"
Congratulations to you, too, Neil. Nice to "meet" you. Happily looking forward to reading your poetry recommendations.
Oh, but one thing, Neil: I'm no longer Mormon.