Whew! Who’s feeling a bit crispy at the edges — and not only because of August heat? More and more, I find myself turning to poetry, for beauty (even if at times gritty), for consolation, and most of all to touch base with reality — real reality, that is, unmonetized, unbranded, unafraid. Your ongoing interest in this small endeavor that is Circling Rivers encourages and inspires us, and we thank you. May you in turn find in our works and in many other places sources of encouraging, refreshing, and inspiring reality.
BOOK GIVEAWAY
Remember to enter our book giveaway by sending us a poem inspired by a specific work of visual art: painting, photograph, sculpture, film … whatever inspires you. Giveaway runs through September 1, 2020. Details here.
CR WRITERS
Bernard Horn, Love’s Fingerprints (forthcoming Fall 2020): The cover artist for Bernie’s book is Linda Klein. Linda appears in the book, as well — she and Bernie are married. The artist and the poet commented on the image:
Linda: I made the image of the sea from my fingerprints, picking up from the title. The sea comes from the imagery in the poems.
Bernie: What I love about the cover is that it’s a seascape made of the fingerprints of my beloved, though that fact is not at all apparent at first glance. I believe the image invites investigation, a second and third look into the dark horizon. In the spirit of Andre Gide I hope the image says “Please do not see me too quickly,” in the same way that the poems say, “Please do not understand me too quickly,”
Erin Wilson, At Home with Disquiet: Listen (and read along) as Erin reads “Almost,” at Green Linden Press. | More recent publications: “A Mother and Her Two Children, a Holy Trinity of: How Do You Pronounce Your Vowels,” at The League of Canadian Poets | “Sabbatical,” in Salamander Magazine (PDF). | “Early Spring” and “Organ Music” in Northampton Poetry Review (PDF)| Erin and her husband, poet James Owens, contributed to a crowd-sourced poem from the time of the Corona lock-down, for TNQ (The New Quarterly), “Isolation, Desolation, Conversation, Restoration: A Collaborative Poem.”
Nina Murray, Alcestis in the Underworld: Nina reads from Alcestis in the Underworld (and gives a nice shoutout to Circling Rivers) at Gaithersburg Book Festival on-line | “Kim Jon Ung’s Train to China” and “Four Mile Run Drive, October” in Apofinie Magazine | Also in Apofinie, Nina’s translation from Ukrainian of Oksana Zabuzhko’s essay on poetry, “The Intimation of Sound.”
Ken Pobo, Loplop in a Red City: Recent publications: “Casino Before Dawn” in Grand Little Things | “A Show And Tell Dahlia,” “Start of Spring,” Brittle Star, No. 46, pp. 44-45 (print only) | “Some Revisionist History” and “Theme for English C,” in The American Journal of Poetry
Jean Huets, With Walt Whitman, Himself: Jean reviewed The Beauty and the Terror: The Italian Renaissance and the Rise of the West, by Catherine Fletcher, and The Lost Diary of Venice, by Margaret DeRoux, for the Historical Novel Society.