Some poets celebrate April as National Poetry Month, claiming that it brings much needed attention to a marginalized art, while others deride the designation, arguing that it is patronizing and trivializing of an ancient (some might say arcane) way of sentience. Be that as it may, designating a day, week or month for the celebration of poetry has the intent of focusing attention on a timeless art that many see as underappreciated in the greater world of commercial consumerist media. Any search of ‘poetry’ online will turn up over 300 million hits, many duplicated of course, but all the same a number that is quite close to astronomical. Some literary elitists might argue that such a large number amounts to a lot of bad poetry. They may have a point. However, the intent of poetry is always pure; it is often for a lack of skillful execution that it fails. That doesn’t mean that poetry should be the sole purview of academic busybodies whose only function is to taxonomically classify poetry according to a moldy moth-eaten esthetic. Poetry lives because language is alive, mutable, and like a stream, treacherous or calm, torrential or stagnant, is a source of consciousness available to all. Perhaps the idea behind designating a Poetry Month serves the purpose of reminding everyone that poetry belongs to them, that poetry is free for the speaking, good, bad or indifferent.
FREE POETRY FREE POETRY FREE POETRY FREE
From its inception the Nualláin House, Publishers site has offered free access to the full texts of select out-of-print limited edition poetry titles as downloadable pdf files. Most of these poetry books were handmade using Japanese papers and bindings in editions of twenty-six to thirty-six signed by the author or authors. The free titles include Gail King’s Boxes & Chairs, Pat Nolan’s travel journal, Ah Bolinas!, and Random Rocks, a haikai collaboration with Keith Kumasen Abbott, Pat Nolan, Maureen Owen, and Michael Sowl. By scrolling down the sidebar, poetry enthusiasts can find any number of limited edition posts featuring full text access to that particular out-of-print title.
Also available for free is a signed limited edition broadside of Advice To A Young Poet by Pat Nolan accompanied by a linoleum block print from his Smoking Poets series. Send $3 for shipping and handling with return address to Nualláin House, PublishersPO Box 798 Monte Rio, CA 95462
And for all orders placed in the month of April, Nualláin House retail titles, in particular Gail King’s Hello Life and Pat Nolan’s Your Name Here, shipping is free. See How To Order.
More interested in reading about poetry? Try Parole, blog of The New Black Bart Poetry Society. Parole features essays on poetry, poets, and the poetry scene with articles on William Carlos Williams, Andrei Codrescu, Alice Notley, Philip Whalen, Frank O’Hara, and Bob Dylan to name just a few. Access is free.
Click here to read Steven Lavoie’s essay on Darrell Grey and the Actualists on the West Coast.
Essays not your thing? How about a fictional poetry soap opera?
Ode To Sunset, A Year In The Life Of American Genius is a serial fiction about a poet who is not quite Charles Baudelaire, not quite Charles Bukowski, who looks like a well worn Alex Trebeck but with the demeanor of a Mickey Rourke. It mostly takes place in a city not always quite Frisco. It is satirical, playful, and inevitably deadly serious.
Ode To Sunset has posted installments for six months to word-of-mouth acclaim. The first section, DAY, is available as individual episodes or as The Complete DAY, a pdf file. WEEK is now in progress. For free access go to Ode To Sunset.
Coming in 2015
Nualláin House, Publishersis pleased to announce it’s 2015 title,
Poetry For Sale,
Haikai no Renga (linked verse) Introduction by Pat Nolan Haikai no Renga with Keith Kumasen Abbott, Sandy Berrigan, Gloria Frym, Steven Lavoie, Joen Moore, Maureen Owen, Michael Sowl & John Veglia
Haikai no Renga is collaborative verse of Japanese provenance written by two or more poets trading stanza of 17 and 14 syllables according to specific rules governing the relationship between stanzas, and with stanzas numbering as many as one hundred. A haikai collaboration is as complex as chess, as multi-dimensional as go, and as fast-paced and entertaining as dominoes. It is as much about the interaction of the poets as it is about what gets written, the forward progress of its improvisation akin to that of a really tight jazz combo.
Recently recovered from the storage locker of a prominent Bay Area bookseller, The Chinese Quartet, this very rare limited edition chapbook was published in 1973 by Cranium Press. Handset in Goudy types and printed on an Albion hand press by master printer Clifford Burke in an edition of three hundred, they are an exquisite example of Burke’s conception of how a poem should appear on the page. The sixteen poems by Pat Nolan, printed on the rag paper ends from a larger Book Club of California job, represent Nolan’s early experimentation with ideas adapted from Chinese and Japanese prosody. The austere brown paper wrapper is offset by the red centered label depicting a group of Renaissance musicians. The book measures 7.5×6.75 inches (19×17.1 cm). Signed copies of The Chinese Quartet are available for purchase at $50 each and include free shipping in North America (otherwise international rates apply). Cash, checks, or money orders accepted. See How to Order for more information.
“The poems are wonderful as a grouping, and the printing is freaking beautiful. One of the best examples I’ve seen of the type and spacing and paper enhancing the sensibility in the writing.”
— Eric Johnson, Iota Press
Still available for FREE from Nualláin House, Publishers is a limited edition letterpress broadside of Pat Nolan’s poem Advice To A Young Poet and his original linoleum cut of Dylan Thomas from the Smoking Poets series, printed by Eric Johnson of Iota Press on a Vandercook proof press. Send your request, along with $2 for shipping and handling, for this limited edition broadside printed on the occasion of Nolan’s reading at the Iota printery upon the publication of his latest collection of poems, Your Name Here. Broadside measures 10×8.5 inches (25.4×21.6 cm).
2015 marks the fifth year of operation here at Nualláin House, Publishers, and while there were a few surprises and learning experiences, there is also no doubt the education opportunities will keep presenting themselves. Of the four books Nualláin House has published to date, two have been genre fiction and two have been poetry. This should not be surprising as among the principals of the publishing concern are two poets. Genre fiction will still be a focus but because of the abundance of readily available material, poetry will always be a consideration. Now with four books complete and available, a fifth is in the planning stages. More on that in the near future.
The Nualláin House mission has not changed. As a publishing venture committed to introducing diverse literary entertainment to the reading public, Nualláin House, Publishers, will continue to offer a range of quirky and engaging titles to enhance the modern “reading life.” What has changed is the variety of options available in presenting and producing written entertainment, and one that Nualláin House, Publishers, is encouraged to attempt.
Access and availability seem to be the buzz words. The reading public now totes their devices the way some folks used to carry paperbacks around (some folks still do). In fact, one of the early paperback publishers was Pocket Books, the name emphasizing their product’s portability. What has changed is that information, in this case literature, no longer needs to be tied to a single use artifact. Access to the virtual information cloud seems unlimited as is its round the clock availability. Technology always changes the way business is done whether it is developing a new type of spearhead or the latest application for digital devices. How it applies to independent publishing requires a reevaluation of what is being made available, in this case reading material. Business, independent publishing included, carries with it the assumption that there will be compensation for the effort expended in offering a product, and that money needs to change hands. Although that aspect of business will not go away if it expects to remain business, it is quite possible that virtual content will represent merely the ephemeral inducement to acquire the printed artifact as an item of cultural capital.
Perhaps the access to intellectual product should not be predicated on a monetary return. The factor that will determine such a product’s financial viability is demand. If there is no significant demand should the property be withheld or should unconditional access be open to all cyber grazers in the marketplace? Granted, such a free site becomes a special niche, boutique, if you will, visited by a unique readership brought there through interest generated on social media.
Although eBooks seem to occupy the virtual niche, their basis is not all that different from their printed versions in that they are, at the get-go, a product that must be purchased to access, albeit at a reduced cost. Also, their virtual life lasts only as long as it takes to complete reading the text which can be anywhere from 12 hours to several months, depending on the product. An alternate paradigm would be one that takes its cues from entertainment programming in that it offers episodic installments available at a predictable time and date and a compelling story arc that carries over an extended period the interest and attention of the reader. That it is offered without cost removes a further obstacle in its availability. What is being described is the online serial.
While the concept of an online serial is not new, Nualláin House is encouraged to adapt the concept to an ongoing pulp series of online genre fiction and is currently testing the waters with an original online serial fiction, Ode To Sunset. Judging from the initial and ongoing response to posted episodes, there is no doubt that it is a viable enterprise with exciting potential. Many of the details are still in flux as to the format and presentation of serial online fictions, but one thing is certain: companion print editions will inevitably be available for purchase. More will be forthcoming as further developments take shape.
Ode To Sunset, A Year in the Life of American Genius, is the title of the ongoing online serial fiction. As of this post, eight installments have been published, with two more episodes to complete the current section. Ode To Sunset is the story of American genius told over the course of a year. It is about a poet who is not quite Charles Baudelaire not quite Charles Bukowski, who looks like a well worn Alex Trebeck but with the demeanor of a Mickey Rourke. It mostly takes place in a city not always quite Frisco. It is satirical, playful, and inevitably deadly serious. Now available for your oculation. Ode To Sunset.
Nualláin House Publishers is also the sponsor of a sister site, Parole, blog of The New Black Bart Poetry Society. Parole features essays and critiques on the art of poetry, poets, and the poetry world in general. Previous posts have included essays on Philip Whalen, William Carlos Williams, Andrei Codrescu, and Bob Dylan. Membership in The New Black Bart Poetry Society is open to anyone who follows Parole.
Just A Reminder
current titles are still available,
free shipping with the purchase of
more than one copy or title
see How To Order
Your Name Here, New Poems by Pat Nolan Never one to settle into a style, Pat Nolan has made of his poetry an exploration of other poetries and of the numerous ways a poem can be. As an adherent of the Philip Whalen Buddhist-inspired “mind moving” school, he holds to the idea that the poem is framed sentience. Just as the observed world is an occasion of subjectivity, it also mirrors the self in a way that reflects objectively. The poems in Your Name Here revolve around that quantum axis with seemingly random discontinuities that do not pin down meaning but are left to mean themselves. Written to be heard by the mind’s ear, Nolan’s poetry enacts a sub-vocal monologue that is like the murmur of cosmic background radiation, noticeable only in its cessation or as pauses when the mind registers the sum of discrete moments in an instant.
November 2014 ~ 80 pages ~ $16 ~ paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-0-9
Hello Life by Gail KingPoetry; The poems of Hello Life achieve their freshness in the particularity of experience. The poet surrenders herself to the moment and tenders that subtle cognition as a delighted welcome to life. The ease of her expression in dealing with the everyday communicates an uncommon wisdom. The poems present, through playful understatement and sly humor, the immediacy of spontaneous impressions. Maureen Owen, former artistic director for The Poetry Project in NYC and author of Edges of Water and Erosion’s Pull, says “In Gail King’s poems the events of the day become transformative, the images of the temporary become immediate, and the mystery of being alive in the Now unfolds. “…time like a lake breeze” says the poet, and the wind rises.” Gail King’s poems have also won the praise of Andrei Codrescu, poet, novelist, essayist and NPR commentator, author of So Recent Rent A World, who said “Reading Gail King has always been one of my great poetry pleasures. Her inimitable voice narrates the world with humor and tenderness, a world of beauty and occasional sorrow. Her work has healing effects.”
December 2013 ~ $16.00 ~ 64 pages ~ Paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-3-0
The Last Resort, A Lee Malone Adventure by Pat Nolan Pat Nolan has written a fast paced, tongue-in-cheek, pun filled comedy of errors, misunderstandings, and faux intuition in the mode of a 1930’s pulp thriller to talk about the pulp fiction of that era. In doing so, The Last Resort presents an unlikely set of circumstances in which a worldly-wise female reporter must untangle herself from her past in order to deal with the puzzling events of her present. Rather than the typical splinter-jawed, broken nosed, tobacco breathed tough guy hero, Nolan upends the stereotype by introducing a gorgeous internationally famous former fashion model whose super power is her beauty. The Last Resort, A Lee Malone Adventure, is a quirky, entertaining recreation of the lurid screed that once peopled pulp pages on newsstands everywhere.
August 2012 ~ $19.99 ~ 212 pages ~ Paper~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-2-3
On The Road To Las Cruces, Being A Novel Account of The Last Day In The Life of A Legendary Western Lawman by Pat Nolan On The Road To Las Cruces, a work of fiction tethered loosely to historical fact, is the story of the relationship between two men, one garrulous, the other taciturn, the Mutt and Jeff of the old Southwest. What is related on the road to Las Cruces is as much a retelling of some history as it is how such a retelling might come about, and is represented in the manner of a tall tale, the deadpan details of a crime story, melodrama, and a conspiracy to murder. The road to Las Cruces is full of twists and turns. The sound of a door slamming like a gunshot brings us into the world of the old Southwest and the gun violence of that historical era. More than just the tale of a legendary lawman who remains nameless to the end, it is a lesson in storytelling and an allegory for how lives were lived and how death was dealt. As much a dusty tale of buffalo hunts and shoot-outs as a politically driven “whodunit,” On The Road To Las Cruces is the story of youthful bravado and an old man’s regret.
November, 2011 ~ $16.99 ~ 154 pages ~ paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-1-6
Nualláin House, Publishers, in partnership with Bamboo Leaf Studio, will continue to offer its series of linoleum block print portraits entitled Smoking Poets featuring such literary luminaries as Dylan Thomas, Roberto Bolano, and Charles Bukowski.
Andre Breton 4×6 $20
Roberto Bolano 5×7 $40
Charles Bukowski 5×7 $40
Pierre Reverdy 4×6 $20
Also available from Bamboo Leaf Studio are selection of Buddhist-inspired prints featuring faux homilies for the 21st Century. All linoleum block prints are hand printed on unbleached mulberry washi and signed by the artist with his seal.Order through Nualláin House, Publishers Box 798, Monte Rio, CA 95462
Free shipping (US only) and a deep discount on the Nualláin House, Publishers back list.
Order Now!
(offer ends December 31, 2014)
Now only $13.60
Order all four titles and save even more!
Get all four Nualláin House titles for just $50!! Save almost $20!!!
Bonus !!
with every purchase get a limited edition signed broadside featuring the poem Advice To A Young Poet from Pat Nolan’s Your Name Here and an original linoleum print of Dylan Thomas from Pat Nolan’s Smoking Poets series
How To Order send cash, check or money order (made out to ‘Pat Nolan’) to Nualláin House, Publishers Box 798 Monte Rio, CA 95462 and indicate the title(s) you are purchasing
Nualláin House, Publishers in partnership with Bamboo Leaf Studio is offering two new prints from Pat Nolan’s Smoking Poets series
Andre Breton 4×6 $20
W.H. Auden 5×7 $40
Also available from Bamboo Leaf Studio are a selection of Pat Nolan’s Buddhist-inspired prints
“Every time I catch one the other two get away” 6×9″ (15.2×22.8 cm) edition of 50 $40 each
“The more you know the more you know you know” 6×9″ (15.2×22.8 cm) edition of 50 $40 each
All linoleum block prints are hand printed on unbleached mulberry washi
and signed by the artist with his seal.
Order through Nualláin House, Publishers Box 798, Monte Rio, CA 95462
Make check or money order payable to Pat Nolan.
Add $5 for shipping and handling for each order.
So Remote The Mountains is a limited edition fanfold featuring twelve meditations on Saigyo’s tanka, yama fukami (So remote the mountains). A Buddhist monk-poet, Saigyo (1118 – 1190) is one of the most well known and influential of the traditional Japanese poets writing in waka, or tanka, the court poetry style of the late Heian, early Kamakura era. Saigyo had written ten tanka that began with the phrase yama fukami describing the austere and remote circumstances of his hermitage near Mount Koya and sent them to a fellow monk who lived some distance away, north of Kyoto. With a few exceptions, all of Saigyo’s poems are written in the 31 syllable form of tanka or waka favored by the Japanese court of his day. The tanka is a precursor to renga and hiakai no renga (linked verse) and today’s popular haiku. Its 31 syllables are generally broken into sets of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables from which traditional haiku derives its 17 syllable format.
The twelve meditations on Saigyo’s So Remote The Mountain by Pat Nolan are not tanka, nor are they technically haiku as they do not adhere to the syllabic count for either of these forms. They are probably closer to haiku than tanka because of their succinctness. However it is best to think of them as call and response. The call is Saigyo’s line yama fukami, and the response is the meditation on the line, sometimes sober, sometimes humorous, all of which emphasize a sense of isolation and distance.
This limited edition of So Remote The Mountain is a fanfold printed on rough unbleached mulberry paper set in a cover of 100% recycled Bogus art paper with Japanese silk screened endpapers imported from Kyoto. The cover is an original stencil print by the author. Each is numbered, signed, with the author’s seal. The fanfold measures 3-11/16th x 8-7/8th inches (9.5×22.5 cm) closed, 7-3/8th x8-7/8th inches (19.3×22.5 cm) open. Japanese silk screened endpapers can vary from what is shown. However all endpapers are genuine Japanese silk screened paper.
So Remote the Mountain is available from Nualláin House, Publishers Box 798, Monte Rio, CA 95462, for $10 (postage included) cash, check or money order (make check or MO payable to ‘Pat Nolan’).
Nualláin House, Publishers, in partnership with Bamboo Leaf Studio, is offering limited edition linoleum prints of Smoking Poets, an ongoing series of author prints by Pat Nolan. The smoking poets in this in series include Blaise Cendrars, Pierre Reverdy, Dylan Thomas, Samuel Beckett, Ted Berrigan, Charles Bukowski, Roberto Bolaño, and the muse of amusement, Marcel Duchamp.
The Smoking Poets
Blaise Cendrars, edition of 50, 5×7” (12.7×17.78 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $30 US each
Samuel Beckett, edition of 50, 5×7” (12.7×17.78 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $30 US each
Pierre Reverdy, edition of 50, 4×5” (10.16×12.7 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $25 US each
Dylan Thomas, edition of 50, 4×5” (10.16×12.7 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $25 US each
Ted Berrigan, edition of 50, 5×7” (12.7×17.78 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $30 US each
Charles Bukowski, edition of 50, 5×7” (12.7×17.78 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $30 US each
Roberto Bolaño, edition of 50, 5×7” (12.7×17.78 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $30 US each
Marcel Duchamp, edition of 50, 8×10 (20.32×25.4 cm) printed on unbleached mulberry paper, $40 US each
How To Order: Send check, money order, or cash to Nualláin House, Publishers Box 798 Monte Rio, CA 95462. Include $5 shipping for single prints. Purchase more than one print and receive free shipping. Make checks and money orders payable to ‘Pat Nolan.’ Special offer: purchase all the Smoking Poets and receive the Marcel Duchamp print free, compliments of Bamboo Leaf Studio.
Artist’s Statement:
I first came to print making through an avid interest in Ukiyo-e prints, in the process amassing a large number of monographs, museum catalogs, and anthology representations of floating world artists who were popular in Japan in the 18th to the late 19th century. The subdued palette of basic colors reminded me of the color funny papers and comic books that were a consuming interest when I was a youngster. The more I learned about the art of Japanese print making, the more I came to appreciate 20th Century artists and the powerful simplicity of black and white prints in the hands of masters like Munakata, Unichi, and Okuyama. My by-now obsession with Japanese prints was kicked up a notch when I began collecting affordable reproductions of the Edo masters as well as original work by contemporary artists. The next level was to try my hand at making prints of my own. I had better luck carving linoleum blocks than I did wood and took the path of least resistance. I knew I wanted to work with and/or adapt the Japanese motifs I was familiar with. I had the idea of making Buddhist inspired prints featuring original homilies (“Kicked a clump of dirt – my return address”) since some of the earliest Japanese prints were devotional prints sold to pilgrims traveling to various shrines and temples. I also wanted to attempt portraits of literary personages, poets primarily, in the manner of Kabuki actor prints. My emphasis is black and white, printing with water soluble ink on mulberry paper, and, in most instances, letting the uncarved portions of the block define the picture plane. The blocks are printed by hand using a variety of barens and multiple inkings.
The Smoking Poets idea came to me after I had completed the Samuel Beckett print. As the idea took shape and I searched for images of poets smoking, I visualized it as an on-going series with the muse of amusement, Marcel Duchamp, as the centerpiece of this modern literary conclave.
Lyre Liar, a poem by Pat Nolan, was published by Bamboo Leaf Studio in 2012 in a limited numbered edition of 12 signed by the author with his seal. The cover is printed on a heavy weight Reeves print paper and folded as a clamshell as the platform for the fanfold poem. A band of washi with the author’s seal secures the clamshell closed. The endpapers are Japanese silkscreened patterns imported from Kyoto. Lyre Liar measures 9×7.75 inches (22.7×19.6 cm) open and 9×3 7/8 inches (22.7×9.8cm) closed. The fanfold poem is printed on an unbleached washi and measures 9×20.5 inches (22.7×52 cm) fully extended. Lyre Liar is out of print in this edition.
The selection of poems in Exile In Paradiseare derived from a lifelong appreciation of Chinese poetry. Each of the poems finds its origin in a line from an ancient Chinese poet. The body of the poem consists of an improvisation from that line with the aim of using elements of Chinese prosody such as parataxis and parallelism while being cognizant that Chinese nouns have no number, verbs have no tense, few if any conjunctions or prepositional indicators, and that each line contains its own integrity, apart from any overarching discursive intent. Chinese poetry is image rich and largely dependent for its overall effect on the juxtaposition of these images in a discontinuous thread that is not unlike the successive frames of film. The poems in Exile In Paradisemakes use of this ancient prosody to achieve a synthesis between an historically distant culture and the contemporaneous radically different literature of today.
Exile In Paradisewas published by Bamboo Leaf Studio in 2009 in a limited edition signed by the author with his seal. Most of the covers are made from repurposed ‘stick & strings’ wallpaper samples and vary with each copy. A few of the covers were printed on a distressed heavy weight print paper using a stencil design. The endpapers are Japanese silkscreened patterns imported from Kyoto, as are the binding strips. The illustrations accompanying the poems are reproductions from a nineteenth century block printed Japanese compendium of seals and calligraphic signatures of ancient Chinese painters in the possession of the author. Exile In Paradisemeasures 5.5×8.5 inches (14×21.5 cm) and is bound with a traditional four hole Japanese style binding. The poems were printed on a limited supply of discontinued Gainsboro text stock. Exile in Paradiseis out of print in this edition.
Carved In Stone, a tanka sequence by Pat Nolan, was published by Empty Head Press in the Summer of 2013 in a limited numbered edition signed by the author with his seal. The covers are printed on heavy weight dragon cloud washi featuring reproductions of one of four Japanese prints from the series Imayo sugata (Stylish Appearances) as are the bamboo leaf endpapers. Carved In Stonemeasures 4.25×3 inches (10.7×7.8 cm) and is bound in the Yamato style binding. The 26 text pages (including 5 illustration) are printed on recycled paper.
Tanka ,meaning ‘short song,’ is an unrhymed poem with a fixed thirty-one syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7. In Westernized stanza form, it is a five line poem. Tanka, one of the oldest of Japanese verse forms, dates back to before the 11th Century. Tanka gained renewed popularity in the late 19th Century among radically modern young poets who brought its diction and subject matter up to date. Historically, tanka is a precursor to renga, haikai, and haiku.
The poems in Carved In Stone do not follow precisely the fixed syllabic count nor do they conform to many of the accepted tanka conventions but seek a synthesis and accommodation brought about by translation into a radically different language and culture.
A few copies of Carved In Stoneare still available from the publisher for $20 each plus shipping. See How To Order for more information.
haikai no renga by Keith Kumasen Abbott, Pat Nolan, Maureen Owen & Michael Sowl
All Ears, a haikai no renga or linked verse, was the first of the collaborations between Maureen Owen, Keith Kumasen Abbott, Michael Sowl, and Pat Nolan to be made into a limited edition handmade book and was published by Empty Head Press in 2004. Subsequently, Random Rocks and Poetry For Sale, both haikai no renga, were issued as limited edition handmade books(see Nualláin House archives for July 2013 and October 2012). All Ears was also included in the anthology Saints of Hysteria, A Half Century of Collaborative American Poetry (Soft Skull Press, 2007).
All Ears was composed through the mail over a period of a year and a half beginning in early 1992. Once the 36 stanzas (kasen) of the haikai-no-renga were completed, each poet was asked to comment on the process in general, and on their own stanzas and those of their collaborators. The arrangement of stanza follows the standard haikai form of 8 stanzas on the first sheet and 8 stanzas on the back sheet with the remaining 20 stanzas taking up the central text. Following the haikai no renga and the commentary by the poets is the sequence showing the stanza assignment as well as which poets had the moon and flower stanzas.
All Ears was bound using repurposed “sticks & strings” wallpaper sheets from a wallpaper sample book as cover stock and backed with Japanese silkscreen endpapers. Each cover was unique in itself. The pages were folded vertically with a folded leading edge as is common in Japanese books. Each book was hand sewn using a Japanese side stitch style known “tortoiseshell.” The dimensions are 4.25×10 inches (10.5×16.5 cm). Only a limited number of All Ears were produced and it is out of print.
For more on the intriguing subject of Japanese Linked Verse, see Earl Miner’s Japanese Linked Poetry (Princeton, 1979), Hiroaki Sato’s One Hundred Frogs (Weatherhill, 1983), and Haruo Shirane’s Traces Of Dreams (Stanford, 1998).
To view a PDF facsimile of All Ears, click on ALL EARS 2004
Some poets celebrate April as National Poetry Month, claiming that it brings much needed attention to a marginalized art, while others deride the designation, arguing that it is patronizing and trivializing of an ancient (some might say arcane) way of sentience. Be that as it may, designating a day, week or month for the celebration of poetry has the intent of focusing attention on a timeless art that many see as underappreciated in the greater world of commercial consumerist media. Any search of ‘poetry’ online will turn up over 300 million hits, many duplicated of course, but all the same a number that is quite close to astronomical. Some literary elitists might argue that such a large number amounts to a lot of bad poetry. They may have a point. However, the intent of poetry is always pure; it is often for a lack of skillful execution that it fails. That doesn’t mean that poetry should be the sole purview of academic busybodies whose only function is to taxonomically classify poetry according to a moldy moth-eaten esthetic. Poetry lives because language is alive, mutable, and like a stream, treacherous or calm, torrential or stagnant, is a source of consciousness available to all. Perhaps the idea behind designating a Poetry Month serves the purpose of reminding everyone that poetry belongs to them, that poetry is free for the speaking, good, bad or indifferent.
From its inception the Nualláin House, Publishers site has offered free access to the full texts of select out-of-print limited edition poetry titles as downloadable pdf files. Most of these poetry books were handmade using Japanese papers and bindings in editions of twenty-six to thirty-six signed by the author or authors. The free titles include Gail 
King’s Boxes & Chairs, Pat Nolan’s travel journal, Ah Bolinas!, and Random Rocks, a haikai collaboration with Keith Kumasen Abbott, Pat Nolan, Maureen Owen, and Michael 
Sowl. By scrolling down the sidebar, poetry enthusiasts can find any number of limited edition posts featuring full text access to that particular out-of-print title.
And for all orders placed in the month of April, Nualláin House retail titles, in particular Gail King’s Hello Life and Pat Nolan’s Your Name Here, shipping is free. See How To Order.
Poetry For Sale,
nuallainhousepublishers.com 