Category Archives: Modern Poetry

Hello Life, Poems by Gail King

November 15, 2013Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryAbout Now, Andrei Codrescu, Boxes And Chairs, Doris Green Editions, Downstream from Trout Fishing in America, Gail King, Hello Life, Joanne Kyger, Keith Kumasen Abbott, Monte Rio, Northern California, Nualláin House, S0 Recently Rent A World, The First Thing ComingNuallain House, Publishers

Coming in December!
New from Nualláin House, Publishers!!!
Order now and get free shipping!!
(offer good through December 31st, 2013)

HELLO LIFE

Poems by Gail King

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.

SOME DAYS

Some days
there is fog
that rolls
down the hills
and pours
like great waterfalls
off the land
to disappear into the sea
and you can drive
in and out of fog streams
and see a line in the air
where sunlight turns to shadow
behind hills

In Hello Life Gail King often uses sleight of hand as she guides readers into a scene, a mood, a spiral, then disappears while events continue for us alone. During Flood of 95 she directs our camera eyes through wreckage and despair − then fades away; and each reader is morphing through slippery endings. “ inside we walk on cardboard/ make ourselves tough to stand it/ months down the road our anger will/ burst upon us/ now the green is good and there are/ plum blossoms” Her art is beguiling, comic, candid and a pleasure. −Keith Abbott, author of Downstream from Trout Fishing in America, A Memoir and The First Thing Coming

Gail King, a Bay Area native, has lived in the Northern California town of Monte Rio for over 40 years. She has written poetry all her adult life and was the publisher of Doris Green Editions, a small literary press active in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Boxes & Chairs, her third selection of poems, was published by What Leaf Press in 2006. Many of the poems featured in that selection are included in Hello Life.

December 2013 ~ $16.00 ~ 64 pages ~ Paper ~ ISBN 978-0-9840310-3-0

Praise for Boxes & Chairs

“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.” − Andrei Codrescu, NPR commentator and author of So Recently Rent A World

“. . .a lovely lovely book. . .with direct beauty of what actually happens. [The poems] are all about SOMETHING, not just states of mind mired in ‘language’.” − Joanne Kyger, poet, author of About Now, Collected Poems

To be the first on your block to get a copy of Hello Life click on How To Order on the menu line above

The Nolan Anthology of Poetry, Volume II: The Modern Era

November 3, 2013Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryAlice Notley, Andrei Codrescu, Aram Sayroyan, Bamboo Leaf Studio, Bernadette Meyer, Blue Suede Shoes, C, Camille Martin, Carved In Stone, chap book, Clark Coolidge, edition de jacob, Empty Head Press., Exile In Paradise, Fell Swoop, Fell Swoop #64, Fuck You, Gallimard, independent publishers, indie publishers, Intellectual Pretensions, Keith Abbott, Keith Kumasen Abbott, Life Of Crime, literature, New Orleans, Nolan Anthology, Nolan Anthology of Poetry, Nouvelle Revue Française, NRF, Pat Nolan, rare editions, Richard Martin, tanka, Ted Berrigan, The End, The Modern Era, The Nolan Anthology of Poetry, The World, Thomas Weigel, Volume IINuallain House, Publishers

The Nolan Anthology of Poetry, Volume II was published by Fell Swoop in 2003. The first Nolan Anthology of Poetry was published in 1993 by the same New Orleans publisher. Volume II (Fell Swoop #64) The Modern Era was printed in an unspecified print run using basically the same 8.5×11 stapled binding format as the first volume though designating them as “volumes” may be a bit of overstatement as each is only twenty pages in length printed on a single side of the page. The cover design by the author was meant to replicate the pocket poetry books of the French publisher, Gallimard under the NRF (Nouvelle Revue Française) imprint. Volume II, as did Volume I, represents a sampling from a variety of the author’s poetry manuscript unpublished at the time. Since then the poems in the tanka sequence Light Years have been included in a handmade limited edition chap book entitled Carved In Stone (Empty Head Press, 2013). The Chinese style poems were published as a selection entitled Exile In Paradise (Bamboo Leaf Studio, 2009), also as a handmade limited edition. The prose poems were included in a handmade chap book entitled Intellectual Pretensions (edition de Jacob, 2009).

Click here for The Nolan Anthology of Poetry, Volume II: The Modern Era 2003

A word about Fell Swoop magazine whose stated mission, as per Editor Reverend XJ Dailey, is to destroy contemporary American poetry: this year marks the 30^th Anniversary of their fitful yet courageously tenacious low tech existence. They (3^rd person plural used advisedly) will publish their 130^th issue this November. Past featured authors and contributors to Fell Swoop magazine include Andrei Codrescu, Aram Sayroyan, Bernadette Meyer, The Clark Coolidge, Sir Thomas Weigel, Richard Martin, Camille Martin, Lady Alice Notley, and Keith Kumasen Abbott to name just a few. As an unpretentious and somewhat anachronistic photo copy (xerographic) publication, Fell Swoop harkens back to the more innocent days of the mimeograph revolution when such prehistoric publications as Fuck You, C, Blue Suede Shoes, The End, Life of Crime, and The World roamed the humid fecund swamps of Am Po’s armpit. Though based in New Orleans, they represent one of the last unapologetic bastions of the New York School of Poets scattered to the four (or five) corners of the poetry universe after the passing of the Grand Himself, Ted Berrigan. Fell Swoop keeps the flame alive to light another Chesterfield. Their post-Katrina address is Po Box 740158 New Orleans, LA 70174. Send them a bunch of cash, in one fell swoop.

Limited Edition: Jacks Or Better

October 3, 2013Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryAmtrak, Andrei Codrescu, Basho, Baton Rouge, Egret Moon Press, Florida, haiku, independent publishers, indie publishers, Japanese Poetry, Japanese style binding, LSU, New Orleans, Pat Nolan, travel journal, Video PokerNuallain House, Publishers

Jacks Or Better

by Pat Nolan

Jacks Or Better is a travel journal (kikobun) in the tradition of Basho’s Narrow Roads To Far Off Places. The narrow road followed in this journal is the iron road, from San Francisco to rural Florida with stops in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. It is a poet’s journey expressed as haibun in which descriptive or expressionistic prose is capped by a haiku-like poem that continues the thread, elucidates it, or offers a disparate juxtaposition. Published by Egret Moon Press in 2011 in a limited edition of 36 copies. 38 pages hand-bound with Japanese stitching between grey repurposed paper covers, 7×7.25 inches (18x19cm).

from Jacks Or Better

Although this is my first trip to New Orleans, I’ve taken trains across country before and have always found that if you’re on a schedule they are the last place to be. But if you’re not in a hurry, they enforce a leisurely pace that is fast becoming antique. My final destination is Florida where I will visit with my parents. The first leg will take most of three days. This trip is ostensibly about the anatomy of a friendship and the relationship between generations. I will visit with Andrei Codrescu in New Orleans and lecture to his MA classes at Louisiana State University.

Baton Rouge
“only place in America named
after a dog’s dick”

To view a pdf facsimile click JACKS OR BETTER 2011

Limited Edition: Carbon Data

August 3, 2013Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryBig Bridge, books, Carbon Data, Court Green, Exquisite Corpse, Fell Swoop, independent publishers, indie publishers, Japanese style binding, limited editions, literature, Nualláin House, Otolith, Pat Nolan, Poetry Flash, Rolling Stone, The Last Cookie Press, The Paris Review, The WorldNuallain House, Publishers

Carbon Data

By Pat Nolan

Carbon Data is a limited edition poetry selection published by Last Cookie Press in 2008, bound with 60# granite grey cover stock in the Japanese four-hole style. 35 pages, 8.5×5.5

The poems in Carbon Data first appeared in Fell Swoop, Tight, Exquisite Corpse, Smelt Money, Kickass Review, Watching The Wheels: A Blackbird, Court Green, and Otolith as well as in volumes of selected poetry including Fly By Night (1992), The Nolan Anthology Of Poetry, Vol. II (2003), and Later (2007).

Pat Nolan’s poetry and prose have been published in numerous magazines including Rolling Stone, The Paris Review, The World, Big Bridge, Poetry Flash, and Exquisite Corpse as well as literary magazines in Europe and Asia. He is the author of fifteen books of poetry, including LATER from On The Fly Press (2007).

This limited edition is still available for $10 plus shipping. Get free shipping when you purchase a copy of either On The Road to Las Cruces or The Last Resort along with Carbon Data. Click here to preview a pdf facsimile of CARBON DATA 2008

Limited Edition: Boxes & Chairs

May 19, 2013Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryAndrei Codrescu, california landscape, Doris Green Editions, Gail King, independent publishers, indie publishers, Japanese style binding, Joanne Kyger, Keith Abbott, limited editions, Northern California, northern california native, Russian RiverNuallain House, Publishers

Boxes & Chairs

By Gail King

Boxes & Chairs was originally published in 2006 as a handmade limited gift edition of twenty five for family and friends. The covers were printed on heavy weight Reeves print stock with Japanese silkscreen end papers and binding strips. The book was bound in the traditional Japanese four-hole binding style. Illustrations accompanying the poems are reproductions of kuchi-e, woodblock prints that were used to illustrate short stories in Meiji era magazines and journals of late 19^th Century Japan.

Subsequently an unlimited ‘people’s’ edition was issued with a plain cover but with the original text and illustrations intact.

Gail King has been active in writing and publishing in the Russian River area since the mid 70’s. A Northern California native, she writes stories of growing up in the East Bay (Oakland/ San Leandro) as well as poetry focusing on the California landscape. She was the publisher of Doris Green Editions, a small literary press active in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Boxes & Chairs, published by What Leaf Press, is her second collection of poems. A more comprehensive selection of her poems is slated for publication by Nualláin House, Publishers, in the Fall of 2013 which will include the entirety of Boxes & Chairs.

Praise for Boxes & Chairs:

“Gail King’s poems celebrate the change and deep pleasures in tracking transformation. With a sinuous and penetrating wit King remembers her life via alarm, humor and love: a night ago the wind/ and rain let us in on a secret/ our forts are temporary/ no rest inside the box.”
— Keith Kumasen Abbott

“. . .a lovely lovely book. . .with direct beauty of what actually happens. [The poems] are all about SOMETHING, not just states of mind mired in ‘language’.”
— Joanne Kyger

Click to view a pdf facsimile of the limited gift edition of Boxes & Chairs

Limited Edition: Where The Four Winds Blow (translations)

February 3, 2013Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, Poetry20th Century French poetry, Andre Breton, Anselm Hollo, books, independent publishers, indie publishers, Keith Abbott, leonard cirino, limited editions, literature, Pat Nolan, Philippe Soupault, pygmy forest, rare editions, Ron Padgett, Surrealism, translations, witty poemsNuallain House, Publishers

Where The Four Winds Blow
(including Epitaphs)
by Philippe Soupault

(translated from the French by Pat Nolan)

Philippe Soupault , born in 1897, was one of the most original poets of his time. He collaborated with Andre Breton on the premiere Surrealist document, Les Champs Magnetiques, and was a co-founder of La Revolution Surrealiste, the seminal surrealist publication. To this day the poems of Where The Four Winds Blow (1920) and Epitaphs (1919) have that modern sense of the personal, the existential observer, always slightly perplexed. Much of what is conventional in modern poetry today was first realized in the innovations of these early poems.

Where The Four Winds Blow was published under the Pygmy Forest Press (Albion CA) imprint in 1993 by the late poet Leonard Cirino.

Praise for Where The Four Winds Blow

It’s a great pleasure to see two of one’s favorite poets across time and space conjoined in these terrific translations of Philippe Soupault’s early poems by Pat Nolan who catches and plays the haunting and funny early century notes just right.
— Anselm Hollo

Pat Nolan’s translations get the edge and eye of Philippe Soupault’s witty, shifty and insouciant early poems, often displaying the right touch for the quick change artistry of the poet at work.
— Keith Abbott

It’s a great pleasure to see Philippe Soupault’s graceful, delicate, and gently witty poems getting more of the attention they deserve.
— Ron Padgett

View a pdf facsimile of FOURWINDS

Limited Edition: Later

January 3, 2013Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, Poetryindependent poets, independent publishers, indie publishers, limited editions, modern American poetry, Northern California poets, outlaw poets, Pat Nolan, Russian River poets, Selected Poems, unaffiliated poets, West Coast poetsNuallain House, Publishers

LATER
Selected Poems

by Pat Nolan

In 2007 On The Fly Press issued LATER, Selected Poems featuring a representation of poems first published in literary magazines and anthologies including Exquisite Corpse, Golden Handcuffs, Court Green, Hanging Loose, Kickass Review, Otolith, Paper Tiger, Prosodia, Watching The Wheels: A Blackbird, and Thus Spake The Corpse V. 1 & 2, as well as in The Nolan Anthology Of Poetry V.2, The Modern Era (2003), Tangram Poem Card Series (2005), and Untouched By Rain (2006).

LATER was printed in a limited edition hand bound in the Japanese side-stitch style with covers printed on gray-green stock. A limited number of copies are still available for $10 US plus shipping. Please see How To Order.

To view a pdf facsimile, click on Later Selected Poems 2007

Limited Edition: Ah Bolinas!

December 3, 2012Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryAndrei Codrescu, Basho, block prints, Bolinas, Bolinas Library, Exquisite Corpse, haibun, haikai no renga, Healdsburg, independent publishers, indie publishers, Japanese Poetry, Japanese style binding, Joanne Kyger, Les Ferriss, Monte Rio, travel journalNuallain House, Publishers

Ah Bolinas!
A Travel Journal

by Pat Nolan

In the late fall of 1984, Pat Nolan was invited by Joanne Kyger to read his poetry as part of a reading series held at the Bolinas Library. Nolan later memorialized the event in a Japanese style travel diary(nikki) similar to those written by Basho on his various journeys to visit other poets and collaborate on linked verse (haikai no renga). It was originally published in Andrei Codrescu’s Exquisite Corpse in 2000 as To Bolinas And Back. As published in limited edition, the prose and poems in Ah Bolinas! are organized in a manner similar to those found in the Japanese form, haibun.

In 2010 Not My Hat Press issued the travel journal now titled Ah Bolinas! in a limited edition of 26 signed copies, lettered A through Z and accompanied by four original linoleum block prints. The covers are printed on a heavy weight mulberry washi with Japanese silk screen end papers and bound in the Japanese four hole style. The blocks were carved by the author and printed with the generous assistance of master printer Les Ferriss of Healdsburg, CA. 4×5.63 (10.2×14.1 cm)

To view a pdf facsimile, please click AH BOLINAS 2010

Limited Edition: Intellectual Pretensions

November 1, 2012Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, Non-fiction, PoetryExquisite Corpse Annual, French Poets, independent publishers, indie publishers, Japanese style binding, Le cornet a des. prose poems, limited editions, Max Jacob, Pat Nolan, Unlikely Stories blogNuallain House, Publishers

Intellectual Pretensions
Prose Poems by Pat Nolan

Nearly a century ago Max Jacob wrote “Many prose poems have been written in the last thirty or forty years; I hardly know of any poet who’s understood what it’s all about and who’s known how to sacrifice his ambitions as an author to the prose poem’s formal constitution. Dimension counts for nothing in the beauty of a work, its situation and style are everything.” Those words are presciently accurate today.

The prose poems in Pat Nolan’s Intellectual Pretensions draw their inspiration directly from the mysticism of the French poet Max Jacob and his revolutionary volume, Le cornet à dés, first published in 1916. Here, each prose poem, paragraph or sequence of paragraphs is a portal into a separate and uniquely fantastic universe that runs the gamut from the phantasm of a dream landscape to the playful meandering byways of a shaggy dog tale.

Intellectual Pretension was published in 2009 in a limited edition on Gainsborough cover stock, the design mimicking that of editions of Max Jacob’s poems published by Gallimard/Nouvelle Revue Française, and individually hand sewn in the Japanese side stitch style binding. 41 pages, 8.5×5.5 inches (21.5×14.1 cm) Copies of Intellectual Pretension are no longer available. However, you may view the pdf of INTELLECTUAL PRETENSIONS 2009 here.

Intellectual Pretension was also published in its entirety in The Corpse Annual #2 (2010), and reviewed by Gabriel Ricard in the Unlikely Stories blog.

Limited Edition: Fly By Night

August 3, 2012Limited Editions, Modern Poetry, PoetryGabriel Ricard, hand-made editions, independent publishers, Japanese style binding, limited editions, Naropa University, Pat Nolan, rare editions, Selected Poems, The Poetry Project, Unlikely Stories blogNuallain House, Publishers

FLY BY NIGHT
Selected Poems, 1975 −1992
by Pat Nolan

Doris Green Editions originally published Fly By Night as a limited edition specifically for the author’s readings at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado and at The Poetry Project in New York City in November of 1992. In 2006, Re:issue Press reprinted the selection of poems in the original edition adding the subheading Selected Poems, 1975 −1992. A few modest editorial changes were also made, and the biographical information updated. Surplus covers from the original edition were recycled and cut down to fit the current format, from 8×10 to 5×7. The hand-sewn Japanese style binding and the folded leading edge of the page are unique to the reissued edition. A review of Fly By Night by Gabriel Ricard was published at the Unlikely Stories blog. Here then is the full text of that 1992 selection of poems: Fly By Night Selected Poems 1975-1992

Coming in December! New from Nualláin House, Publishers!!! Order now and get free shipping!! (offer good through December 31st, 2013)

HELLO LIFE

Poems by Gail King

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Jacks Or Better

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Carbon Data

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Boxes & Chairs

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Where The Four Winds Blow (including Epitaphs) by Philippe Soupault

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LATER Selected Poems

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FLY BY NIGHT Selected Poems, 1975 −1992 by Pat Nolan

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Coming in December!
New from Nualláin House, Publishers!!!
Order now and get free shipping!!
(offer good through December 31st, 2013)

Where The Four Winds Blow
(including Epitaphs)
by Philippe Soupault

LATER
Selected Poems

FLY BY NIGHT
Selected Poems, 1975 −1992
by Pat Nolan