THIS JUST IN: George Wallace is Drugged by Hollywood!

NightBallet Press is excited to announce the publication of a brand new book by George Wallace:  Drugged by Hollywood!

Drugged by Hollywood is the most recent collection of poems by the prolific George Wallace, a writer and performer living and working in NYC.  He is First Poet Laureate of Suffolk County, NY, and Writer in Residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace in West Hills. 



Drugged by Hollywood contains 20 poems on 28 pages, including the delicious "Snort You Up Like Butterflies":

 

SNORT YOU UP LIKE BUTTERFLIES
oh my honey the sea becomes you, rock pebble sand & seashell rattle your face, the tide races rich & round, furious as a summer squall -- suck you up like a lollypop, for the sweetness, pop you in my mouth for good luck, like bubblegum, your ears hang perfectly, tongue like kelp, a monstrous scallop fantails through your brave murky waters, pretty eyes, too smooth, smooth as a conch or opalescent string of pearls on the neck of a demi-god, trail of perfect tears, the corner of your mouth twitching like -- what is that, an angry sea urchin? -- neptune bristles inside your mouth he’s carrying a trident, his greek charm is working overtime –

you are a masquerade, a hike thru seminole country -- the city of new orleans is a small hollow in your brain, a threadbare herd of goats wanders stupidly along your collarbone & I am stupid too, stupid like them, mouth hung open like a great white shark washed up on the idiot shore while a shrimpboat trawls your waves & a great haul of cod & sardines is stowed deep in your belly -- a flatfish leaps silver & slow, ignores my gaze –

no hurricane no palmetto no maze of marsh gas or fanboat can help me now -- I am blasted with love involuntary as a cottonmouth in a gunnysack I am cheap bait & wriggling worms I am snarled fishing line, if you were to touch me now I’d explode in brine, spew & phony hieroglyphics, bust open like a paper sack of beercans & whitebread sandwiches – that’s right beautiful, you are the original sea creature, god’s salty red sea tomato & I would climb into you vine juice  seed & soul like jack & the giant & stem you handily --  oh do me no harm & I’ll do you the same -- let us exist together this fine summer day, pungent & alive as horse spit in clam chowder -- let’s get intravenous honey let’s get fundamental let’s get holy -- I want to snort you up like butterflies

The cover cardstock is light brown, with a cranberry red cardstock insert.  The wonderful cover photograph is of an art piece titled "Sun Drop" by Ohio poet/artist Kevin Eberhardt. What a treasure this book is, from cover to cover! This is the fifth book that NightBallet Press has done for Wallace, and we are truly honored.

Drugged by Hollywood was released in Erie, Pennsylvania at the Friday, May 20, 2016 Poetry Scene reading with Vincent Quatroche and Dianne Borsenik, emceed by Chuck Joy and Kim Noyes, and hosted by Cee Williams.  Wallace gave his usual brilliant performance, reading several poems from his new book.

You can get your very own copy of Drugged by Hollywood right here through PayPal, for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling!  You don't have to have a PayPal account to pay, all you need is a credit or debit card.  Don't be left out...get your copy today!

Buck's Unfinished Litany: Incantations for Transience, from the Cul-de-Sac!

NightBallet Press is very pleased to announce the publication of unfinished litany: incantations for transience, from the cul-de-sac by Chansonette Buck!

unfinished litany: incantations for transience, from the cul-de-sac is a deeply personal,  autobiographical story, told through beautifully crafted narrative poems, of a year colored by cancer.  At times, the colors are the darkest indigo, the deepest gray; at others, the colors shine with the warmth of yellows and greens.  But through it all, strong spirit and love of life triumphs, as Channie Buck fights to own herself again.


unfinished litany: incantations for transience, from the cul-de-sac contains 40 pages of 30 poems, printed on snowy white paper.  The white textured cardstock cover features a stunning photograph of the poet's spiritual touchstone, Mount Shasta, taken by the poet.  The cardstock insert is a deep royal blue, echoing the blue of the sky in the photograph.  Together, the colors indicate the turbulent storms of cancer diagnosis and surgery, and the clean, clear acts of survival and triumph.


Milo Samardzija, author of Wassermann Gardens and Schoolboy, says:

"Chansonette Buck has taken life itself as her subject, its pain and pleasure, darkness and light, failures and successes, and created poetry of impeccable timing, rhythm and grace. She has used the eye and heart of an artist to make the personal into the universal. These poems will stay with you long after the last page is turned. Chansonette has a magnificent gift and a heart generous enough to share it with us. This is essential reading, highly recommended."

Lynn Alexander, co-editor of Full of Crow, Blink Ink, and various websites, zines, and other projects, writes:

"Chansonette Buck is observant: searching, reflecting, ultimately allowing her observations to come on their own terms. These are poems of serenity and patience, but they are not without their anguish and regret-the story of a woman grappling with the wounds of former women whose bodies she inhabited but did not carry forward.  Her triumph comes in the slowing of time into moments lived deliberately, broken down into still smaller frames that extend what is painfully acute to a more sustained tempo of sounds, time slowed.  In subtle beats of living, time becomes the spent petals in the "unfinished world" whose sounds outlast us and whose buds and berries will indeed cycle and ripen-no longer for us, as they have never been for us-and in our own way, we cope with that indifference.  At times, we cope with serenity and a calm grace and at times our invocations come as the cautions of the "crawdad cassandra" signaling our own imminent end, and that of the world at large."

unfinished litany: incantations for transience, from the cul-de-sac is available for sale, beginning today, May 17, 2016, for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling.  You don't have to be a member of PayPal to use the PayPal button; all you need is a debit or credit card. Order your copy today, and find out what "incantations from the cul-de-sac" Channie performed to be the strong, beautiful, joyful woman she is today!