Weather Forecast: Black-Socket Sky by Rebecca Wood!

NightBallet Press is delighted to forecast a wintry mix of chilly temps, intermittant snowfall, gusty winds, and the dark sparkle of a
Black-Socket Sky!

What better way to celebrate the end of 2016 and the beginning of 2017 than with a brand new poetry book?  Happy New Year's Eve, indeed!

NightBallet Press had heard Toledo poet Rebecca "Becca" Wood read before, but was truly ensnared by this particular collection of poems.  When we requested a manuscript from the poet, Becca handed NBP the handful of poems she had just read.
 
Black-Socket Sky is the result.

Don't be deceived by the page count of this collection.  At only 20 pages long and with only 11 poems in the book, it's one of the shortest that NBP has done.  But wowza, does it ever pack a punch!  Wood explores themes of winter, loss, belonging, religion, and night in a unique voice that rings clear and true throughout. 

The red, black and blue cover art is a photo of a wonderful piece, "The Shadow a Darkness Makes," by Kevin Eberhardt.  Find more of his work at October Conspiracy.  Complemented by a royal blue cardstock insert, the cover and inside paper are "themed":  the cover cardstock and the paper are matching "snow fleck" design.

  Rebecca Wood comes from a small tribe of academic gypsies who dragged her around the eastern, southern, and midwestern states until finally coming to rest on the southern shores of Lake Erie in Toledo, Ohio.  Her work has been published in In Toledo magazine and the first Broadway Bards Anthology.  She is an engaging and popular performer, appearing at Artomatic 411, Toledo's 100K Poets for Change, and the Old West End Festival, among others.  Wood reads regularly with the Broadway Bards, and irregularly at other Toledo venues.

At the very special holiday price of $5 postage paid, this book is a steal.  Treat yourself to a Black Socket Sky, and soar into 2017...I promise you, you'll be glad you did!

Rocktober Brings Us TWO Fab Books by TWO Fab Poets: Howey & Litzky!

Welcome to ROCKTOBER at NightBallet Press!

Why do we call it "rocktober," you ask?  Because baby, we will, we will ROCK you...with not one, but TWO fabulous new and very different books by two fabulous poets!

Book number one is
Playing Tennis with the Net Down by Christine Howey,
the current Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights, Ohio

 

 

 

 

                                                     cover art by Kevin Eberhardt 

Playing Tennis with the Net Down contains 32 pages of 21 poems.  These poems could also be called performance pieces, as Howey has a powerful stage presence when she reads.  With such intriguing titles as "Your Life After Death Orientation Session," "Lunch Hour at the Dildo Factory," and "My Annual Poetry Audit," you know you're in for a treat!

With a folksy, conversational tone, Howey leads the reader through the childhood experiences of X-rayed shoe selection, glow-in-the-dark watches, and tick-borne diseases, and the decidedly adult experiences of things found in a meadow, receiving your Life™ (and how to get it out of that pesky package), and "why you don't like reading poetry."  In one of the editor's favorite pieces, "Tapped Out," she explores our fascination with water bottles. Even when tweaking the reader with droll wit and dry sarcasm, you can sense the dimple in her cheek and the twinkle in her eye.

The cover art is a photo of a piece by Kevin Eberhardt, titled "Fey."  The cover is a textured tan cardstock, with a textured pumpkin-colored cardstock insert.  The poems are printed on thick, textured ivory paper. 

Christine Howey is a performance poet, actor, award-winning theater critic (fifteen years, Scene magazine), playwright, and  journalist.  Recently named Poet Laureate of Cleveland Heights, she also competed as a member of the Northeast Ohio team in the 2013 National Poetry Slam Tournament in Boston, MA.  Her one-person show about her transgender journey, Exact Change, had its world premiere at Cleveland Public Theater in January 2014, and has since been performed at the New York International Fringe Festival, among other venues.  A movie version of the play is due to be released in 2017.  Her poems have appeared in Pudding Magazine, Star Line, and Muse, among others, and she has two previous books of poetry: If You Find Yourself Submerged in a Pond Under Ice (Kattywompus Press, 2011) and Thin Chance, or How to Get a Reputation as a Dick (Kattywompus Press, 2015). 

Playing Tennis With the Net Down is available beginning today, October 29, 2016, for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling! 

 

Book number two is
Full Lotus by Tsaurah Litzky,
Brooklyn, New York's poet extraordinaire

   cover collage by Tsaurah Litzky

 

Full Lotus, a 32 page book of 19 poems and a delightful preface, explores all the ways  the practice of Yoga has influenced Litzky's life:  "True Believer," "Shoulderstand," "My Joints Snap," and "The Arrow Is the Soul" partner with "Sunday Morning Yoga," "Yoga of Snow," "The Mother of All Yogas," and "Yoga for Chasing Away the Blues," inviting the reader to experience "a better skin," an "open mind," "a new dimension...where grace beats karma."

The cover collage, "Everything With Love," is a piece by the poet herself, Tsaurah Litzky.  The cover is a textured ivory cardstock, with a textured turquoise cardstock insert.  The poems are printed on thick, textured ivory paper. 

Litzky writes:

I have been doing Yoga for over thirty years, writing poems since I was seven. Yoga and Poetry, along with my love for all humanity and for this struggling, bubbling world, are among the strongest threads running through my life. Writing these poems about Yoga has brought me great pleasure. I hope it brings you pleasure too.

 

Tsaurah Litzky is a widely published poet and writer of fiction, memoir, erotica, creative non-fiction, plays, and commentary   Her writing has been included in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.  Her memoir, Flasher, was published by Audible Books and by Long Shot Press as an e-book for Kindle.  Author of fifteen chapbooks, including Jerry in the Bardo (NightBallet Press) and two full-length poetry collections, Baby on the Water (Long Shot Press) and Cleaning the Duck (Bowery Books), she considers her favorite poem the one she's just written.  She is also a collage artist and Yoga instructor, and lives on the Brooklyn waterfront  where she can see the Statue of Liberty from her kitchen window.

                                                   photo by Janet Morgan

Full Lotus is available beginning today, October 29, 2016, for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling!

Get the jump on Hallowe'en and treat yourself to Playing Tennis With the Net Down by Christine Howey and Full Lotus by Tsaurah Litzky!

Arcangelini has ROOM ENOUGH!

What a glorious summer this has been!  NightBallet Press took a few weeks off from the press to relax, bask in the sun, and write some poetry.  Now, we're back at it full throttle...and über-excited about announcing the publication of a new book:
Room Enough poems by M. J. Arcangelini!

Room Enough is a 44 page book of 26 poems.  Both the front cover and the back cover are graced with stunning artwork by Bree. The poems are printed on richly textured ivory paper, matching the textured ivory cardstock of the cover.  There's a thick denim-blue cardstock insert.

And the poems...ah, what wonderful poems!  From meeting The Bob Kauffman ("Bob at the Bank") to speaking at International Women's Day ("Written for the Occasion") to having "Room Enough" for the loves in his life, Arcangelini writes with a quiet assurance, with humor, and with heart.

In "Written for the Occasion," he writes (excerpt)

say what?  i agreed to do what?
read poetry at International Women’s Day?
i don’t remember that part—i’m not a woman
i’m a guy, and a queer guy at that—
what do i know about women?
i don’t even fuck them—

In "Room Enough," he writes (excerpt)

Four chambers, four doors.
In and out lovers move
through the rooms of my heart.
Four chambers, four rooms,
each man who moves in
makes a room his own and
when he leaves he leaves behind
a room doubled out of itself.


Each poem is a gem, polished and clear, shining with truth and sparkling with the soul of the man who wrote it. This is a must-read, can't-put-it-down, treasure-chest collection!

                                                      photo by Michael Starkman

M. J. Arcangelini was born in 1952 in western Pennsylvania; he grew up there and in Cleveland, Ohio.  He's lived on the west coast since 1973, and currently resides in Sonoma County, California.  He began writing poetry at age eleven, stories in his teens, and memoirs in his late forties.  His work has been published in nine anthologies, and in many newspapers and small magazines.  He is also the author of With Fingers at the Tips of My Words (Beautiful Dreamer Press, 2002, available on Amazon).  Arcangelini maintains an occasional blog with memoirs and poems at https://joearky.wordpress.com.

You can purchase a copy of Room Enough for only $10 plus $4 shipping/handling right here through PayPal--and you don't need to be registered with PayPal; all you need is a debit or credit card!  (US and Canadian customers only; all overseas customers, please email me at nightballetpress@gmail.com for shipping charges.)

You may also purchase a copy of Room Enough at the official book release this coming Wednesday evening (August 31, 2016) at Mac's Backs, 1820 Coventry Road, Cleveland Heights , 7pm.  The best part of it?  The Man himself, M. J. Arcangelini, will be there to read from his book!  I bet if you asked him, he'd sign one for YOU!  Please join us there; we'd love to see you!

Room Enough rounds out our extended Season 5 at the press, just in time for Season 6 to begin in September.  Watch for new books to be published monthly!

Nicoletti Burns Buffalo with a Counterfeit Moon!

 

New York poet Joey Nicoletti is about to burn Buffalo with his Counterfeit Moon! 
And this time, NightBallet Press is going to be right there with him!

 

 

NightBallet Press is enormously pleased to announce its third chapbook title for Joey Nicoletti.  Joey Nicoletti is the author of two full-length poetry collections and four chapbooks.  A graduate of the Sarah Lawrence College MFA program, he teaches creative writing and literature at SUNY Buffalo State College.

 

 

                                     

Counterfeit Moon contains 18 poems, written only as Nicoletti can write them, with such intriguing and promising titles as "Penne Vodka," "To Donald Trump," "My Mother's Ladle," and "I Just Wasn't Made for These Times."  It also contains his Prince tribute poem "A Higher Floor."  ("To Donald Trump" and "A Higher Floor" are two of my personal favorites!)  The poems are printed on 32 pages of thick, textured white paper to complement the pale mint green cover cardstock and the darker olive green cardstock insert.  The gorgeous cover photo was taken by Ohio poet Geoffrey Landis (who, appropriately enough, works at NASA).

In "Thundersnow," Nicoletti writes

Spinal cords of lightning grow, flash, and crash
in the distance.  The sky is a gigantic brain of clouds

Nicoletti seizes language, holds it in his teeth, and shakes it until it does exactly what he wants it to!

We will be releasing Counterfeit Moon TODAY, Wednesday, July 13, 2016, at Burning Books, 420 Connecticut Street, Buffalo, NY, at the Policies of Truth Poetry Reading, 5 pm to 6:30 pm.  Joey Nicoletti will be signing his books after the reading!

NightBallet Press editor/publisher Dianne Borsenik is honored and excited to be meeting Joey Nicoletti in person for the first time, and to be performing her poetry with Nicoletti, along with road trip partner and NBP poet John Burroughs, and our friend, NY poet George Guida at this reading.  It's gonna be a hot time in Buffalo!

Come on out and join us, hear Nicoletti read his fantastic poetry, and get him to sign your copy of Counterfeit Moon! 

For those of you who cannot join us tonight, here's a link to PayPal, where you can obtain your copy for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling!  You don't have to be registered with PayPal to use it; all you need is a debit or credit card.  It's easy!  Get your copy before they're all gone!

It's Time to Get DELIRIOUS!

NightBallet Press remembers, honors, and celebrates Prince Rogers Nelson
today, on what would have been his 58th birthday (June 07, 2016), with the publication of Delirious: A Poetic Celebration of Prince.

               
Edited by Dianne Borsenik, Delirious contains 98 pages of poems written by 70 different poets from across the United States, England, and the Philippines.  The poems range from a 5-word haiku to a 3-page crown of sonnets; also included are shape-poems, abecedarians, a poem written in java script, a conversation with a 97-year-old mom, poems with lines meant to be sung, a touching tribute to a "best friend," a smile in turquoise, and reminiscences about the soundtracks of younger selves.

Each poem is a distinct facet of the glittering world of Prince, his music, his words, his art, his sexuality, his fashion, his convictions, and his impact on an entire generation.

Prince influenced lives on multiple levels, giving face and voice to nonconformity and self-expression, encouraging and validating creativity and sensitivity.  This book pays homage to the remarkable life of a very special man.

Prince Rogers Nelson

singer
songwriter
multi-instrumentalist
record producer
actor
master of
funk
rock
jazz
R & B
psychedelic
hip-hop
pop
soul
enigmatic
prodigious
flamboyant
influential
spiritual
lovesexy
The Artist Formerly Known as Prince
Unforgettable.

It became obvious early on in the call for submissions that we were receiving far more poems than we could accept if we kept the saddle-stapled format NBP has always used.  We made the decision to utilize a flat-spine approach for the anthology in order to include as many poems as possible.  So, for the first time ever, we sent the book to a printer to have it perfect-bound!

Many thanks to all the poets who contributed their work and made Delirious possible.  Each contributor who had poems chosen for inclusion receives a free contributor's copy, which will be mailed during the month of June.  NBP is truly impressed and delighted by the scope of the work submitted.

The contributing poets are (in the order their poems appear in the book):


George Wallace
Paul Koniecki
Robert Walicki
Skaidrite Stelzer
Steve Abbott
Lorraine Cipriano
Joey Nicoletti
Victor Clevenger
Thasia Lunger
A. S. Coomer
Reuben Jackson
Heather Ann Schmidt
Jill L. Cooper
Marie C. Lecrivain
Karen Scott
Anna Cates
Steven B. Smith
Jason Preu
Juliet Cook
Joel Dias-Porter
Derek Kannemeyer
Tony Brown
Katie Mullins
Amy Baskin
V. C. McCabe
Heather Davis
Catfish McDaris
Jason Webber
Kerry Trautman
Dana Aritonovich
Adrian Manning
Michael Skau
Candrice Jones
Crystal Rudds
Julie Ursem Marchand
Theresa Brightman
Cody Walker
Valentina Ranaldi-Adams
Kiley Creekmore
Shayla Hawkins
Suzi Q. Smith
LeConté Dill
Julian Randall
Rosemarie Wilson
Maura Alia Badji
Marj Hahne
Wynne Huddleston
Jonie McIntire
RA Washington
Meg G. Freyermuth
Cathy Porter
Amy Debrecht
Kari Gunter-Seymour
Jonel Abellanosa
Sherese Francis
Emma Lee
Lowell Mick White
Vince Gotera
John Burroughs
Tony Moffeit
Maria Lisella
Jennifer Hambrick
C. M. Brooks
Jameson Bayles
Raymond Maxwell
Craig Firsdon
Punch
Lori Ann Kusterbeck
Kathleen Lawrence
Tsaurah Litzky

The gorgeous cover photo is by Cleveland poet John Burroughs, and was taken at the event Pandemonium in Cleveland a couple of years ago. NBP feels it perfectly captures the excitement and sparkle of Prince and the poems that were written for him.

It's time to get Delirious!  And it couldn't be easier.  Just hit the PayPal button to order.  You don't have to have an account with PayPal; all you need is a debit or credit card.  Order your copy and fill your heart to overflowing with these loving tributes to an unforgettable man...the artist Prince.

Please note!  This is for shipping inside the United States only.  For outside the U. S., please query us at nightballetpress@gmail.com for shipping costs.  Thank you!

Update 10/09/2018: This title has been SOLD OUT EXCEPT FOR 2 LAST COPIES...don't miss out! Get your copy today on Amazon: Delirious: A Poetic Celebration of Prince. Once these copies are gone, NBP will not be ordering any more. This item is available only through the Amazon link above.

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!

DELIRIOUS — A Poetic Tribute to Prince (1958 - 2016)

NightBallet Press is pleased to announce an open call for submissions for a tribute book of poems honoring the artist Prince and his widespread influence on a generation of loving and appreciative fans.
The proposed publication date is June 7, 2016, Prince’s birthday.

IF YOU PLAN TO SEND A SUBMISSION, PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES AND ADHERE TO THEM RELIGIOUSLY.

I work full-time, twelve-hour days and I don’t have a lot of extra time.  In order to get this book out by June 7, I must be able to access and read the submitted poems quickly.  Failure to follow these simple directions will result in my not reading your submission.

1. In the subject line of the email, please put SUBMISSION PRINCE and your last name.  For instance, if John Burroughs were to submit a poem, he would put SUBMISSION PRINCE BURROUGHS.

2. Send one or two poems about Prince, his music, his influence, or his artistry in a single Word document.  Poems must stick to the theme.  No more than two poems, please.

3. Attach the Word document to the email, and send to nightballetpress@gmail.com.

4. Deadline for submissions is MAY 24, 2016.  That gives you 4 weeks to get them to me, and it gives me 2 weeks to get the book formatted for publication.  I will not read any submissions after the deadline.

5. Please do not send me the poems on Facebook.  Please do not snail mail the poems.  Please do not send the poems to any other of my emails.  Please do not fail to put SUBMISSION PRINCE and your name in the subject line of the email.  This is the only way I will find the submissions.

This is an open call, which means anyone and everyone is invited to submit poems.  If your poem is chosen for inclusion in the anthology, you will receive a free contributor's copy.  (Please note—if your poem is chosen and you live outside the U.S., mailing costs for the press are very prohibitive.  NBP will send you a PDF of the completed book.)

Updated Saturday, May 14, 2016. 
So I'm thinking, I have a lot of artist friends who don't write poetry...why don't I bring them into this project, too?

This is an open call for submissions of cover art for the Prince tribute anthology Delirious, due to be released on June 7, 2016. The same guidelines apply: send your work to www.nightballetpress.com with the heading SUBMISSION PRINCE (your last name). Attach your Word doc. files or jpegs. to the email. No pdf files, please. I prefer a head shot of Prince, but I'm open to whatever artistic vision about Prince that you may have. DEADLINE IS FIRM: MAY 24, 2016.  If your cover art is chosen, you will receive a free contributor's copy (or, if outside the U.S., a pdf of the completed book).

Please submit your Prince poems!  Send me your Prince art!  Tell your friends!  Spread the word! 

Look out - Steve Abbott has THE INCOHERENT PULL OF WANT!

 Look out, world!  Columbus, Ohio, poet Steve Abbott has The Incoherent Pull of Want...and once you experience it, you'll want it, too!

 

 

 

It is with great pleasure that NightBallet Press announces its March publication
of The Incoherent Pull of Want by Steve Abbott.  What?  It isn't March?  Well, NightBallet Press found that March didn't have enough days to go around, so we modified the time table. (Yes, there will be another April publication...stay tuned!)

Popular and beloved, Steve Abbott is a founding member in 1984 of The Poetry Forum, now Ohio's longest-running poetry series, for which he continues as co-coordinator.  He edits the Ohio Poetry Association's annual journal Common Threads, and in 2015 represented OPA on the Ohio Arts Council panel that selected Ohio's first Poet Laureate.  His poetry has appeared in dozens of literary journals as well as several anthologies, and NightBallet was beyond delighted when he sent us his manuscript. 

Containing such elegantly written (and instantly favorite) poems as "Landscapers" and "When We Sought Justice," this book Is a can't-put-it-down, cover-to-cover-read.  Intriguing titles draw you in: "The Present Doesn't Last as Long as It Used To," "Dead Man at the Centerfold Lounge," "Death Is a Waffle Iron," and "Dorothy's Other Dream."

 

 The Incoherent Pull of Want is 32 pages long and contains 23 poems printed on thick, textured, pale ivory paper.  The cover cardstock is palest green and the textured cardstock insert is fire engine red. The cover image is a photo of a piece of artwork, "Meteor Before Sunset" (paint on wood with found objects), by Ohio artist/poet Kevin Eberhardt, whose beautiful work has been featured on several recent NBP covers.  (All of Eberhardt's art is for sale; contact NBP for details.)

A dynamic reader, Abbott, who is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus in English of Columbus State Community College, received an Ohio Arts Council Excellence Award in Poetry in 1993, and an OAC residency the following year at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, Massachusetts.  He has four previous poetry collections: A Short History of the Word (1996) and Greatest Hits (2004) from Pudding House, and Why Not Be Here Now? (11thour Press, 2016), plus a 2011 live CD recording titled Stardust in Franklin Park.  He has edited the anthologies Cap City Poets (Pudding House, 2008), a collection of work by 74 central Ohio poets, and Everything Stops and Listens (OPA Press, 2013), containing work by members of the Ohio Poetry Association. 

The Incoherent Pull of Want is available beginning today, Friday, April 8, 2016, for only $10 plus $3 shipping/handling.  You can get a signed copy from the man himself, Steve Abbott, or you may order through PayPal right here, right now...it's easy!  You don't even need to have a PayPal account yourself!  You're special and you deserve it, so treat yourself to some mighty fine poetry dining in this banquet of a book!

Yea, and Yay, I say...Yeasayer by Andy Roberts!

NightBallet Press takes great pleasure in announcing a new chapbook of poems by Columbus, Ohio, area poet Andy Roberts, Yeasayer!

This is the third chapbook of poems by Andy Roberts that NBP has published, and there's a reason we keep on keepin' on with his work...we just can't get enough of his mouthwatering poetry!

C. W. Everett, senior editor at Pudding House Productions, has this to say about the book:

"Yeasayer...is a pensive collection, a philosophical reflection on the questions human beings encounter at we age.  Is there any meaning to all this life and living?  Have we done alright in the time we have had? Is there comfort and peace waiting for us?

These poems are compact by design, filled with brilliant language and a keen sense of place.  Roberts' eye for detail is well-trained and discerning.  His grasp of the natural world forms a grounded and credible universe filled with amazement.  Roberts seems always to be building a world in which he can feel comfortable and make sense of things as much by instinct as logic.  The tone is conversational and the poems are accessible intellectually and emotionally.

Quiet wisdom flows from these poems; the poet directs us toward understanding and most importantly, a kind of beautiful acceptance, even forgiveness of ourselves for not understanding sooner.  As always, Roberts' strong voice draws us in and holds us gently from beginning to end."

One of NBP's favorite poems in Yeasayer is "Our Leaves Shaped Like Hearts":


Our Leaves Shaped Like Hearts

Every year I am turning
more and more into the river birch
I planted just east of the kitchen window
as a six-foot sapling.
Our skin becomes the same color every August,
and we share the same texture as we age.
Our roots join as we touch hands beneath the house,
as we tap into the underground river that flows.
Our green leaves shaped like hearts
turn yellow in November, fall on still days
with a sound the finches remember
as they lose their gold wings to brown.
We grow old together,
one to sky and the other returning to earth
from where we started as single seeds,
our limbs reaching out to hold the birds.


Yeasayer boasts a gorgeous front-cover color photograph by gifted Ohio photographer Chandra Alderman, printed on crisp white linen cardstock.  A matching royal-purple inner cardstock complements the photograph.  The 24 poems - 32 pages total - are printed on snow-white paper.

Yeasayer is available beginning today, March 4, 2016, for only $5 plus $3 shipping/handling.  You can order it right here through PayPal with one touch of the button!  Get your copy and relax into a world of "Pagan Purples" and "Rain Moving Off" and "Windy & Warm"...just in time for Spring!

                                 photo by John Burroughs, used with permission


Andy Roberts lives in Columbus, Ohio, where he handles finances for disabled veterans.  His poems have appeared in a long list of small press and literary journals over the past thirty years, including Albatross, Atlanta Review, Chiron Review, Coal City Review, Fulcrum, Hiram Poetry Review, The Sow's Ear Poetry Review, Plainsongs, and Slipstream.  His poetry has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize four times.
　 

The Generation of Forms by D. R. Wagner!

NightBallet Press is excited to announce the publication of The Generation of Forms,
a new book of poetry by D. R. Wagner!

 

The Generation of Forms boasts a cover photo of a striking art piece by Ohioan Kevin Eberhardt, the coloring of which is complemented by a heavy, goldenrod-colored cardstock insert. 

The book contains 23 poems printed in Century Old Style font on 36 crisp, white, textured pages, matching the white textured cardstock cover. The intriguing titles of the poems reach out and pull you to them with blue-eyed wonder: "An Epiphany of Circumstance" and "The Generation of Forms" and "Fog Fog Fog" and "Touching My Bones" and "In the Rigging: Tears Began to Fall."  Wagner's landscapes call forth tales of glory and heartache, of grace and storm, of giants and birds. In "The Fire Chairs," Wagner writes

The ends of my fingers burst
Into flame.  One, two, three,
Four, five.  I stand outside the house.

The giant storms have begun again.
They walk on legs made of lightning,

Thousands at a time.  The night stinking
Of ozone and the wettest of heat.

And in "Guided by Voices," he writes

Burned into the flesh
But never showing as brands,
Cold sparks coming from the mouth
Like a child's friction toy.

We sit inside our skeletons,
An electricity of energy flowing through us,
Firing desire, rooms of actions and reactions.

Wagner guides us through his rooms, gently holding our hands but never allowing us to turn from the terrible beauty of seas and seasons, of flame and fog.  And in the end, we "find love bursting from every heart."

          The Generation of Forms is available now, for only $10 plus $2 shipping!
      (For orders outside the U.S., please contact us at nightballetpress@gmail.com)


                             Come, get yourself some D. R. Wagner today! 

D. R. Wagner is the author of over 30 books of poetry and letters.  He co-wrote The Egyptian Stroboscope with d. a. levy in the late 1960s, and read with Jim Morrison of the Doors in a legendary reading with Michael McClure.  He has also read with Lawrence Ferlighetti, Al Winans, Anne Waldman, and many, many other poets over the last 40 years.  His work is much published and has appeared in numerous translations.  He has exhibited visual poetry with the likes of William Burroughs, Brion Gysin, bpNichol, and John Furnival in venues ranging from the Musée des Arts Décoratifs at the Louvre, Paris, to the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.  He is also a visual artist, producing miniature needle-made tapestries that have been exhibited internationally, and are included in numerous publications and museum collections.  He is, further, a professional musician, working as a singer-songwriter, and playing guitar and keyboards.  He currently plays and sings with the band Some Time Tonight.

 

 

                                                   photo by Glenda Drew, used with permission