Blooming Red

My writing partner Carolyn Howard-Johnson and I figure that nothing is more meaningful at any holiday than a poem - a real poem, not sing-song impersonal limericks from the shelves of card shops.  With that in mind we've created the Celebration Series of chapbooks and have just released our 4th book, Blooming Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational.  Literature lovers everywhere can order these chapbooks, with full-cover covers by prize-winning artist Vicki Thomas, for only $3 each.  That's $75 for 25 of the most memorable holiday greetings you've ever sent out.  It's a budget-concious gift and card all in one.  The book includes a range of poetry inspired by the end of year holidays.

The chapbooks in the Celebration Series include Cherished Pulse (for anyone you love), also with artwork from Vicki Thomas; She Wore Emerald Then (for mothers on your gift list) with photographs by May Lattanzio; Imagining the Future: For Fathers and Other Masculine Apparitions (for the men in your life). And now Blooming Red for the special folks on your holiday list.  All are available individually at only $6.95 on Amazon, but are only $3 each when ordered in quantities of 25 or more directly from the poets.  Put HOLIDAY ORDER in the subject line and send an e-mail to Carolyn. She will make arrangements with you directly for the additional shipping cost for the number you order.

Here's a sample poem from the collection read by me:  Silent Symphony

and another:

Carol to the Universe

Take down the tree
tinsel trash tidied
broken baubles swept
garbage bag wrappings
discarded
through greedhaze
glitter snowglobe
lights off
exhalation
into the new
year.

A carol to the universe
held in one breath
between motion
and inertia
kiss of the godless
earth mother lump
to her quantum
creatures
evolving
beneath
every tap of the keyboard
a newbie springs forth.

No need for
leather clad rulebooks
ark over flood
fatherly edicts
no sacrifices in blood
here.

This is a rational zone
still
so many years on
fertile.