Bøger udgivet af Shoe Music Press

One of the hardest things to do is to make a change, to say goodbye, to leave the past behind so that the future may spring forth. In gardening terms we'd be talking about pruning (definitely not weeding) - there's no weeding to be done. I have to say that 30 issues deep there is nothing I would have changed, not a poem that we've published that doesn't stand on its own either today or ten years ago. So, it's with a bitter-sweet kiss we say farewell to Mastodon Dentist and hello to a burgeoning future.

Penny Ante Feud 13: Between the shadow and the soul The space in between: as thinking animals these gaps are the source of endless puzzles and our instinct to connect seemingly unrelated things and concepts: life-love-sex-death-god, the list goes on...this practice is where we as poets find answers, or at least find clues, or maybe just more questions, who really knows? In this edition of Penny Ante Feud we attempt to make an abundance of connections; in fact, if you count the number of hyphenated words or phrases in this issue it will surely astound. And if they're not actually on the page the effect is the same. There must be something to it, it's never purely unconscious, but perhaps subconscious. And as far as the work itself, each of these poems will amaze - they may take a lot out of you, you may be only able to digest small portions at a time, but you'll want to put this on your shelf of favorites and possibly refer to it as a manual for making connections whenever you feel disconnected. In any case, it's some of our strongest work yet and if nothing else gives us hope - a connection between now and the future - that we'll continue on, doing what we do, getting the word out there one poem at a time.

I guess it was our inevitable fate - perhaps a redundant statement there but fitting all the same - we didn't know when but we surely knew how we'd go down - suddenly, without a lot of fanfare. This is the theme of Penny Ante Feud 17: On the way way way down, and was the image we tried to portray in this series, that of the smallness, the finiteness but nonetheless the importance of what we do, in living as well as in writing. We don't do either on a grandiose plane, otherwise we lose sight of our imperfect realities, but we do them anyway. The works included here are a great testament to that: we may conclude or at least pause, for a while, and know that it's OK, it can't be otherwise.

Lyn Lifshin's poems explore the sexuality behind the dance - the real and imagined parts, together with the emotional frustrations and physical pain of trying for some form of artistic perfection make these poems relevant to anyone. Lyn's pointed, sensual and well-balanced poems create and define a metaphor for life that is universally meaningful.

This sensuous collection of erotic poetry is anything but shy in its vivid imagery and accomplished tone, taking the reader on a journey to unspeakable delights and decadent sensations. Whether or not you are an admirer of the more formal or traditional style of poetry you will delight in its precision and accomplishment.

Thomas Henley Cayne's Poems of Salvation begins a journey of refinement - not deliverance from, but through those seamy streets to seeming fulfillment in the realization that "The goal of the path is the path. Not the goal." But it is an expedition that is internal as well as eternal and one we must make alone - knowing that the places we may find ourselves are "empty, even with {ourselves} in {them}" and that we're "naked underneath" whether it be physically or metaphorically. The poems themselves show a careful, studied refinement akin to taking cautious but patient steps in the only direction there is: forward. Cayne also supplies the photographs and illustrations to accompany his poems, which show the same faithful progression. If art is the pursuit of truth and beauty, we've already arrived at a waypoint, if not the final destination. And for that, praise is due.

This is an easy job. You send me in your poems (one at a time) and I put them together with the others I receive and give them back to you, hopefully in a more usable form. Often I get the sense that you are writing them especially for me - or to me - like a letter you would send to a friend or one you would hope to get: a stay of execution or what have you. O, of course, the theme: The Fires of Earth. Well, in deference to "Our Fair Sister" we've all heard about the fires of that other place, but for now they're just rumors and besides, we're all still here, and although sometimes it's not pretty, it's better than the alternative. Plus, it just sounds cool, like some serial sci-fi fantasy drama. And we're still here - I know I already said that but it bears repeating. So we'll just continue to stick around then. Smoke if you got 'em.

blame god for not existingbeing bears too heavy a load Staring into and speaking directly at the very fiber of being, Linda King's collection of poems Reality Wayfarers propels a bold missive into this apparent void, which often seems better suited for muting whatever we're trying to say than providing any kind of feedback - not even echoes. It is a frightening and painful exercise but a worthwhile one which only the truest and bravest of souls can hope to even attempt and still be sustained. As Ms. King puts it: you are heresomewhere between the actual and the imaginary What we know of existence, or reality, is small compared to all we know we don't know, and where do we: our minds and our lives fit into the equation? Where is our journey of being taking us? Ultimately we are paired with our own consciousness, wherever we happen to be going.

Possibly and probably the most dire and dour issue to date, Penny Ante Feud 16 "Poor Bird" still manages to let the light shine through. When we speak of quality writing above all else, this is what we mean: to the last man and the last woman, we all come together to produce something greater than the sum of our parts. So much so you'll think that the 20 something poets in this issue got together to compare notes before applying.

An existential moment - or two or three: that's what you'll find in this issue of Penny Ante Feud. We're big and small, close and far away, right and wrong - all at the same time, wandering the cosmos and carrying our (sometimes) limited consciousness with us on that journey, a journey among the stars with the dogs and cats too, pure human spirits all of us.

This book will ensnare you in its tenderness and terror as it expresses the simultaneous freedom and capture in a young life that presents its difficult if not horrifying challenges. Taking "awkward moments" to the extreme, Darling Angel Meat makes the unsightly and brutish seem workaday in uncommon fashion.

In Town of Secrets, Katarzyna Boczon-Dobbie uses the essential elements of poetry, like an Alchemist, to forge a poetic gold that is as brilliant as it is durable. She populates this town, as a metaphor for the soul, with memories and experience, vision and breath. Each poem contains a sacred stillness that assuages the reader into a deeply contemplative state. The simple imagery creates something more than the sum of its parts in its vividness and profundity.

Poetry Collection of some previously published as well as unpublished works. The book is split into three chapters: 1. Circus Fragments, poems about the literal and metaphorical carnival of life 2. Playing War, poems about conflict both internal and external and 3. Thanking the Saints, about gratitude and spiritual states of being.

Jessica Mannes' collection is an insightful journey into the deepest areas of the soul, discovering hope inside despair, joy inside pain. Her simple and honest style is as authentic as you will come across.