Calling for Chapbooks

 

 

Choeofpleirn Press is calling for submissions to our annual chapbook contest. More details appear below and at our website.

Poem in Stone Poetry Journal

A recent poem of mine appears in Stone Poetry Journal. Use the following link to read my poem, which is titled "Forgetting Everything But Regrets." It took a little while before this poem of mine found a home. 

The act of making peanut butter, which is something that appears in the poem, is described in an earlier blog post of mine. 

Poems can be found in everyday activities. That discovery is something that I wish I knew when I was much younger. It would have been so much easier to come up with poems for those poetry workshops that I enrolled in as an undergraduate and graduate student if I had examined my everyday activities more closely.

Poem in Flint Hills Review

One of my poems appears in the recently released edition of Flint Hills Review. Normally, the annual issue is released during the summer; the recent issue was delayed because of moving the offices at Emporia State University, among other things.

"A Seam of Coal,"  my poem, references Northern Ireland, particularly Belfast, where my mother was born and raised, and where my family often returned for visits when I was younger. The Short Strand is a working class section of Belfast. USDB, by the way, is an abbreviation for the United States Disciplinary Barracks, aka military prison, located at Fort Leavenworth. I taught a writing class there one semester ten or more years ago.

Because the picture is hard to read, I am adding another copy of the poem. 

A Seam of Coal

Leavenworth, Kansas

Every few minutes 
the horns of the coal trains hauling 
empty hoppers to Wyoming interrupt 
a Saturday night. My computer digests 
what appears on my screen 
thanks to the plant matter from millions 
of years ago. The smell from coal fires 

reminds me of the smoke-filled air of Belfast
that greeted us when our ferry entered the lough.
My grandfather once shouldered bags of coal 
he delivered to the row houses of the Short Strand. 
My sister and I brought in a bucketful 
for our aunt and sat in front of the fireplace,
rubbing in its heat. One uncle, not having
a hot water heater, kept a fire burning
through the year, his own Burning Mountain.

What punctuates my night offers hope
to the inmates of the USDB, their prison
located next to the train tracks. They dream 
of clutching the ladder at the end of a hopper
and, despite their freezing in the January air,
jumping off somewhere in Nebraska.

Jazz Recommendations for 2023

 

My jazz recommendations for 2023 appear below in no particular order. 

Jan Harbeck Quartet, Balanced. One jazz recording that I overlooked in 2022 is Jan Harbeck Quartet’s Balanced, which wasn’t released until late November of that year. Unlike previous recordings by Harbeck, where he plays standards like “Harlem Nocturne” or “I Love Paris,” this new album contains original music written by Harbeck and, with the exception of the opening track, “Balanced,” the album creates a dominant mood that conjures late nights in an urban jazz club. A fan of his music since 2011, I look forward to hearing upcoming albums by the Jan Harbeck Quartet.

Eriksen Quartet, As Good As It Gets. This new album reflects the close working relationship that the Espen Eriksen Trio and Andy Sheppard have established from having created two previous albums--Perfectly Unhappy and In the Mountains. The interplay between saxophone and piano is particularly strong on the tracks “Sticks and Stones,” “Pressure,” and “Drifting Clouds.” The entire album has gotten a lot of airplay in my house and car.
 

Helge Lien Trio, with Tore Brunborg, Funeral Dance. With this album, Helge Lien has included Tore Brunborg on saxophone.  Although Tore Brunborg has composed some of the tracks, the entire album has more of an atmospheric feel, in that the saxophone, instead of engaging in gymnastics, aids in creating a dominant mood. There are still individual tracks worthy of attention, such as “Apres Un Reve,” “Riss,” and “Kaldanuten.”

Soren Bebe Trio, Here Now. Contemplative, reflective, introspective, comforting—these adjectives describe much of Soren Bebe’s most recent album containing his trio, the first album of theirs to be released since Echoes (2019). My wife says she can imagine herself sitting outside watching the sunset while listening to this album. Although I would prefer much longer tracks because many of them are four minutes or less, I still find pleasure in such tracks as “Here Now,” “Tangeri,” "Winter," “Folksy (To Jan),” “Summer,” and “On and On.”

Matthew Halsall, An Ever Changing View. Finding inspiration in nature, in sculpture, and in the cityscape in Manchester, Matthew Halsall has created music that brings together the percussion pieces that he has collected over the years. Although there are many memorable tracks, one in particular that I like is titled “Calder Shapes.” It’s Gavin Barras’ bass that originally caught my attention. For a full appreciation of the album, I recommend listening to Matthew Halsall’s three-part podcast, which is available at YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpql41trSHs&t=37s&ab_channel=GondwanaRecords).