The Holy Nothing - Jessica Hiemstra (Pedlar Press)

Today's book of poetry:
The Holy Nothing.  Jessica Hiemstra.  Pedlar Press.  St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.  2016.

Reading Jessica Hiemstra's The Holy Nothing is exactly the poetry tonic needed by Today's book of poetry.  Some poets know how to cut right to the chase, hit the ground running.

Today's book of poetry just returned from an epic journey to the jowls of southern California and we were feeling a little poetry skeptical.  A little poetry jaded even.  All those highways outside and inside of Los Angeles is enough to put the fear in you.

Jessica Hiemstra is precisely the way to go.  In one of her poems Hiemstra has Irene's grandfather warming his wife's earrings in a moment so sweet and perfect that Today's book of poetry had a jaw drop moment.  Yes, yes, yes, but don't for one second think that Hiemstra is serving up treacle.  This stuff is pure.

The Holy Nothing will go a long way in proving Hiemstra to be one of those smart voices we need to hear from.  Canadian poetry needs this kind of voice in its choir.  

Jessica Hiemstra knows how hard and dark the world can be and she is willing to take you there.  One minute your warm heart glows with tenderness, the next, not so tender at all.

Haloes

There are haloes

around light switches

elevator buttons. We touch

and take something, leave something.

Smudge of oil, fleck of paint.

I hold my heart, its worn

marble steps. Can you see it,

the dog moon halo of men

who paced here, pressed here,

took something, left me

nearly holy?

💫💫💫

Jessica Hiemstra is great with a pencil, The Holy Nothing is riddled with excellent sketches and drawings by the poet, all of them quite lovely.  Today's book of poetry admired the drawings - but adored the poems.

With The Holy Nothing Jessica Hiemstra has found that sore spot we all have when we've lost someone very important, she strums that nerve as though she were Johnny Cash, diet-pill rapid and ripped, beating the bejesus out of his wooden box of a guitar.  Hiemstra has fine tuned that minor chord we bellow when we are all singing that song "loss."

Not sure how Hiemstra quite pulls it off but underlying all that turmoil, grief and leaving, there is an undercurrent of hope, a rim of possible light breaking crisp on the newly forming horizon.  It is not all grim.

Grace

I balance on silence in my skis

after lunch. Snow's not rain.

Love's not grace. I suppose

what I wanted was grace,

a version of atonement

that required nothing of me.

Of course I forgive you,

that was never a question.

Spring comes and means

nothing, but it's still holy.

💫💫💫

Today's book of poetry was enthralled by The Holy Nothing, we knew after the first poem, just like after taking the first bite of a new recipe, all tasty hopeful, we were hooked.  The Holy Nothing didn't let us down.  

Our morning read was an unrehearsed pleasure.  Kathryn, our Jr. Editor, took the lead and assigned each of us our poems.  Kathryn said that these poems "tasted copper, tasted blood."  If Kathryn was meaning that they felt real and true then she was right on track.

How about this one:  Jessica Hiemstra's The Holy Nothing reads smart like Sue Goyette, tender like Wendell Berry and smartdark like Saint Susan of Musgrave.

Abuse

Angry that his donkey got into a feed sack

a farmer in South America

poured gasoline on her and lit a match.

She ran blazing, ears back, circled home,

winded and raw. He was tender

with his salve, cursed himself

for cursing her.

💫💫💫

Milo, our head tech, came up empty-handed after I'd sent him into the stacks to see if we had either of Jessica Hiemstra's earlier books of poetry.  Well, there's another name to add to our list of book searches.

Strong and smart always go a long way here at Today's book of poetry.  The Holy Nothing is pure petrol for your poetry engine.  High test.

Jessica Hiemstra

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jessica’s widely published in literary journals and has edited anthologies of poetry, stories and essays. She’s won several awards for her poetry, and every time she finds the right words she’s surprised and happy.   At the moment Jessica’s writing from the second story of a little beige house in Toronto. She’s at work on a novel alongside her poems, paintings and drawings. 

BLURB

"Hiemstra’s vulnerability and her resilience are palpable throughout this volume, and she addresses hard personal and universal truths with a relentlessly straightforward honesty. It is this honesty that makes her collection so compelling." 

     - Canadian Literature

Jessica Hiemstra

Tree Reading Series, Ottawa

26 January 2016

Video: Tree Reading Series

pedlarpress.com 

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Poems cited here are assumed to be under copyright by the poet and/or publisher.  They are shown here for publicity and review purposes.  For any other kind of re-use of these poems, please contact the listed publishers for permission.

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Origami Poems Project - Jan Keough/Editor

Today's book of poetry:
Origami Poems Project.  Jan Keough/Editor.  Origami Poems Project.  Indialantic, Florida.  2013-2014.

Today's book of poetry will have a slightly different format today.  The six small micro-chapbooks that were sent to us by the Origami Poems Project are too short to be considered for individual attention on this blog.  But collectively they pack a punch.

These are small, fit in the palm of your hand books, only a few pages long, but there is nothing slight about them.  Today's book of poetry was thoroughly smitten and entertained.  We passed these perfect little gems around the office like bon-bons.

T

Inside a Dog's Head - Helen Burke, 2014

Inside a Dogs Head (for Wendy and Pixie)

There are three words

Inside a dogs head.  Walk ..Friend and ..Sausages.

Throughout the day when they are not

Devising a better philosophy for the world

These words run in tandem up and down

The field and in and out of the woods.

By the stream when they stop and give you that quizzical look

They are unlearning all that jeopardises and intimidates Happiness.

A dog always hopes that we will see sense and undo

All the harm we somehow inflict upon each other.

They explain the word friend while chasing their tails

Or running for a stick.

But even while they spell it out

We walk back to the car ..not seeing autumn under our feet

In need of scrunching. Not seeing the trees so fearful

Of the white world that soon hangs on the branches.

But inside a dogs head - there will always be another Spring.

Sausages for tea. And. Another friend to make.

Another walk to take - down to the silver stream.

...

Helen Burke really does inhabit a dog's life Inside a Dog's Head.  But there is no barking.  These poems will simply make you look at your dog a little differently, look at every dog differently.

I've never danced with a dog but Helen gets it exactly right, if you are, ever, going to dance with a dog - it's Johnny Cash or Petula Clarke.  

Helen Burke

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Helen Burke has been writing poetry for the last twenty-five years. She has just completed a one woman show at the Edinburgh Festival. Over the last two years she has been a regular reader at Literature Festivals and events in the U.K. – and her work has appeared in numerous poetry magazines and anthologies.
She has also had short stories published, written for and performed on radio as well as working as a visual artist. Winner of the Manchester, Devon and Dorset, Norwich, Suffolk and Leslie Richardson (Yorkshire) Prizes, amongst other awards. Ian McMillan has said of her work – “This is a poet with verve, wit and humanity.”
Her collections include: Poetry – Helen Burke (1997), Island of Dreams (1997), Gift (2001), and Zuzu's Petals (2009). Her newest collection, The Ruby Slippers, is available from amazon.co.uk
Listen to Helen's radio broadcasts on ELFM (East Leeds UK).

* * * * * *

Deft Turning.  Ira Schaeffer, 2013

Upside-Down Cake

Mother Mayhem, Queen of Hearts

remember how you bound

your pal, your son

tighter than the Gordian knot

with welts and kisses -- your embrace

a coil of vipers, a tickling hysteria.

When your cruelty was spent

you'd lure me back

with baking pans and pineapple slices,

framing your eyes like golden spectacles

then holding them up to mine -- I saw

the one I loved return.

The Jolly Baker laughed, the eggs cracked,

sweet dust powdered your pretty hair,

I watched the mixing blades spin --

without your centrifugal loathing

our topsy-turvy world inverted

as the batter thickened.

Then with quilted mitts

you managed a deft overturning --

my hunger and dread now rested

on a glass pedestal,

a dainty dish sweeter for its rarity --

Mother, you fed me lies;

you fed me love.

...

Ira Shaeffer's confessional Deft Turning is a slice of relationship world.  That intimate ground between a child and mother and then the child grown.  It is not always chocolate chipped cookies and a kiss before bed.  

Shaeffer is working out some cathartic stuff here and it makes for some compelling poems.

Ira Shaeffer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ira Schaeffer,an active member of Ocean State Poets and a proud supporter of the Origami Poems Project, is the current recipient of the Editor’s Choice Loft Chapbook Award. In addition, Ira’s recent poetry has appeared in a variety of publications, including, Penumbra; On the Dark Side: An Anthology of Fairy Tale Poetry; Tastes like Pennies; 50 Haiku; Wising Up Press; and Silver Birch Press In addition, his poem Primavera, was a 2014 nomination by The Origami Poems Project for the Pushcart Prize.

* * * * * *

Stone.  Corey Mesler, 2014.

This is a glorious chapbook filled with treats.  William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and Iris Murdoch get us going and Mesler fills in the blanks.  This is a stone world and we are welcome in it.

Stone is a major treatise writ small.  But it has weight.

Coda:  Gift

A child will bring a stone home

and keep it as if

it were a precious gem. This

is the understanding

of the world we lose as we age.

On my desk is a desiccated

flower, a gift from

my daughter, the bestowing angel,

and the stone, now here, conferred.

...

Mesler has a lovely take on the world in these gems.

Corey Mesler

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Corey Mesler has published in numerous journals and anthologies. He has published 8 novels, 3 full length poetry collections, and 3 books of short stories. He has also published a dozen chapbooks of both poetry and prose. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize numerous times, and two of his poems were chosen for Garrison Keillor’s Writer’s Almanac.
With his wife, he runs Burke’s Book Store in Memphis TN, one of the country’s oldest (1875) and best independent bookstores. www.burkesbooks.com
He can be found at www.coreymesler.com.

* * * * *

In Between.  Martha Clarkson, 2014.

Martha Clarkson has an awful lot of useful stuff to say in this short little chapbook.  She is one of those poets whom I imagine I would get along with famously.  I like the way she thinks.

Church of Colors

Red gave the sermon. Blues made up the choir - turquoise, navy, cornflower, and midnight. Silver

was an acolyte who almost set the altar cloth on fire. Brown's the organist. Sky Blue tried out for

choir but didn't make it. Yellow managed the nursery but refused to change diapers. Only one child

was lost that first year. Pink kept the books, noting that donations were down, due to a fading con-

gregation. Purple passed the communion tray. Gold rang the bell. Green mowed the tiny patch of

lawn out front and washed the dishes after fellowship hour. Black presided over the funerals, like you

might expect, and White was the wedding hostess. Orange was the deacon, who, like a ship's purser,

had an unclear role. Somewhere above, God wore Ray Bans, blinded by his own faith.

...

Martha is a pistol and these poems come at you like they were shot from a little tiny gun - and then BANG.  The reader discovers what a little gun can do.

Martha Clarkson

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martha Clarkson is a corporate designer and receives mail in Kirkland Washington.

She is a writer of poetry and fiction and is not adept at folding origami but glad to be part of this. Martha won best short story for Anderbo's 2012 contest and has notable mentions in "Best Non-Required Reading" two years in a row.

* * * * *

Extras.  Winston Plowes, 2014.

Everything is happening in the closed world of Winston Plowes.  His very short poems pepper this chapbook as though a serious Richard Brautigan had returned to play.

Man in car

The Range Rover mounted the pavement

Its driver texting Thailand, reversing against the arrows.

His day had gone from bad to worse,

the car park was unexpectedly closed.

...

Plowes is dead serious and light of heart.  It is an excellent combination.  

Winston Plowes

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Teacher, compere, performer and poet, Winston Plowes spends his days fine-tuning background noise and rescuing discarded words. These are re-sculpted over a glass of wine into magical poetry birds he releases by night to fly to new homes in journals and online destinations worldwide.
He lives in a floating home in Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire UK, where he tries to persuade his black cat, ‘Fatty’ that it’s a good idea for her to do the same.
Find out more about his work at his website here – www.winstonplowes.co.uk

* * * * *

Silent Work.  Martin Willitts Jr., 2014.

Silent Work by Martin Willitts Jr. is a short treatise on love.  How it works and how it doesn't. Willitts is able to get to the heart of the matter in quick work.  These connected verses work towards a conclusion we can all live with.  

The world is a better place with kindness.

Such a simple resolve yet so few of us see it through.

Silent Work

2.

This is the silent work of love. The hard work

is made easy, and the easy work is made hard.

Like after a tornado, there is the aftermath

when everything calms; or,

when distance between towns makes a long journey,

the absence of love can make a relationship

seem forever.

After the settling of stars are no longer in the sky,

what could possibly be more intense than love?

What could possibly be more drenching than hate?

Someone said, we can love all you want,

we can forgive with all our heart, and still,

love might not come to us.

When we believe we have given all we can give,

give more. Give until the silence of love is an overture

and the heart is a swelling of tides.

It is like wind-fall rising and settling.

...

Martin Willitts, Jr.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Martin Willitts, Jr. retired as a Senior Librarian in upstate New York and currently is a volunteer literacy tutor. He is a visual artist of Victorian and Chinese paper cutouts. Martin was nominated for 5 Pushcart and 3 Best Of The Net awards. He is the editor of Willet Press. (Update: 2014 the OPP nominated Martin's poem, Love is Breathing, for a Pushcart Prize.)

* * * * *

Jan Keough has done a remarkable job.  This series, Origami Poems Project, is a huge undertaking and from what I can make out they have published hundreds and hundreds of different little books.  If these six are any indication the Origami Poems Project may be quietly, slowly, one little book at a time, taking over the world.

All six of these chapbooks were swell.  Everyone at the office thought so.

origamipoems.com

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