Sunday, February 14, 2010

To Please The Bees














A chapbook. About 60 pages with 30 poems and 5 “glimpses” into some of the things which sometimes happen in the journey we call life. There are twenty pictures, usually photographs, sometime sketches, six are in color and others are black and white to celebrate that special joy of tone and contrast. The book sells for $9.95 plus shipping and is available only by print on demand from Soliloquy Press. To order a copy, contact John Womack at johnhwomack@gmail.com and provide your name and mailing address. A copy of the book will be mailed to you with an invoice.

Both the poems and comments describe everyday events, but but also endeavor to peek beyond that which we see at first glance and try to detect and understand what is transpiring behind that which is presented to us. The writing seeks to describe moods, feelings and discovery. The purpose of the book is not to provide answers but to raise questions in the minds of its readers.

The author is not a traditional poet - that is evident from the first page - but he tries to present a different vision of what he thinks poetry “should” do, at least sometimes, and occasionally changes the “poetry discipline” intrapoem so that the structure of a poem changes to match a changing mood. Does this work? That is a question the book asks that the author cannot answer. Another aspect of this book is the graphic presentation of some of the poems as they lie on the page in addition to their structure as a poem.