{"title":"Blue Light Press","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781421836751","title":"An Affront to Gravity\u0026nbsp;","description":"\u003cp\u003eAs far as poetry is concerned, I am neither sure-footed nor clear. Metaphorically speaking, I am out on a leafless limb with just spider webs and moss, listening to the silken slip of water over stone. And the fact that no one understands me, doesn't make me an artist. My poems will probably not send a flurry of palpitations through the Gallery of Important Things Said, but then, my expectations have always been unreasonably high. Sometimes, when a poem fails, I carry around my ineptitude like a bowling ball, for the rest of the day envisioning the blank page just lying there, a fallen tree from the forest, soundlessly waiting.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI would much prefer my poems give the reader a sudden inhalation of joy-a reflexive gasp of awe and wonder-like seeing a Ferris wheel for the first time. If this volume has that effect on even a small portion of the reading populace, I will be ecstatic.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere are few activities that give me more pleasure than nudging\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewords across the blankly disquieting page, and pushing clay\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003earound, into, and through itself. I have been fortunate to work in\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etwo disciplines, writing and ceramics, and I have discovered the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eend result seldom exactly matches the goal in either. It is the work\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethat matters-the engagement of my imagination, the intuitive\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003euse of my mind and hands. In the end, the artist discovers art has\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea mind of its own, and it is these repeated realizations that enrich\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emy life. As much as any other work that I do, these small transformative\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ejourneys carry me (for the most part) forward.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMy mother owned a bookstore from 1962 to 1985 in Petaluma,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCalifornia. It was called Alta's Old Book Shop, and its value\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elay not in glossy modernity, but in its being a sort of dusty delivery\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eroom for the birth of ideas. It was for me, a refuge from hasty\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ejudgment, a source for answers and insights which enlarged my\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epersonal life and gave it meaning, and also generated an impulse\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto write.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI am currently teaching a poetry writing class at the Vintage\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHouse Senior Center in Sonoma as part of the Santa Rosa Junior\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCollege Older Adults Program. There is magic in this group of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epeople; they are blossoming as poets and contributing immeasurably\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eto my own ability to write poetry. I am most thankful for\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003etheir presence in my life.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299436900725,"sku":"9781421836751","price":15.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781421836751_dfacba7b-e7bd-499d-b133-03c98738d3cd.jpg?v=1786019856"},{"product_id":"9781421837703","title":"Falling into Flowers","description":"\u003cp\u003eLynne Barnes was born in Georgia and moved to New York City in 1968 with a front row ticket to \u003cem\u003eHair\u003c\/em\u003e, before migrating to San Francisco in 1969, two years after the Summer of Love. She has worked as a nurse on psych emergency units and oncology wards, and as a librarian in San Francisco’s Public Libraries. She was part of a commune that thrived for twenty years in the Haight Ashbury. She lives with her beloved partner, Carole.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299437785461,"sku":"9781421837703","price":18.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781421837703_655ef94b-59b0-4e8a-b383-dc856ac8f192.jpg?v=1786019859"},{"product_id":"9781421836485","title":"Postcards From a Dream","description":"\u003cp\u003eIt’s a stunning act of courage when Johanna Ely manipulates twenty-six letters and spells out a depth of pain, yearning, and everyday contemplations from the alphabet soup of her mind.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHer voice, attuned to brilliant imagery, is both subtle and striking as she wields her palette of pinks, greys, and metallic threads over each page of this collection. She’s a language artist who travels through dappled sunlight and bleak shadows to bare her gifted essence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJohanna Ely is the author of two chapbooks, \u003cem\u003eTransformation\u003c\/em\u003e (2015) and \u003cem\u003eTides of the Heart-Poems for Benicia\u003c\/em\u003e (2018). She is an award-winning poet and had a poem nominated for a Pushcart Prize in 2018. She has been published in many journals and anthologies, including \u003cem\u003eThe Poeming Pigeon \u003c\/em\u003eand \u003cem\u003eCalifornia Quarterly\u003c\/em\u003e. Johanna served as the sixth poet laureate for Benicia, California.  In 2018, she collected poems written by the Benicia First Tuesday Poets and put forth the anthology, \u003cem\u003eLight and Shadow\u003c\/em\u003e, published by Benicia Literary Arts. She hosts the monthly series, Poetry Inside Out, inviting poets from all over the Bay Area to come to Benicia and read their work. She also enjoys writing ekphrastic poetry and has coordinated many ekphrastic readings at the local galleries.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56299606573429,"sku":"9781421836485","price":12.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781421836485_bfab2fd3-2215-455b-a10b-7e04833ca898.jpg?v=1786019855"},{"product_id":"9781421837741","title":"No Foothold in this Geography","description":"\u003cp\u003eI have lived most of my adult life in Greece.  I start with this statement because of the unexpectedly vast impact and weight this fact has had on my world views, how I “translate” and survive in my surroundings, and, naturally, what — and even how — I write.  The cultural and physical landscapes of New England, where I was born and raised, and those of the Greek\/Mediterranean where I have lived for so long, mingle, merge and even coalesce in intriguing and often inexplicable ways in my poetry.  I might begin with a winter New Hampshire image, and a thread of Greece will attach itself to the image and pull it in another, surprising direction. I always trust these interventions, these visits; they inevitably create rich narrative tapestries. I believe they are also a large part of \u003cem\u003ewhy\u003c\/em\u003e I write, not only \u003cem\u003ewhat\u003c\/em\u003e I write.  In the past few years, world political events have also empowered my writing, infusing it with tension, contradiction and sometimes even mystery. Most recently, my writing has centered around the refugee situation in Europe, specifically Turkey and Greece, and my own experiences in the camps and with the immigrants themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI have worked in teaching, writing, editing and counseling; I have also published six books of poetry, one of which, \u003cem\u003eThe Possibility of Red\/\/Η Πιθανότητα του Κόκκινο, \u003c\/em\u003epublished by Hobblebush Books in 2014, is a bi-lingual edition in English and Greek (translated by Irene Theotokatou and Maria Laina). I have won a number of poetry and chapbook contests and prizes and have been nominated for the Pushcart Poetry Anthology twice; my latest book is \u003cem\u003eGathering the Soft, \u003c\/em\u003ean art\/poetry book that circles around the subject of cancer, put out in 2016 by Passager Books.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312328487285,"sku":"9781421837741","price":13.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781421837741_4dafd4f2-2279-4bd6-a06c-c9e08883b6a0.jpg?v=1786019860"},{"product_id":"no-longer-an-ingenue","title":"No Longer An Ingenue","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484285673845,"sku":"9781595409546","price":9.7,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781595409546.jpg?v=1786266340"},{"product_id":"at-the-edge-of-forever","title":"At The Edge Of Forever","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eAt The Edge Of Forever \u003c\/em\u003einhabits a landscape where humans hum with each color and hymn of the natural world. Each bird, dream and cloud quilt will hold your breath in beauty. Angel Elisa Collier writes from a big sky. Paws trespass your arm, the trees and breathe out of the forest. This is the perfect book to read after a hectic day and your entire being craves beauty.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAngel Elisa Collier published her first book, \u003cem\u003eThe Zen Of Falling Leaves\u003c\/em\u003e, in 2016. She follows up with her second book of poetry, \u003cem\u003eAt The Edge Of Forever\u003c\/em\u003e. For several years, she has studied under the direction of poet and author Diane Frank. Angel is the recipient of the H. Edward Cannon Memorial Award for the poem “Polonaise For Chopin.” She grew up among the woods and rolling hills of Minnesota and Wisconsin. She received her B.A. in Art at Maharishi University in Fairfield, Iowa, where she currently resides.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57484348031349,"sku":"9781421836461","price":14.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781421836461.jpg?v=1786266411"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-blue-light-press.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}