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Welcome to Longhouse's bibliography, covering 41 years of steady publications. The press was created by Bob Arnold in 1971, the year he was drafted by the Army and stationed with Consci-entious Objector status in southern Vermont during the last gruesome stages of the Vietnam War. Bob was heading there anyway ... being employed by a brotherly minister of the local Episcopal church, and therein was found the key to Longhouse's future: the church offices held an AB Dick mimeograph machine, & the rest is history.
Bob Arnold edited & printed each title entry below. Publishing, printing and believing would be greatly enhanced by Susan Arnold from 1974 onwards. All has been published & continued without a cent of financial assistance in the way of grants, fellowships, subscription and especially government or corporate funding. The dear "individuals" infusing the list of guardian angels, supporters and heart-felt benefactors are now legendary in the editor's mind. In the 1980s, a bookshop was established. Being too rural in location for the occasional visitor, Longhouse went online as a bookstore, and to this day the website supplements the necessary income to keep the press afloat. Gracias.
The following anecdotes were taken as self-interviews 'speaking' into the computer screen, a dizzy art-form in itself. Where the reader feels the "I" and "we" of the speaker are confusing (and it may be), just imagine a very old-fashioned cohabitated marriage (Susan & Bob) - where one is often both - and in this regard, as it should be.
The format has been purposely
designed to act as a chalk board where the editor is certain
folks will come forth with corrections as they read along, and
remind the poor editor of his possible shoddy memory. Be inclined.
The editor will also practice his own revisions, so these pages
will be active with wings. New capsule portraits will begin at
the start of 2007 since the Show must go on ~
Many of our handmade booklets, postcards, and books from over the years by poets world wide
2008
2008. Bob Arnold. 'birches'. Flip-up booklet.
: I'm writing this now in the summer of 2012 looking back five years at what had happened and is still happening. Let's begin! 2008 started off with a tiny hand flip-up card of one of my poems, sent out free and tucked often into hand written correspondence. No one complained.
2008. Bob Arnold. Dream Come True. 20 fold-out poems wrapped in Japanese handmade iris paper in Lokta band. An expanded edition from the tel-let 2001. More poems and one correction!
: more short poems by Bob, collected over a year or two and wrapped up in Lokta paper we were at the time finding in a shop selling at a very reasonable price. Out of one sheet I could handmake 18 booklets. This sequence had been first published by John Martone at tel-let, then expanded here, and likewise translated by Lars Amund Vaage into a bilingual Norwegian/English cloth edition published by Hanne Bramness, with drawings by Laurie Clark.
2008. Bob Arnold, the gardener says... one long poem of many small poems - really for children, or the one in you - folded all up into actual flower petaled handmade papers
: it was meant for children and I often reached to send a copy, or share a copy, with adults that were nicely child-like. Yes, a personal decision. It looks to be Lokta wrapping left over from the previous booklet. Almost always we work with what we have on hand. A lifetime of living out in the woods, and starting off having to hike to town 10 miles if I ever wanted anything,has given me a discipline to be happy with what I have. When I'm not, we make a special trip and sometimes it's well worth it for a special someone (meaning a poet).
2008. Arnold, Bob, editor ~ Origin, Sixth Series The Complete Issues, Quartet and the Coda ~ Longhouse, 2008 First edition / CD-Rom E-book Origin Sixth Series quartet & Coda (five issues in all) published as a PDF e-book on CD with nearly 250 contributors and a whalloping 1,700 colorful pages of poetry, prose, art and photographs. After nearly a year of free reading of the series from our website, now is your chance to own your own copy. Poetry / Anthology / CD-Rom E-book 29572 : $20 (+ $2.50 s/h)
Please have a look and see if this beauty can fit into your teaching plans, as well as a title to interest friends, colleagues and all libraries. We'd love it if other poets, readers & teachers took up the CD anthology as a companion.
System requirements: the PDF files with high quality resolution best read with Adobe Acrobat Reader 5.0 or later version / Windows with Autorun capability / Mac users please first link to Origin-Introduction.pdf for bookmark navigation / Table of Contents now with bookmark links
Decorative CD in C-Pak
To avoid confusion amongst the purists, we have prepared ORIGIN, Sixth Series as a tribute to Cid Corman. No one in his right mind is attempting to do Origin the way Cid would. Impossible. For a rousing history of Origin, please read A Gist of Origin edited by Cid Corman.
This sixth series is a four-issue Origin-set that leafed out during the Spring months of 2007, culminating with a 'coda' issue in December. It is the very last of Origin, ever.
A small part of this series
had Cid Corman's personal touch ~ in particular, some of the
feature poets names chosen. After Cid's passing, poets were then
gathered by editor Bob Arnold as more a celebration to poetry
and for Cid. It has became a leafy canopy of many poets from
around the world ~ ancients to the remarkably young ~ and all
of the set is published as a PDF file. It's meant to read on
the screen, and more, to be now shared as an e-book on CD.
The Origin set reaches 1,700
pages, with 250 artists & poets strong.
Origin Poets & Artists: Dobree Adams ~ Rae Armantrout ~ Bob Arnold / Origin Feature 1~ Carson Arnold ~ Susan Arnold ~ Ed Baker ~ Amiri Baraka ~ Jeffery Beam ~ Franco Beltrametti ~ Jan Bender ~ John Bennett ~ Sophia Bentinck ~ Carol Berge ~ Romulo Bernardo / trans. Janine Pommy Vega ~ Guy Birchard ~ Kevin Bowen ~ John Bradley / Cheng Hui ~ Hanne Bramness ~ Alan Brilliant ~ Rolf Brinkmann ~ David Brinks ~ Maggie Brown ~ Pam Brown ~ David Budbill ~ Clifford Burke ~ Bobby Byrd ~ Alex Caldiero ~ Alvaro Cardona-Hine ~ Hayden Carruth ~ Sean Casey ~ Beth Chasse ~ David-Baptist Chirot ~ Cid Corman Letters to Judith Binder ~ Cid Corman Letters to Louise Landes Levi ~ Carson Cistulli ~ Laurie Clark ~ Thomas A. Clark ~ Andy Clausen ~ Steve Clay ~ Ira Cohen ~ Marcel Cohen / trans. Cid Corman ~ Jack Collom ~ Rita Corbin ~ Cid Corman ~ Shizumi Corman ~ Arlene Corwin ~ Robert Creeley ~ Simon Cutts ~ Rene Daumal ~ Tsering Wangmo Dhompa ~ Jim Dodge ~ Kim Dorman ~ Ray Drew ~ Reidar Ekner ~ Theodore Enslin / Origin Archive ~ Rita degli Esposti / trans. by Coco Gordon ~ George Evans ~ Clive Faust ~ Alec Finlay ~ Ian Hamilton Finlay / Origin Archive Feature ~ Dennis Formento ~ Walter Franceschi ~ Gloria Frym ~ Forrest Gander / translations of Marcos Canteli, Carlos Pardo & Elena Medel ~ Megan M. Garr ~ Jacqueline Gens ~ Sergio Geyda / trans. George Evans & Daisy Zamora ~ Man Giac / trans. Kevin Bowen ~ David Giannini ~ Michael Gizzi ~ Peter Gizzi ~ Jesse Glass ~ Lyle Glazier ~ Charles Goodrich ~ Kirpal Gordon ~ Elio Grasso / Franco Beltrametti ~ Sam Green ~ Jonathan Greene ~ Sam Grolmes ~ Sam Hamill ~ Marie Harris ~ Caroline Hartge ~ Terry Hauptman ~ Gerald Hausman ~ Kris Hemensley ~ David Hess ~ Michael Hettich ~ David Hinton / Wei Ying-wu ~ Mikhail Horowitz ~ Gary Hotham ~ Kuan Hsiu / trans. J. P. Seaton ~ Stefan Hyner ~ Brenda Iijima ~ Erling Inreeide ~ Lisa Jarnot ~ Tom Jay ~ Brooks Johnson ~ Kent Johnson ~ Greg Joly ~ Hettie Jones ~ George Kalamaras ~ Lenore Kandel ~ Yoshie Kaneiri ~ Eliot Katz ~ Judy Katz-Levine ~ Cralan Kelder ~ Miyazawa Kenji / trans. Gerald Hausman & Kenji Okuhira ~ Miyazawa Kenji / trans. Hiroaki Sato ~ Kit Kennedy ~ Bill Knott ~ James Koller ~ Richard Kostelanetz ~ Mark Kuniya ~ Joanne Kyger ~ John Latta ~ Alan Lau ~ Dudley Laufman ~ Gary Lawless ~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~ Joseph Lease ~ Louise Landes Levi ~ John Levy ~ Chung Ling ~ Khong Lo / trans. Kevin Bowen ~ Ron Loewinsohn ~ Gerard Malanga ~ Jerry Martien ~ Stephen-Paul Martin ~ John Martone / Origin Feature 3 ~ Joseph Massey ~ Sebastian Matthews ~ Farid Matuk ~ Michael Mauri ~ Howard McCord ~ Duncan McNaughton ~ Tim McNulty ~ Nora Mehrhoff ~ Charlie Mehrhoff / Origin Feature 2 ~ Yuan Mei / trans. J. P. Seaton ~ Richard Meltzer ~ Henri Michaux / trans. Cid Corman ~ David Miller ~ Sabine Miller ~ Billy Mills ~ Peter Money ~ Tom Montag ~ Barbara Moraff ~ Giuseppe Moretti ~ Sheila Murphy ~ Eileen Myles ~ Vivek Narayanan ~ Hoa Nguyen / Origin Feature 4 ~ Lorine Niedecker / Origin Archive ~ Mike O'Connor ~ Mike / Hermit-Sage Tradition O'Connor / Hermit-Sage Tradition ~ Josip Osti / trans. Barbara Subert ~ Maureen Owen ~ Richard Owens ~ Ron Padgett ~ Shin Yu Pai ~ Ethan Paquin ~ Jenny Penberthy ~ Omar Perez Lopez / trans. Kristin Dykstra & Nick Lawrence ~ John Perlman ~ Will Petersen ~ Stephen Petroff ~ Simon Pettet ~ Denis Philippe / trans. Cid Corman ~ Janos Pilinszky / trans. Cid Corman ~ Plucked Chicken / Origin Archive ~ Verandah Porche ~ Meredith Quartermain ~ Peter Quartermain ~ Jerry Reddan ~ Tangram ~ Peter Riley ~ Marcia Roberts ~ Elizabeth Robinson ~ Janet Rodney ~ Martin Jack Rosenblum ~ Ce Rosenow ~ Michael Rothenberg ~ Gail Roub ~ Philip Rowland ~ Eero Ruuttila ~ Albert Saijo ~ Nanao Sakaki ~ Frank Samperi ~ Edward Sanders ~ Charles Sandy ~ Steve Sanfield ~ Santoka / trans. Scott Watson ~ Aram Saroyan ~ Leslie Scalapino ~ Andrew Schelling ~ Silke Scheuermann ~ George Schneeman ~ Maurice Scully ~ J. P. Seaton ~ Jerome Seaton ~ Fred Jeremy (F. J.) Seligson ~ Sengai / trans. Cid Corman ~ Han Shan / trans. J. P. Seaton ~ David Shapiro ~ Gail Sher ~ Kazuko Shiraishi / trans. Yumiko Tsumura & Samuel Grolmes ~ Eleni Sikelianos ~ John Sinclair ~ Austin Smith ~ Daniel Smith ~ Patricia Smith ~ Dale Smith / Origin Feature 4 ~ Gary Snyder / Origin Archive Feature ~ Clemens Starck ~ Rose Styron ~ Nicomedes Suarez-Arauz ~ John Suiter ~ Robert Sund ~ Arthur Sze ~ John Taggart ~ Ishii Tatsuhiko / trans. Hiroaki Sato ~ Mark Terrill ~ Nguyen Quang Thieu / trans. Kevin Bowen ~ Sophia Thor ~ Tony Tost ~ John Tranter ~ Tree Hugger ~ Yumiko Tsumura ~ Gael Turnbull ~ Lars Amund / trans. Hanne Bramness Vaage ~ Blanca Varela / trans. Roberto Tejada ~ Laki Vazakas ~ Janine Pommy Vega ~ John Vieira ~ Anne Waldman ~ Catherine Walsh ~ Phyllis Walsh ~ Scott Watson ~ James L. Weil ~ Michael Dylan Welch ~ Robert West ~ Philip Whalen / Origin Archive ~ J. D. Whitney ~ Wild Hawthorn Press / Origin Archive ~ Peter Lamborn Wilson / Pir Zia Inayat-Khan ~ Laura Winter ~ Jane Wodening ~ Peter Yovu ~ Daisy Zamora ~
: this is already too massive to write a quip about. It dominated one whole year for us, hundreds of poets, mucho correspondence on my end collecting and editing, then Susan's contribution of 8 hour days screening everything and setting them onto the Internet. We had help. Someone, anonymous, sent us a financial donation out of the goodness of their heart. Someone else we know contributed handsomely in more ways than one. John Martone bought us a scanner. David Giannini went out of his way to print the whole text issue after issue (I edited 4 issues, really anthologies) so we have a paper copy of the huge text. There are only two paper collections, I believe. David owns one, we own the other. After we got through the year we had a CD-disc format prepared of the entire show: poems, art work etc. and this can still be purchased from us. All the ceremony of the year was for Cid and Shizumi Corman. I had taken over Cid's wishes of wanting to see an Origin, sixth series made. So it was made.
Innumerable booklets would be made out of this series, or lengthened into booklets, by many of the poets involved. I will pinpoint these as we go along.
2008. Nicolas Born. The Bill for Room 11. fine selection of poems from this 20th century German master translated by Mark Terrill in violet wraps with double-sided printed wrap around band.
:we've enjoyed working with Mark, stationed for decades now over in Germany (originally a California boy) either booklets of his own poems, or his translations. Born is one more of Mark's astute choices.
2008. Hanne Bramness, Flower Pieces. from Norway, the flowers and one poet there. We think an absolute gem. Many poems folded up into fern etched wraps
: we have prepared many booklets by Norway's Hanne Bramness, often delicate and well rooted poemscapes that take over the day once read. The booklets like to go outdoors with you, from where they came.
2008. Thomas A Clark, The Quiet Garden. the fourth Longhouse booklet by one of Scotland's finest ~ cut glass poems as silent as they come.
: Tom is one of the wonders of the British Isles, for decades, and with a continuity that rivals a tree and its foliage year by year, so do the poems and visual pieces from the hand of Tom. Over the years, from Scotland, he has sent me manuscripts when I've asked. When I've asked.
2008. Cid Corman, The Next One Thousand Years. The Selected Poems and Translations of this internationally acclaimed poet, translator, and editor of the seminal journal Origin - edited by Ce Rosenow & Bob Arnold, Longhouse, 2008. 224 pages. $15 (plus s/h). Distribution exclusively through Longhouse
: someone recently wrote to tell me this collection is "poorly edited", which is an opinion, and any opinion is one to deal with openly and do with it as one must. My 'must' is the book is done. Another good year spent with a fellow worker, this time Ce Rosenow, selecting mainly the shorter poems from Cid Corman's vast sea of poems. Sea? How about seas! The book is certainly not "poorly edited". It is taken from one corner of Cid, but a corner that ran deeply throughout his range of work. We also included many of his translations and wanted them seated in the selection as if one and all with Cid. So no fanfare. Cid ran his translations, like his poetry, through one Corman filter. We hold the unpublished manuscripts from Cid's opus work "of", and purposely did not choose from that work (yet). Down the road we would like to see the whole five volumes of "of" attached to the already three volumes in print. The cover photograph for The Next One Thousand Years is by Dobree Adams, leading to a haunt by Basho. Basho and Cid were friends.
2008. Mariah Fox. i am i . Fold-out with text by the artist of six original color paintings. Subject matter ranging from Andy Warhol to Basquiat, Bob Marley, Jim Morrison and others. Two editions unsigned in tan wraps with wrap around band and signed in turquoise Lokta wraps with wrap around band.
: Mariah Fox is the daughter of poet and storyteller Gerald Hausman and Gerry is an old pal and I just knew learning that his daughter was an artist she might have something for us to print and share. It happened just like that. Marish lives and works in Miami, which if you want to work together, isn't at all that far from Vermont.
2008. Walter Franceschi Little Satori. Fine kidding paper wraps with floating cloud band. Three color fold-out booklet.The Italian poets first book! New and limited.
:Walter Franceschi, after some years sending us small handmade boolets that he would make of his poems, and then where we did two booklets, and charmed by both, has disappeared on us. Walter lives and works in Italy, and though Susan hasn't been there since she was 7 years old, she can picture where he is and tell me things. I'll wait for Walter to tell me some more one day. We keep the booklets in print.
2008. Forrest Gander, translator. Three Spanish Poets ~ Marcos Canteli, Carlos Pardo, Elena Medel
Forrest Gander has assembled three young Spanish poets born between 1974 and 1985, all who have published internationally with books or in anthologies. We offer here a fine selection from all three poets translated by the poet Forrest Gander, English text. Brown bark wraps with decorative wrap around band
: Forrest may have come to me through the wide and glad hand of Kent Johnson, a remarkable fellow, really. As is Forrest. Kent sent my way many poets during the ORIGIN, sixth series collecting, and many stuck with us for further work. . .this booklet being one. The Spanish poets were chosen and shared by Forrest and we hopefully did the rest.
2008. Whit Griffin, Wanhope. certainly native spiritual and maybe supernatural poems of the earth To feel so much despair amid / this beauty is a curse. Wondrous chapbook clutch of poems wrapped in bled blue papers
: I can be old-fashioned so I immediately heard and felt and even could smell what I believe is Civil War when I was reading these poems by Whit. There is an undoubtedly mystical breeze working through these poems as well, and it all makes for a royal unique poet. This is one of two booklets we will publish by Whit over the next few years.
2008. Han Shan / Translations by J. P. Seaton / art by Jerome Seaton My Home's A Hole. Fine and bright with Lokta band. Three color extensive fold-out booklet in Bodha leaf paper. New and limited. A pattern of poems by the Cold Mountain legend with commentary by noted Chinese scholar and poet J. P. Seaton.
: Sandy Seaton came to us for a few years and just put down his knapsack of wisdom Chinese and said the same time I did, "we can make some booklets together, you and me." So we did. I believe some of all the booklets eventually went into his quite handsome Shambhala book publications, with no word of credit to us as first publishing, but who's counting? Not us. The pleasure has all been in doing the booklets, sometimes with a helping hand from Sandy's artist son Jerome. That's his calligraphy you see on the title page. Since the 1960s J.P. Seaton (Sandy) has been one of the premiere translators of ancient Chinese. From what I gather, he's every day working on another poem.
2008. Gerald Hausman, Bokeelia. from coastal Florida, hidden away with turtles, lizards and moon filled ponds, comes this poet's first book of poems in twenty years. A lot of poems tucked up and away in this seaside beauty
:Bokeelia is a spot, hidden I bet, somewhere in Florida, and Gerald Hausman knows where it is and allows us a peek and another peek and more peeks (because he is never selfish) and what and where this world where he makes his poems is from. You go there. But only if you let~go. I selected and edited these poems together for Gerry. When we tried it for a second booklet, it didn't work. That's a behind-the-scenes tidbit. Here's another one: we'll try one again, someday.
2008. Michael Mauri, Florida Turnips. forester and poet Michael Mauri spins a true tale of western Massachusetts nuclear power and resistance through historical, imaginary and real figures. One long poem folded up into Bodhi leaf wraps
: Mike Mauri is both a forester (employment, he has a family, two beautiful daughters) and a poet, and he rides the range of discovery out on the land where he brings his poems from. This booklet deals with nuclear power, land, people, our eco-system, survival, and momentarily between all those atoms, some dangers, a long poem writ.
2008. Hoa Nguyen. What Have You. A fat booklet of new poems by Hoa - one of our largest booklets to date. 3 fold-out scroll sheets tucked up into lovely Asian screenprint with cloud wrap around band. Both unsigned and signed editions.
: Hoa would probably only publish with us once, she's in demand, so if we are going to dance once, let's make it with the finest papers we can find in a 10 mile radius (try never to spread yourself too far) and make it the largest booklet we've ever done in the foldout method. Usually our booklets are one or two pages that fold out. With Hoa we insisted on three pages because she had such good work that needed to be kept in one cabinet. It took some pressing down to keep that cabinet closed as paper bulk. The outer wraps is Asian quality with gilt lacings.
2008. Simon Pettet. Feast Or Famine. Fine winter sky blue with floating cloud band. Three color fold-out booklet. Dance the day away with a survivor's latest selection of poems. New and limited.
: Simon is about the only poet I know who touches base with us after three years, five years, a month after that? with a note like we are the best of friends (so we are) and here's something he'd like us to read. It's 100% natural and likewise ready to be published. This was one such occasional meeting.
2008. Schelling, Andrew, translator. Anonymous. In the morning mail one day came these two new translation surprises from the ancient lovers by Andrew, and by the afternoon we had the little booklet sized up and printed pretty, and he had copies back in Colorado in a day or two giving them away, the only way. Fine and bright fold-out booklet. New and limited.
2008. Andrew Schelling, Lal Ded, b. 1320, Kashmir. Just short of a dozen translated poems that suggest a deep allegiance to the Kashmiri form of Siva worship, in foldout chaplet style and bound in elegant screenprint wraps with textual band.
: Andrew has been a visitor here (with a brother residing in Vermont) many times and a constant correspondent with me, probably through the good words about one another via Cid Corman. We've stayed tied together. Longhouse seems to publish something by Andrew once a year and none of it is ever planned. Either he sends something as a general reading and gift and I see it as something I must publish, or else I request something, or he has something he'd like published and is Longhouse interested? All I know is a lot of "something" has been happening for a good many years. Lalleshwari (1320-1392), also known as Lal Ded, is the creator of the mystic poetry called Vatsun or Vakhs. Known as Lal Vakhs, her verses are the earliest compositions in Kashmiri language and are an important part of the history of Kashmiri literature.
2008. Mark Terrill. Superabundance. A native of California and former merchant seaman who has been writing, translating and scraping by in Europe since the early 1980s. We offer here a sheaf of nine new poems in pumpkin wraps with decorative band.
: first the translation booklet earlier in the year, then new poems by Mark that I often read in large bunches, say 20-30 poems at a clip and I chose and edit a booklet up. If it all floats in my hands after I'm done, we're on. Mark continues a grand tradition of ex-patriot while making travels in Europe — a sly eye that can also cry.
2008. Lars Amund Vaage, The Institution Poems. the Norwegian novelist and poet's second collection with us - facing the hardships and duties of a loved one. Many poems wrapped up into royal papers. $15 / very limited signed
: earlier in life we published the sheep farmer poems by the novelist and poet Lars Amund Vaage, a booklet I will always love. Lars Amund was born and raised on the western side of Norway and is a country boy. He has made his living as novelist and translator (Lorine Niedecker and others) and poems from time to time comes into his playing field. This collection concerns a daughter and her health and livelihood and a father's struggle and passions.
2008. Wilson, Peter Lamborn and Pir Zia Inayat-Khan. Ghazal from the Divan-i Ghalib. Fine firebrand red with floating cloud band. Three color fold-out booklet. No one's like Peter Lamborn Wilson to yesterday into today, exquisite selection of poems here. New and limited.
: Peter Lamborn Wilson doesn't own a computer, it seems, and all communication has come by handwritten letters from some quiet spot on earth, respectfully. These translations included. We carry on with it all.
Another style of publishing we like — the taller booklet, or what Bill Porter termed "a bus ticket" (he should know, he rides them, because of their design and shape).
2009
2009. Bob Arnold, Cup. Many new poems from a winter ice-age. Handmade and handbound in johnny jump-ups stiff wraps. This many-colored sequence is limited to 50 signed copies.
: I wrote the brief commentary for the year 2008 then went outdoors, early morning, and cut brush for an hour. One of the best chores to do and feel something is done before the heat rises to another 90-95 degree day. This little booklet came from the opposite pole: winter down here in the river valley, an ice storm and no power or phone for almost a week and the poems that came to visit me.
2009. Bob Arnold, Glade, from a woodcutter's notebook. This sheaf of poems of work and love. Many colored fold-out booklet wrapped in leaf sleeve with wrap around band.
: Glade is in the woodlot with the girl you love, working together, making firewood which is making poems. The paper stock for the booklet is actual leaf pressed into Bodhi.
2009. Bob Arnold, Music. Love Thy Poet More and More and More and More! 2009 Three color 4-1/4 x 6 postcard suitable for framing or slipping into the mail.
:a postcard poem made from the longest poem from Cup because it seemed right to do.
2009. Bob Arnold, My Sweetest Friend. 38 poems as one-long-poem tribute, concerning the sudden loss of an older sister who was once a close childhood friend.
: I like this book of poems to speak for itself more than I can here — I come from a family of four: three brothers, of which I am the oldest, and an older sister, who we all looked up to. Our sister took her life in Florida in 2009, or she had an accident, or she was murdered. One never knows anymore. A note was left and it seemed to be in her handwriting. I know the handwriting because my sister wrote me all through my high-school years and very early twenties when I would send her homemade books of poems and she always answered. Including a few weeks before she was found dead, alone, on the floor of her Florida condo. Fellow poets, you remember the very first person who took to you and your poems and guided you awhile through the storm, right? The poems came to me quickly, sometimes 8, 9, 10 at once. I had to run ahead of the book.
2009. Bob Arnold, On Which~Way Trail. Love poems from the woods and the trail. 24 poems wrapped in a variation of handmade covers and endpapers. All with a bent toward different centuries. Very limited and handmade.
: this little book of small poems was made with what cover stock we had on hand, often a pleasure because right about now I was after some variety and change-up. I like trails into the woods — man made and animal made, both go.
2009. Bob Arnold, What Is October. One poem - 4 1/4 x 6 three-color card. Ideal for posting or framing
: a small poem for the month of October. Lightweight. You don't even know it's with you.
2009. Abdulqâder Bidel,/ Adaptations by Robin Magowan. BIDEL'S RUBÁIÁ. 14 poems adapted by Robin Magowan from the world and mind of Abdulqâder Bidel (1644-1721) in colored wraps, Tibetan and silkscreen variations.
: I believe my old friend David Giannini encouraged Robin to send us this translation during a lunch they had together where things get talked about, even hatched. Robin liked the idea, as did I, and mostso the poet translated and era. We had some paper stock I've never seen again, plus a red variety, we settled around the poems.
2009. Guy Birchard, Cigarette Cards. Eighteen new poems by Guy in this accordion fold-out, three color chaplet with wrap around band.
: Guy writes us from Canada and he might write you from there as well, and his very fine poems come from there or even some British variance or somewhere else only Guy knows of. Immensely entertaining and cleanly built comes every Guy poem.
2009. Hanne Bramness, Winter Flowers. A companion volume to Flower Pieces by Hanne Bramness published by Longhouse. These near dozen new poems from Norway, translated by the author and Frances Presley. Fold-out format in rose wraps, many colored with band.
: more 'flowers' from Hanne in Norway. It's irrisistible when she sends them. We find a vase.
2009. Rafael Cadenas, / Rowena Hill, translator from Lover. 14 poems by the Venezzuelan poet Rafael Cadenas and translated by the British native Rowena Hill. Foldout three color sheets in red sky in the morning papers with signed and unsigned wrap around bands.
: as often is the case, we publish more translations in a sudden spurt of either receiving or seeking them out. This booklet was formed when Louise Landes Levi shared with us the very good work of translator Rowena Hill. Reading, designing and printing and handmaking the booklet was the easy part — coordinating between here and Venezuala proved to be tricky and loaded with twists and turns. Rowena was even kind enough to get a few copies signed for us by Rafael Cadenas, a gentleman.
2009. Paul Celan / translated by Cal Kinnear, "Voices". Love Thy Poet More & More & More & More & More! series. Three color 4-1/4 x 6 postcard. Limited
:first came the postcard of Celan translated by Cal Kinnear, then. . .
2009. Paul Celan / translated by Cal Kinnear, A Handful of Sleep Seed. Fine and bright fold-out booklet. New and limited.
:. . .came a fuller booklet. Too many fine poems to be left untouched, so we made a booklet and got these out to the translator in Seattle. I believe it was Andrew Schelling who recommended Cal try us out, with our thanks, again, to Andrew.
2009. Jason Clark, Abandoned Kingdoms 1-6. Jason's artist notebook of abandoned tree houses from the northern woods --Mix portraits on fold-out leaf with the artist's text, and one poem by Bob Arnold. Limited edition.
: Jason wrote us from northern Vermont that he had a sketchbook of treehouses and would we be interested? Immediately. Down the pike came the drawings, from the field, lovely brush drawings that seem made by blowing grass, ink tipped. Haven't heard from Jason in awhile — he must be out there tramping, stopping, drawing, moving on.
2009. Tom Clark, Single. A tall three-color foldout folio of new poems by Tom, many drawn by the poet from his blog "Beyond the Pale". A union truly between the screen appearance and paper edition. There are both signed and unsigned editions.
: I can't remember how Tom Clark got with us but I've been reading his work since the 1960s and always admired and much respected his hand at the Paris Review (poetry editor) and his realer than real commentary on the cultural scene. He continues it today with his blog. Part of his secret to success and longevity of spirit has been one Angelica Clark.
2009. Andy Clausen, The Old Wobbly's Prayer. A worker's song for these troubled CEO-thieving economic times - Andy Clausen speaks to the spirit of good will. Part of the Longhouse Love Thy Poet More & More...! series. Three color. 4-1/4 x 6.
: a fine sturdy poem to an old tradition. Andy Clausen was once companion to our family's close friend Janine Pommy Vega, and without a doubt Janine shared the poem with us and we said, "we'd love to print it". So we did. That day.
2009. Ira Cohen, God's Mirror / White Poem. Two poem fold out booklet "I woke this morning from a dream..." in wild paisley wrap, one of a kind.
: Louise Landes Levi would often visit in New York City Ira Cohen, photographer, poet, wise man, traveler, and while visiting Ira would share things with LLL and she would write them down for him. This was two of the poems Louise wrote down and said she would share them with Bob & Susan, and Ira nodded an okay. The cover paper stock when I opened the drawer in a store and came upon the stuff, on my knees, beckoned.
2009. Rene Daumal, / translated by Louise Landes Levi. Memorables. Three color foldout booklet of one long poem Memorables translated by Louise Landes Levi tucked into sky blue papers with signed and unsigned wrap around band.
: while Louise was working at Ira Cohen and sending us things, she was likewise going through her traveling bags and finding more of her translations of Rene Daumal, and those came with the same package of goodies. Her RASA collection from New Directions should not be missed.
2009. Jonathan Greene, Feed The Lotus. A dozen new poems by Jonathan in this accordion fold-out, three color chaplet with wrap around band. Signed and unsigned editions. This is the unsigned
:Jonathan and I have been corresponding for many decades. We have mutual desires in country things like Harlan Hubbard, and book love for Thomas Merton, ways & means of Wendell Berry or Dorothy Day, country folk, Cid Corman, the Far East (what better way to put it?) and book culture. He selected and published my book Once In Vermont from his Gnomon Press with I believe some healthy instigation from his wife Dobree Adams, and hand in glove I've been reading and publishing his work all along. This booklet is one of many you'll find from Longhouse.
2009. Gary Hotham, Sand Over Sand . Whether Maryland, Germany, Norway, small poems go with Gary -- this single leaf foldout of a dozen new poems. Limited edition.
: hands down, always, Gary Hotham is one of my favored poets of the short poem. He's as regular and resourceful as that cup of sugar you ask from a neighbor. I could probably publish a booklet per year by Gary if I really allowed my passions to be set free. But then Gary's poems, just one! last years. Here's a bunch to have.
2009. Louise Landes Levi, word on the street. Itinerant poet Louise Landes Levi cries out from the street a poem of THOU SHALL NOT KILL to Israel and Hamas in this one long poem fold-out tipped into violet with wrap around band. New and limited.
: you can see we were on a roll with Louise in 2009. Last night (July 2012) I wrote her a stern letter because somemtimes Louise deserves a stern letter. If you're patient, you'll find a benevolence in the person; the same that works throughout almost all of her writing. Her wisdom spans through Jewish and east Indian travels, studies and purpose. She is also a skilled musician, often seen playing on the streets worldwide. She continues to walk and pick up rides on the great green earth that is before her. This was the first piece I selected because it was that good and in my hands that day, to set forth on the premiere of my A Longhouse Birdhouse (blog). It was immediately offensive to an old friend, and one I often published, that he asked his name to be removed from anything we ever did again. He got his wish.
2009. John Levy, Jimmy's Girlfriends and His Late Mother. In the world of law and order comes this John Levy short story presented as tandem booklet in wrap around band. Very limited.
: okay, so we got carried away for a little spell here with John Levy. It can happen with John and me, over many years, but then he doesn't keep in contact much with us anymore. I believe he follows me safely at a distance from the Birdhouse blog. Yes, he told me that. Once upon a time we did lots together, all 3 of us (Susan too). Visit in Vermont, visit in Seattle; out there we slept on John's 'Murphy bed'. The only time I slept on a bed pulled out of the wall. We all traveled up into Vancouver together, and likewise had a long and sure relationship with Cid Corman. It was Cid who put John and me together. So here we are re-kindling the friendship one more time, and John has such humorous and wry writings that I couldn't help myself and started to design and print and design and print some more until we made a few things. These are the stories. It came in a bunch, so we wrapped them up in a band.
2009. John Levy, The Nightest. The largest Longhouse foldout possible, many sheets of twenty poems selected by Bob Arnold and designed in three color tucked into two varied papers, heavy grassland and brown batik.
. . .and these are the poems. I believe John said his daughter inspired many of these, and may have even given him some of the titles for the poems. You see the earthen particles on the cover for this booklet? it's all real stuff, and an incredibly heavy paper stock. We bought it all wanting it for John's booklet and we worked at getting it folded right. It was like a little bit of barbed wire in your hand when you held the booklet, or nettles. Nothing like the poems.
2009. Stephen Lewandowski, Meeting the Bear. A Longhouse flip-up booklet. One poem. May be framed or carried in shirt pocket
: Steve was an early Longhouse contributor and came here visiting when things were more wild and wooly, we just talked outdoors in the rain then figured to move inside. He's always brought a texture of the western New York landscape to us in his poems.
2009. Gerry Loose, "Homage To The Atlantic Ocean From Berneray Western Isles". Three color postcard. 4-1/4 x 6. . Ideal for framing.
: Gerry lives on a houseboat and has often moved on that houseboat or some boat in his adventures off the British Isles. We share rural life stories as easily as two clothespins on the line. All day in the sun. And when he sends me poems, I always want to print them for sure. This postcard is one and there will be another one in this bibliography down the road, and I know another one for a future post 2012. But first we did a booklet of poems which I'll take up next.
2009. Gerry Loose, Starworks. Gerry on his houseboat, wood's trail, or town walk blown this way from Scotland --Ndouble leaf catch of many many poems. Limited edition
: a delightful and thoroughly imaginative piece brought forth from Gerry moving on mother earth, his home. We got just the paper stock for this one, which provides a sort of starstruck sheen to it. The poems do the rest. Gerry's writing is as one with his life pursuits, there isn't a seam to be found. That's a boat builder for you.
2009. Thomas Meyer. Vespers & Clair de Lune. A tall three-color foldout folio of new poems by Thomas Meyer, two long poems entwined. There are both signed and unsigned editions.
: I've been forever curious and attracted to the fine work and fellowship of Thomas Meyer, long companion to Jonathan Williams, the rural squire of North Carolina and off the beaten paths U.K., of where Tom was drawn. These two long poems, we think, fit ideally into this taller booklet format and can be tucked into a letter to anyone as riches spilling forth.
2009. Siimon Petkovich, Forests of Clarity. Siimon is not a typo but a real one, heritage part Croatian/part Australian and brought forth here in a 19 poem booklet to announce the Longhouse new year of 2009
: Siimon with the two "i's" turned up one day in the mail from somewhere out there in hinterlands (Europe) and I liked the rebel cry and inventions of most of his poems. So I selected a group on the spot and printed them immediately like toast and butter. We sent a bunch to him, but who knows what happened, or where he was or eventually ended up. Part of publishing are the stories that come with the writing. A few years later, of course out of the blue, Siimon touched base again, and I'm expecting it to happen again. In the meantime, the poems are good'uns.
2009. Bill Porter, The Great Kashgar Bus Convoy . Prose. This account has been edited from a series of 280 two-minute programs on the Silk Road Bill Porter wrote and produced for an English-language radio station in Hong Kong in 1992. We are happy to share this publication with Kyoto Journal. As a translator of ancient Chinese text, Bill Porter is also known as Red Pine. Tall double three color booklets in wrap around band.
: I've told the story before how Bill Porter and I met— in a bakery in Vermont, and we were scheduled to meet and had no idea really what one another looked like, but when it happened we knew instinctively who-was-who. With a friendship grin. Bill had traveled down by bus from Montreal (we were supposed to work up there togehter, but some family emergency took me out of it) and then hitchhiked the last few miles to find the bakery. While visiting in the bakery (Susan later arrived) we hatched the idea for this booklet of Bill's travels on the Silk Road. It was Bill who gave the shape and form of these booklets we were now printing that he liked to call "bus tickets", because that's what they looked like to this veteran of the world open road. From our meeting he was heading out to Arizona and baseball's spring training. As I'm writing this, he's back at his many storied travels in China.
2009. Philip Rowland, someone one once ran away with. Fold-out booklet of poems in blue wrapper with wrap around band.
: Philip is the master hand at the publication Noon from Tokyo and an equal master with the very short poem. It was one whole pleasure making this booklet. For the hey of it, we also included a long poem by Philip that beautifully balances all sizes of poems together.
2009. Ryokan / translated by Dennis Maloney, I Pass Through This World Four Seasons of Poetry. 47 poems to be exact - all translated by Dennis Maloney. Longhouse, 2009. Many colored fold-put booklet in golden sleeve. Limited
: I always liked the way this booklet turned out, and it's packed with poetry but doesn't seem at all crowded, and maybe it all has to do with the color balance that work for the cover? You try your hand at something and wait for the results. Dennis and I have yet to meet after five decades long corresponding with one another and sharing vast amounts of publications. At one time he was interested in publishing a book of mine that was tied up with a letterpress publisher who was taking his awful sweet time at it, and never did publish it, and I lost Dennis by then and a few others took a crack at the book until finally it came forth from a publisher in my home ground of the Berkshire hills. You can go home again. I learned this from Ryokan.
2009. Andrew Schelling, from the Arapaho Songbook. A dozen new poems by Andrew, drawn from a longer work-in-progress, in this accordion fold-out, three color chaplet with wrap around band.
: one of two booklets from this long work we would showcase from Andrew Schelling's Indian studies of the western plains, nearing the mountains. We found some paper stock that resembled almost a rawhide, a tanning, a skin hide well preserved. The poems do the rest.
2009. Andrew Schelling, translator, Dadu (1544-1604). Born in Ahmedabad. Called Dadu Dhayal (the Compassionate), He was a cotton-carder, an occupation in which low-caste Hindus lived at close quarters with Muslims. His Sakhis owe much to Kabir and other North Indian poets. In sparkle gold wraps, many color fold-out with wrap around band.
: Dadu, translated by Andrew Schelling, was all part of a four part booklet series we were designing up of Andrew's work (none of it planned) combining his trait and eye for East Indian studies, and his then homebase on the western USA landscape. The centuries of writings it entails is mind bofggling. It's a typo, yes, but I like the way it looks, sounds and feels because it captivates the pleasures of Dadu.
2009. Austin Smith,. Instructions For How To Put An Old Horse Down. A tall three-color folio of new poems by Austin Smith, many long poems entwined. There are both signed and unsigned editions
: Ah, Austin. Someone tells me he's about to become 'famous' with a poem in the New Yorker and a full book of poems from Princeton, while studying in the esteem Standford University writing program. Well and good, he deserves everything he can get and has earned. But we published him first, and it was probably Kent Johnson who first shared with me Austin's work, and also Austin's dad, a farmer and poet Daniel Smith. Trust me, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree. This 'bus-ticket' booklet of poems are some of Austin's strongest rural networked poems, and it goes nicely with his much smaller booklet of shorter poems from Longhouse. There's nothing quite like reading a young poet who has listened and watched so well through his childhood, and those walks from the barn.
2009. Nicomedes Suarez-Arauz, Bodies of Water. Love poems and poems of rivers 15 new poems by this poet from the Amazon. One of our largest fold out booklets
: a brilliant poet from South America who for many years taught at Smith College and lost none of the sacred waters and jungles and drama from his native habitat. These are love poems and landscape poems aligned. Rivaling only Hoa Nguyen's booklet we published for heft and size. Another one of those manuscripts where you had to take in practically all.
2009. Pell Tanner, The Poems I Really Love. Introduction by Chinese scholar and poet JP Seaton. 21 poems with a deep chinese influence. Many colored fold-out booklet in Asian screen print sleeve.
: crushingly honest love poems made by a textile manufacturer who travels far and wide into China with his own personal odyssey and life work. Not the first time Sandy Seaton brought a group of poems to me and said, "I think these are very good." Sandy's quite right. He was happy to write an introduction for the booklet.
Longhouse Bibliography for years 1971 ~ 2007
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Longhouse Bibliography for years 2010 ~ 2012
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