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Off The Road - Poetry 1989-2000 by Johnny Dolphin Wild - Poems, Aphorisms, and short stories by Johnny Dolphin The Dream and Drink of Freedom by Johnny Dolphin Poetraits by Rosé On Feet Of Gold by Ira Cohen Uncommon Quotes-The Dream and Drink of Freedom (Audio Book) by Johnny Dolphin POETRY LONDON/APPLE MAGAZINE Editions Poetry London edited by Tambimuttu
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Cover Illustration by Michel Lippitsch |
Off The Road Poetry 1989-2000 The poems in OFF THE ROAD tell the story of a man has chosen to embrace life—firmly—understanding full well that that means embracing the challenges and failures along with the successes and rewards. Because the man is Johnny Dolphin (otherwise known as John Allen), a man who has traveled around the world, fathered scientific concepts (including Biosphere 2) and artistic concepts (including Caravan of Dreams Theater), and whose friends run the gamut from the most famous (and infamous) thinkers of the last 60 years to folks from the most remote cultures left on the planet, the life being embraced here is as rich in scope as the poetry describing it is rich in stylistic approach. The writing in OFF THE ROAD is straight-forward, unassuming, provocative, and playful by turns. Yet this is a poet whose intent is never to hide behind his words. OFF THE ROAD is an excellent journey, providing the reader with a vast multitude of introductions and adventures. “This Dolphin seems to me a Renaissance Man… This confident voice strikes poems out of bedrock, touchstone, pierces the veil, reveals jeweled gardens, sings the song. A Sultan from The Thousand and One Nights, on hearing such a poet, would command: ‘Stuff his mouth with pearls.’” -Rosé
ISBN
0 907791 30 1 * PAPERBACK * 158 PGS * |
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Wild- (POEMS, APHORISMS AND SHORT STORIES) WILD, as the title suggests, is a celebration of all that is wild and free. The tree root that overturns the sidewalk (even though it destroys a kitchen drain); the crane that fishes what would have been a good catch for someone out of the pond, the alert coyote, the ready owl, the artist who can only be moved by passion and the scientist who writes only when there is something to say—all of these and more are exalted. The first section of WILD features poems that tell stories about animals that are wild, poems that reveal the ingredients necessary to be wild—“Nobody gonna attain wild / who didn’t make it free, / nobody gonna get free / without a fight…”—and even poems that offer information about what might be construed as being wild (rage, screaming) but is not really wild at all. In one poem (entitled “April 1991”), Dolphin compares himself to a coyote, saying that just as a coyote slinks into a hole when he is wounded, so too he slinks into poetry, which turns out to be the place where he is able to heal. The work here is healing for readers as well—for even most complaisant readers will be reawakened to the chilling potential for their own wildness. The second section of the book, Aphorisms, lists more than seven pages of small gems that guarantee to send any inquisitive mind off on a short (or possibly long) journey. Dolphin looks at life, death, society, emotion, luck, truth, freedom, humility, humiliation and more. These are the seductive thoughts of a very clear mind and it is almost impossible not to be lured by them to seek clarity as well. There are several short stories here as well, in the final section of the book, and they examine wildness through characterization. A seven-year old boy, for instance, must decide whether to risk a jump that could send him to his death so as to experience the emotional rush that he already understands to be a necessary part of a full life. These are stories of characters looking around them, at the physical and spiritual worlds, to see what is of value and what is not, often finding answers in surprising places.
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Cover Illustration by Gerald Wilde |
The Dream and Drink of Freedom This edition of THE DREAM AND DRINK OF FREEDOM is a second one, the greater part of the first edition having been burned in 1952 during the McCarthy period. Selected poems have been added to the original, so that the poetry here spans the years between 1942 and 1986. In an informative foreword provided by Kathelin Hoffman, the reader of THE DREAM AND DRINK OF FREEDOM learns that Johnny Dolphin left home for the first time at the age of 14, and that he has been traveling since. As a young man he lived and worked in Oklahoma, California, New York and Chicago, to name a few. After JFK’s assassination, he left the U.S. to live in Africa, in Asian, and in war-torn Vietnam, where he divided his time between Buddhist scholarship and stringing for a news correspondent in Saigon. When he finally returned to the U.S. it was with a different perspective than the one he left with—as well as with an unequivocal vision for both his own future and the planet’s. This vision was especially clear regarding his two great loves, science and art, and it was followed by one of the most creative periods in Dolphin’s life; he began to write plays, founded a theater company and began a series of ecological projects that continue to this day. The poetry in THE DREAM AND DRINK OF FREEDOM is divided into six sections, with each one alluding not only to a period in Dolphin’s life but to a period in history as well. Dolphin’s work is influenced by Blake, Whitman, Joyce, Burroughs, Brecht, Baudelaire, Mayakovsky, and Khayyam. Collectively, the poetry is so restless, energetic, and intense that it truly shimmers on the page.
ISBN 0 907791 15 8 |
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by Rosé As the title suggests, POETRAITS contains poetic ruminations about the people whom poet Rosé finds himself ruminating. The categories range from the rich and famous (or infamous) such as Frank Sinatra, Janet Reno, and saxophonist Steve Lacy, to the unknown (at least to the reader) to categories of persons, such as “Wonderful Women,” “Bikers,” etc. There are also poems about particular events (“Thanksgiving ’95,” “Thanksgiving ’92,”) and a few “things” (such as a cigarette). Rosé’s poems are high spirited and very funny. In a self portrait entitled “Personal Column,” for instance, he describes some of the wild responses the narrator (presumably Rosé) receives after placing the following in a classified ad: “Poet, cranky and demanding/ Seeks infinite understanding.” Some verses are plain silly, such as in “Dipsy Doodle” when the narrator complains about the inferior thinking of the poem’s object of intention: “Because your brain’s so daffy/ A kind of mental taffy/ I think there is nothing we can do/ So I’m calling for the van/ Just as quickly as I can/ Because this is a case of missing screw.’ POETRAITS is a must for anyone who occasionally sinks into a dark mood. Rosé’s peppy rhymed verses will zip you off to a height from which all life takes on a much more frivolous appearance.
"A rare opportunity awaits the reader in this tango of language as moving and as graceful as the dance of that name. Here for the engaging mind are poetic utterances from an American unknown master of the word. His subjects are the illusive ordinary. In the mind's eye of humor, transliterated and perfumed in the beauty of language, he renders the ordinary profound." -Godfrey Reggio reviews |
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by Ira Cohen Until Synergetic Press’s publication of ON FEET OF GOLD, the poetry of now-renowned Ira Cohen had appeared only in chapbooks. We like to think that our discovery of Ira’s work had at least a little something to do with the acclaim he went on to (and continues to) receive. The poetry in ON FEET OF GOLD is a reflection of Ira's many years of travel, living in the mystic lands of India and Nepal, as well as in Beirut, Amsterdam, and New York. But it is a mistake to believe that the geographical landscape is what frames the work here. Though almost every poem enjoys a (stated or unstated) geographical setting, it is the vast landscape of the mind, and in many cases, the spirit, that illuminates the poems and renders them essential to any genuine collection of language poetry. Ira Cohen is a mystic, a shaman, a prophet, a visionary. He handles words the way a magician handles his amulets and charms. His verses are full of movement, both graceful and provocative. His poetic voice is robust and bewitching by turns, and his images are as fluid and fast flowing as water. It gives us great pleasure to be able to continue to offer this important title to his ever-growing number of devotees. "... the scope and power of ON FEET OF GOLD put Ira Cohen at the forefront of American poets today." Uri Hertz, Poetry Flash
Ira Cohen (b. 1935) is an American poet, photographer and filmmaker. Born in New York City to deaf parents, he learned to spell with his fingers at the age of one. He the founder of the Akashic Record, the Starstreams Poetry Series (Kathmandu), and the Universal Mutant Repertory Company. Publications for which he has been a contributing editor include Ins and Outs (Amsterdam), Ignite (New York), the NY Black Book, and Nexus (Dayton, Ohio). He has published many volumes of poetry as well as countless audio and CD recordings of performances with diverse artistic collaborators including Paul Bowles, Brion Gysin, William Burroughs and Jack Smith. In addition to being the father of “Mylar Photography” Ira Cohen’s portrait photography, depicts subjects from diverse cultures. It has been widely exhibited, in New York, London Dublin, Tokyo, and beyond. His photos have been appeared in The London Sunday Times, Avant Garde, LIFE magazine, Facade (Paris), and more. Among his film and video productions are The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda, Paradise Now in Amerika with the Living Theatre.
ISBN 0 907791 107 * PAPERBACK * 148 PGS * |
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Uncommon Quotes: The Dream and Drink of Freedom Audio Book Recorded live at the Caravan of Dreams, March, 1987 ISBN 0 929856 03 1 * Audio
* 60 Mins |
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Poetry London/Apple Magazine Volume Z edited by Tambimuttu In the thirties, forties and fifties 'Poetry London' was the leading forum for artists and poets such as T. S. Eliot, DylanThomas, Lawrence Durrell and George Orwell among its many contributors and supporters. In this volume, the last publication made by the magazine's founder and original editor Tambimuttu, is a collection of work from the new vanguard. Meary James Thurairajah Tambimuttu (universally known as Tambi) founded Poetry London in 1939, which was controversial from the start. Attracting both enthusiasm and fury, some of the publications were lavish productions which are admired to this day, using the talents of leading artists such as Henry Moore, Gerald Wilde and Graham Sutherland.
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