Monday, March 30, 2009

The World Behind It, Chaos, Michael Dickel

The World Behind It, Chaos, Michael Dickel

Michael Dickel’s poetry has appeared in small-press literary magazines for over twenty years. His photography and artwork have been published in art books, literary / arts journals, and online journals for over five years. Most recently, two of his poems received recognition through the international 2008 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition. This unique collection brings together the best of his poetry with visual art that both complements and complicates the reading. Artistically laid out, The World behind it, Chaos provides both visual and intellectual provocations towards sensing both the wonders of our world and the chaos that lies just beneath our lives. Beginning with a sharp intake of breath (“Leaping Deer”) and ending with the crumbling of the present into sand (“Return of the Sea”), the poetry arcs through life, politics, nature, mysticism, and human relationships. The images spark from that arc, creating moments of reflection to absorb the words, or creating their own visual poem to enhance the “text” of the book.

From the Foreword (written by the editors of why vandalism?):

“Michael Dickel, in The World behind it, Chaos…, reveals life’s chaos in all the dark, hidden places, as well as often unacknowledged order that stares us right in the face: the pastoral beauty of nature; the alarming and sometimes ugly; the knowing; the quiet yearnings of the human soul; memory, nostalgia, love; the stagnation or inability of humanity to see clearly or grow.”

The poems themselves range from the quiet lyric to experimental prose poems to surrealistic-imagistic explorations. One long poem near the center of the book (“The Morning News”) collapses time while chanting TV news, interspersing quotidian activity, joining events across decades, all the time swimming in the chaotic insanity of megalomania in cult and government leaders. We emerge, as readers, on the other side into a theoretical world of materiality and ideas (“Materiality,” “electronic transfer,” and “language you/me”) that merges into a spiritual and sensual world (as in “Theosophical Summer Evening, 1972”) that eventually encounters a pragmatic world of clipping coupons and raising children (“Still Kalamazoo, Mother’s Day at the Airport”). Yet, this pragmatic world still contains wonderment and chaos side by side, even as the voice of the poet grounds itself in nature (“Renewal”).

In the end, the seas overtake even the Midwest ordinariness of life, a city collapses into ruin, and we are reminded that history moves on, “…the foundation collapses, pieces of brick grind into sand” (“Return of the Sea”). Yet, somehow, it is not a pessimistic message. Overall, the poems and images suggest the place of the individual, the importance of choosing a direction (any direction) even in the face of collapse, and the mystery of life as revelation: “…all simmering, composting toward a distilled memory / to sip against the coming chill” (“After the Frost”).

Michael Dickel is a poet and photographer with degrees in psychology, creative writing, and English literature from the University of Minnesota. He taught writing at various U.S. colleges and Universities for nearly 20 years, and now teaches at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

About Michael Dickel’s Poetry

“I love the way Michael Dickel’s poetry mixes eros and kabbalah with politics…beautiful, disturbing, soaring.” —Adeena Karasick, poet, cultural theorist and performance artist, and the award-winning author of six books of poetry and poetic theory, most recently The House That Hijack Built (Talon Books 2004).

Dickel’s poem “…is at once a poem of erotic love addressed to the beloved; a celebration of landscape, nature and fertility; an implicit reverencing of Jewish tradition; and, above all, a universally human beckoning towards peace and joy. My personal reading of [“Oasis”] yields hints of a mystical interpretation; the invocation of Tikkun, in the tradition of Isaac Luria and other Kabbalistic masters.” —Richard (Berengarten) Burns, judge of the international 2008 Reuben Rose Poetry Competition, poet, founder and organizer of the Cambridge Literary Festival, Bye-Fellow at Downing College, Cambridge and Preceptor at Corpus Christi College, and author of more than 20 books.


Excerpt From THE WORLD BEHIND IT, CHAOS

CL O U D S
The moon throws dice with shadows
and the winds toss hexagrams in dust,
revealing a lust for self, while
a sculptor’s eye roves across the sea.
He never answered the post card she sent
of the mask; her celebration went uninterrupted
by chance or by the occasional glimpse
of sands which drain through small fingers.
The winds cannot apologize, sweeping away
the remnant of day in the evening rocks.


BUY THE WORLD BEHIND IT, CHAOS

VISIT Michael Dickel's Blog

Feature on Authors promoting Authors

Please stop by and check it out!

http://authorspromotingauthors.blogspot.com/2009/03/after-thoughts-lynn-tincher.html

Interview on L. Diane Wolfe's page!

Thank you, Diane! Please visit her site and see what I had to say!

http://circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com/2009/03/lynn-tincher-afterthoughts.html

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Afterthoughts 2nd Ed. Press Release

Lynn Tincher, Louisville, KY Author and Publisher is thrilled to announce the release of her psychological thriller, Afterthoughts, from Blackwyrm Fiction.

Lynn Tincher, Louisville, KY Author and Publisher of The Literary Lynnch Pen, is thrilled to announce the release of Afterthoughts, Book One of the Mind Bending Series, Second Edition on March 30th from Blackwyrm Fiction. 10% of all the Profits to Benefit the American Cancer Society.

Stop by and meet Lynn at the Redbud Writers' Row at Union College on April 4th in Barbourville, Kentucky or at the Southern Kentucky Book Fest at the Sloan Convention Center in Bowling Green, Kentucky on April 18th.

Louisville, Kentucky (PRWEB) March 19, 2009 -- For Immediate Release -- Lynn Tincher, Louisville, KY Author and Publisher of The Literary Lynnch Pen, is thrilled to announce the release of Afterthoughts, Book One of the Mind Bending Series, Second Edition on March 30th from Blackwyrm Fiction.

About the Book:

Afterthoughts, Mind Bending Book One: Detective Paige Aldridge's sister Sarah was there for her when she was found beaten and without any memories of the previous few months. When her nephew is found dead a year later, she begins to have terrifying flashbacks: visions of the murders of her own family! As her loved ones begin falling prey to a serial killer Paige believes that she's going mad. Then a mysterious woman shows up to help her. With her family dying around her and dark suspicions forming in her mind, Paige has to pull the pieces together before it's too late. By Lynn Tincher [Psychic Crime Thriller +

Memories of Pain

"I'm so sorry, Paige. I hate to see you all going through this." Jay pulled her into his arms and gave her a soft hug. "I'm here if you need me."

"Thank you. That means so much." She started to hug him tighter just as a loud boom rang out as lightning struck a tree less than a half-mile away. "Come on, we better get inside." She grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the house. As she started to move, her head began to spin. Flashes of light and images began to rush through her mind. She could see herself in a dark roomwhere she could only see one small, boarded window that had light only as lightning flashed outside. She was frozen still. Bound by something she didn't understand. Terror overtook her.

"I can't move!" she screamed. She could feel someone hit her across her face. The pain overtook her senses, and her head began to spin. She could feel someone standing over her and could hear a slow, deliberate laugh.

Then she collapsed. Jay caught her in his arms before she could hit the ground. "Paige, are you okay?" He scooped her into his arms and carried her toward the house.

About the Author:

Lynn was born in the small town of La Grange, Kentucky and grew up in Goshen. She has always had a vivid imagination. One of her fondest memories of growing up was when ashort story of hers was read in front of the students at Oldham County High School. Since then, her love for writing blossomed.

Lynn studied Theater Arts in College in hopes of becoming a Drama/English teacher. She haswritten articles in local newspapers and travel brochures. Now, she is focused on writing novels, short stories, and poems.

Not only does Lynn look forward to sharing her stories, she is also focused on helping other new writers in their efforts to get published. Her eZine, The Literary Lynnch Pen, and website provides helpful tips and information.

She also works with the American Cancer Society in donating 10% of the profits from the Mind Bending Series. She publishes in The Literary Lynnch Pen a Pet of the Week from the Kentucky Humane Society and the Woodstock Animal Foundation.

Her inspiration comes from some of her favorite authors, Robert Powell, Nora Roberts, Piers Anthony, and J.K. Rowling. (Yes, she's a Potter fan!)

She now lives in Louisville, Kentucky with her husband. She has three wonderful children, Emily, Aaron, and Becca and Luke, the wonder dog.

To contact Lynn for an interview or for more information, please visit http://www.lynntincher.com.

To order copies of Afterthoughts and the sequel, Left in the Dark, due out in October, please visit http://www.blackwyrm.com.

Book Release Mania

Hey guys. Sorry I haven't blogged in a while!

My friend and fellow author, L. Diane Wolfe, has a book that is being released today! Please check it out below. I’m helping promote it because Diane is a great friend and I am quoted several times in it! It’s a very positive book! Please help me spread the word for her.

http://www.amazon.com/Overcoming-Obstacles-SPUNK-Diane-Wolfe/dp/0981621023/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1237309706&sr=8-1

This is an exciting month for me with this book being released today and the second edition of Afterthoughts being released for me on March 30th! J