The Pears: Poems (Harmony Poetry) - Softcover

Smith, Larry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1947504142 ISBN 13: 9781947504141

Publisher: Bottom Dog Press, 2019

Synopsis

I’ve been reading Larry Smith’s work for over 20 years. That’s long enough to make his work seem like it’s always been there, and maybe that’s because the people Larry writes about are ones I recognize: mill workers and farmers, waitresses and librarians. He writes about family and everyday concerns. Sometimes those are scrambled eggs. Sometimes they are snow birds. He is a very tactile poet.

This new book shows someone who is not afraid to change, even after many books. Along with his normal Zen sparks, there’s a joyful surrealism here. Even the most black and white, photographic poems don’t take themselves too seriously and open us up.

Smith’s people spend a lot of time waiting. They wait for money, for night, or for the dark laughter of an epiphany to hit as a hard as “a busload of bibles.”  These poems exist right outside of town in a peddler’s encampment where fairy tales and bad luck mingle with white bread and pennies. These are magical riddles made up of the real and the nearly so. Feast on them and dance.

About this title

About the Author

Larry Smith is a native of the industrial Ohio River Valley and has published 6 books of fiction and 8 books of poetry as well as literary biographies of Kenneth Patchen and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. He also wrote and produced two documentary films on James Wright and Kenneth Patchen. As editor-publisher of Bottom Dog Press in Ohio he has guided over 210 books through publication since its inception in 1985. A retired professor of humanities from Bowling Green State University at Firelands College, Smith and his wife Ann live along the shores of Lake Erie in Huron, Ohio and are active grandparents and founders of the Converging Paths Mediation Center there.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

The Writing



Don?t go running off to

cut down a tree

then bring it into the house

and load it with gaudy decorations.



Dig a small one from the earth

and drag it along the ground,

then pot and place it on the porch

leaves and bugs and all

where the rain and snow can feed it.

Edition details

• Publisher: Bottom Dog Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1947504142
• ISBN 13: 9781947504141
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 66