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Page #6 of 7
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Homeless
in the Eighties by Claire Burch $9.95 • paperback ISBN 0-916147-09-6 135 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 In Homeless in the Eighties, Claire Burch begins with tough-talking free-verse that tells the facts and feelings of the homeless experience in a blunt but evocative style. She takes the reader on a thorough tour of homeless life—the shelters, the soup kitchens, the crash pads,and gives the non-homeless an intimate glimpse of the bonding and conflicts between the drifters. Alternating between the voice of the poet and the voice of the street, Burch describes the situation and doesn’t hesitate to place the blame. The rest of the book is devoted to her photos of people on the street, expanding on her themes. Like the poetry, the pictures are often angry and accusatory, but again there is warmth and humanity as well. The images show a range and depth of emotion, intercut with surreal collages in revealing juxtapositions. It is a spirited book. Perhaps sentimental, certainly poignant, but not at all a tear-jerker aimed at the soft touch. It’s simply very honest and direct—a strong expression of a knowledgeable view on a very human predicament, as complex as human predicaments always must be. Claire Burch’s writing has appeared in Life, Saturday Review, The New Republic, Mademoiselle, Good Housekeeping, McCalls, Redbook, Southwest Review, Poetry (Chicago), Arts and Sciences and assorted literary quarterlies and anthologies. She has published numerous books of prose and poetry. “I was much impressed by your poems, more impressed than before since now you have given order to the collection. They are intensely personal. Sometimes they make me feel that you have torn a bleeding heart from a breast, like an Aztec priest, except that the heart is your own. The images are moving and effective. “ Malcom Cowley |
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Homeless
in the Nineties by Claire Burch "I became easily engaged as I began to read Claire Burch’s poetry. At first, I was afraid to tackle it because I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle such a massive volume. But as I made my way into it, and began to be taken in by her most provocative turn of mind, and her interesting presentation of situations, I was glad that there was lots of it and that there was always more to come. I knew immediately that I was on an enchanting odyssey, and that when finished I would look forward to taking the adventure again and again. Claire Burch writes in a style that compels you to be alert, while it amused you and awakens you. Like all poets of distinguished capacity, Burch is skeptical of the orthodox. Thus she is always teasing with our given perceptions of reality, understanding that if the orthodox functions to do anything, it is to conceal rather than reveal truth. Thus poetry for her is always a heightened aesthetic and intellectural experience with language and its subjects." "Moreover, Burch is an excellent narrative poet. Her sequences are given lyric continuity and dramatic coherience through the exploration of the thought and action of two major characters, Babe and 606. But this coherence and dramatic effect comes mainly through Babe, the longest survivor. It is Babe who mainly reveals to us what it is that makes the dilemmas of life so weighty, who carries us through the great range of human anxieties, and who does manage to give us wisdom without enveloping it is sophistry. Rarely giving us an overwrought phrase, Burch writes poetry with a lyrical and dramatic ease that makes you want to become a part of her thought and craft. In her reality, life is a poetic stance, a stance of continuous revelation and astonishment, of paradox and contradiction made bare, and of hypocrisy made comic and unguilded." Erskine Peters • Professor of English • University of Notre Dame ”People give you (I’m talking about the general you, not the particular you) a lot of things, but they sel;dom give you something you most want; namely something to stick to the walls of your mind. This you have done for me in your writing. My desk looks like the sweepings of a subway car. I never know when I pick up a piece of paper from it, what world I will be in for the next few minutes. And then I pick up your writing and I am completely transported into your world.” Norman Cousins • Former Editor of Saturday Review |
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Rago
and Friends by Claire Burch The book, Rago and Friends, is a respectful, often ironic look at the life of a quadriplegic Berkeley poet who is still celebrating existance from his wheelchair. His wide circle of friends, his frequent excursions into the transforming world of music, make this book an incredible words and pictures testament to people strong enough to get past their disabilities to amazing head places. The writing, sometimes narrative, frequently humorous, always challenging, is matched to a group of revealing photos, many of them taken at Grateful Dead concerts. Rago and Friends breaks all stereotypes regarding disability and should be required reading for those feeling trapped by physical or emotional limitations, as well as readers still ignorant of just how much the disabled community has to offer, creatively, vocationally, in every way. |
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Solid
Gold Illusion by Claire Burch ISBN 0-916147-15-0 116 pages • 8 1/2 x 11 $125.00 • cloth • limited edition A limited edition of drawings,paintings and images by Claire Burch. Solid Gold Illusion has many recent images in a totally original style unique to the artist, a fusing of surreal elements with painterly by a series of portrait layers merged with the often surprising paintings below. “Finally I liked the funky poem drawing collage works of Claire Burch. Burch is something else. . . The main interest in Burch’s show is a series of drawings incorporating fragments of family snapshots and matched to the pages of a manuscript of poems.The graceful economical drawings meanwhile depict men and women sitting or lying around in a state of sensuous alertness. The intimacy is unforced and infectious . . .” Peter Schjeldahl, The New York Times “Pale expertly done semi-abstract watercolors in which figures and landscapes glide like ghosts. Ms. Burch paints in a lilting fashion and has a special feeling for pale color harmonies. Her work may be unpretentious, but on its own ground it is genuinely pleasing and succeeds in translating fashionable cliches into something her own.” Stuart Preston, The New York Times “From a distance these look like delicate tissue collages, but up close they become stains of blue and green, with almost imperceptible threads of red and green ‘woven in’. The stains are complex, darkening where they cross each other as they trickle down the canvas. Some of the works suggest oil slicks, while others are leaves with light coming through them. There are also water colors. Miss Burch’s paintings are memorable, and her line drawings of the figure are quite good.” Vivian Raynor, Arts Magazine |
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Seven
Movements, One Song by Carolyn North $10.00 paper • ISBN 09-16147-17-7 325 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 Using the Chakra System as a framework, Seven Movements, One Song is a telling of seven stories which reflect the quality and function of each of the energy centers of the body. Physical, survival, sexual attraction, transformation, bonding, communication, understanding, and finally spiritual vision are explored metaphorically in seven stories from the life of a woman of our time. “According to the sacred texts of many of the world’s ancient traditions, the Universe is composed of seven streams of fundamental force which emanate from the Source of All Things, the ‘Godhead’. As these seven streams combine and recombine with each other through time and space, evolving from matter into form; plants, animals and finally human beings, they ultimately become the created world as we know it. The One has differentiated into the Many, and the Many has blossomed gorgeously into the Ten Thousand Things. It is in this world that we have our life and being.” And it is in this world these stories are written. “Is there anyone who has not, at one time or another been in mortal danger; fallen passionately in love; asserted personal power, been part of a family; expressed a deep conviction and been heard; thirsted to understand what was going on; gotten a glimpse of a larger reality? These are the ultimate forces at play in our lives and they belong to all of us, all of the time.”. Carolyn North lives in Berkeley, California with her husband and is the mother of three grown children. She teaches dance as healing and periodically writes about her work, almost always disguised as stories. She is author of Earth Below, Heaven Above, The Musicians and the Servants, and is currently working on Movement as Metaphor, a study of why dance and sound are effective as medicine. |
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Momentary
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PAGE #6 of 7