WHERE NEVER IS FOREVER New Poems

by Claire Burch

$18.00 / ISBN-13: 978-1-58790-132-4 / 68 pages / paperback / 5.5” x 8.5”

Poetry

ABOUT THE BOOK

Writer/filmmaker Claire Burch lost her sight during a heart attach. This book of poetry was mostly written during this period and contains a section titled "Now I Am Blind," which has surprising imagery as well as some dark humor about her present condition. The book evokes the sarcastic wit of ee cummings and is playful in form although it touches on personal tragedy such as the death of a child and her unsuccessful attempt to invoke the comfort of formal religion. Anger at Yahweh who she describes as “the God from Brooklyn,” is a running motif, but the collection is characterized by questions about belief that she cannot resolve. Despite what the author smilingly describes as “The sob story,” Where Never Is Forever is characterized by jaunty frequent excursions into irreverent verse. Under such light heartedness, the reader glimpses a profound sadness that lurks in the background of all life. Catching the beat, we are taken on a Coney Island ride of emotion and its intense.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

In a career spanning over seventy years, Claire Burch’s writings have appeared in LIFE, Saturday Review, The New Republic, Mademoiselle, Good Housekeeping, McCalls, Redbook, Southwest Review, Poetry (Chicago), Arts and Sciences, and numerous literary quarterlies and anthologies. She has published over a dozen books. In addition to her writing, Claire Burch has spent the last twenty five years doing documentary films about Bay Area homeless street survivors. Her blindness has not stopped her filming ­— she refers to herself as probably the only legally blind cameraman in California and, because she can see silhouettes, still finds it possible to frame her subject in the camera and invoke memory as to the rest.