Sleeping With My Socks

by Jack McGuane

The first published collection of poems by one of Cleveland's literary treasures, Jack McGuane. In this collection, the former poet laureate of Lakewood, Ohio, waxes eloquent on topics such as butterfly bones, grace, homeland security, and yes, sleeping with his socks. Filled with many insights gathered over a lifetime of learning, keen spiritual allusions and good humor, you will not want to miss this collection. And as a bonus, you will find some of Jack's haiku, which garnered him a unanimous decision in one of the city's famous "Haiku Death Match" competitions.

56 pages, perfect bound, published 2008.

$5, plus $1 shipping & handling

The Why and Later

Edited by Carly Sachs

This anthology of poems about rape and sexual abuse - many written by victims themselves, and well-known poets such as Marge Piercy and Adrienne Rich – brings to light a topic that has been all but neglected by the mainstream publishing industry. These powerful poems will shock you with their candidness, touch you with their emotional edge, and amaze you with their perserverence of spirit.

“The Why and Later is a solid collection of strong and important poems that will expose readers to the terror, anxiety and pain of rape and sexual assault with both potent narratives and burning imagery. These poems bring the reader face to face with the awful truth that lies deep within ourselves and within the very fibers of all humanity. However, it is from this awful truth that, as Yeats' wrote, "a terrible beauty is born." And so, these poems give us all an opportunity to take the first steps to discover who we really are and what we ought to become to save ourselves from ourselves and from each other. These poems of hurt and pain allow readers a necessary look at the reality of the violence in our daily lives. Through these poems we are given time to reflect, contemplate,and educate ourselves about the needless pain we inflict upon our sisters, mothers, daughters, lovers and friends. These poems offer us hope by holding the mirror up to us in the "here and now" so we can avoid the brokenness of "the why and later."
– M.L. Liebler,
author of Wide Awake in Someone Else's Dream

115 pages, perfect bound, published 2007, ISBN: 0-9742054-7-8

$12, plus $3 shipping & handling

Euclid Creek

by Michael Ceraolo

This 130-page epic poem traces the origins of Euclid Creek and proceeds to illuminate hundreds of years of Northeast Ohio history as it meanders like the flow of water through people, places and events that have shaped the destiny of the land that we call home. A must read for denizens of the Western Reserve.

"Michael Ceraolo may be the most versatile poet writing in America today—from the intense insights of his 'Cleveland Haiku' to the epic history, human and geologic, which he manages with such sustained attention in 'Euclid Creek.' Ceraolo celebrates and embraces his urban landscape with tough love and with compassionate outrage shows us profound beauty beneath surface squalor, as the literal creek flows ‘underneath industrial streets . . .where the gray concrete of the roads and bridges/ and the gray birds groveling on the gray sidewalks/ and the gray gravel and gray piles of industrial detritus/and the gray factory smoke merging with the gray sky/make even the green grass on the creek’s banks/seem gray.”  This was Moses Cleaveland’s creek; now it is Michael Ceraolo’s." -- Dr. Kelley J. White, poet

130 pages, perfect bound, published 2006.

$10, plus $2 shipping & handling

Rustbelt Romance

by Miles Budimir

Miles Budimir paints Cleveland with the gritty realism of its steelworkers and the inspired lyricism of their hearts. These images will leave you hanging upside down on a bridge in the flats taking snapshots of the past and stunned by the beauty that surrounds us.” – Dan Smith, author of “Crooked River”

50 pages, perfect bound, published 2006.

$5, plus $1 shipping & handling

The Voltage of Illusion

by Jeff Kosiba

Jeff Kosiba is a confessionalist poet, in the manner of Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton and Robert Lowell. In this, his second book, he explores love and loss, expansion of consciousness andd personal redemption. These poems whisper in your ear with quiet intensity, aflame with personal experience.

70 pages, perfect bound, published 2006.

$5, plus $1 shipping & handling

Woodsmoke & Green Tea

by Russell Salamon

Russell Salamon -- one of Cleveland's mimeo revolution poets from the 1960s -- was a friend and roommate of d.a. levy's, an experience he explored in detail in his fine book, "Descent into Cleveland." This book of poems features Salamon's distinctive voice, characterized by intense images, tiny details, and overflowing with the human spirit.

"Salamon has a confident voice that combines a Frostian attention to the details of nature with a Brautigan-esque taste for surreal fantasy." -- Levi Asher, LitKicks

"Salamon’s distinct voice burns with an abstract aesthetic capable of wording the unwordable—synthesizing the matter into molten expressions." -- Michael McMahon, Heartlands magazine

66 pages, perfect bound, published 2006. ISBN: 0-9742054-8-6

$10, plus $2 shipping & handling

klang

by andrew lundwall

andrew lundwall is a poet from the surrealist school.
currently living in wisconsin by way of washington d.c.,
lundwall's work is the byproduct of full consciouness,
fascinating insights and clever wordplay.

"Klang is a smart and enigmatic work." -- Levi Asher, LitKicks

66 pages, side-stapled, published 2006

$10, plus $2 shipping & handling

Crooked River

  by Dan Smith

The powerful poems of Dan Smith give voice to a perfect Cleveland vision
of men and women battling to keep their heads above water at any cost.
His poem, "I Am Down With You Crooked River," is quite simply, one
of the greatest poems ever written about Cleveland.

52 pages, side-stapled, published 2005

$5, plus $1 shipping & handling