Surely you've heard about my book giveaway? I have exactly one month left on presales (9/3) for my second poetry collection, Without Such Absence, and sales have been only average at this point. The more presales there are, the more "free" copies I get to send to reviewers and such so I can hopefully sell more (I don't really make much if any money, in case you were wondering--it's more artistic satisfaction).
So, want to win a free copy? Link here to see how. Following that link you will also find more info about the book and some sample poems--several of which are garden / nature themed, of course, while others focus on family photographs from the Plains over the last 130 years or so.
A deep thanks for those who have already ordered a copy! That's 50% gratifying--the other 50% comes if / when you say you found at least one poem that blew your head off (in a good way, most poems are C4 free).
Showing posts with label without such absence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label without such absence. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Win a Copy of My Book
That's right, you can win a copy of my forthcoming poetry collection, Without Such Absence. And this is what you have to do:
1) Plug me on your blog in a special post, linking to this post here (click "this post here" to get to the post you should link to). It's helpful if on your own post you mention the giveaway, say that the book should be ordered by 9/3, what the book is, that there are some sample poems to check out, how attractive I am.... You know, get others to post about the giveaway, too.
2) Come here to this post and leave a comment with a link to your own post so I can make sure you did your homework--then you'll be entered in the giveaway.
3) Sometime after 9/3 I will randomly pick 3-5 lucky winners, contact them, and each will get a free copy of the book mailed to them after the publication release on 10/29. That's it! Now get going. Please.
*Void where prohibited. Limit one book per blog author. Special taxes may be enforced by certain states (what they might be is anyone's guess), and payment of those taxes are the responsiblilty of the winner. Winner agrees to hold author free of winner's like or dislike of poems, and poems are in no way guaranteed to be good or interesting or moving or even written in modern English (a good 80's band, though). Some poems may require additional reflection, so please use caution while using your brain. Paper cuts may also ensue, but since the publishing industry is in turmoil, it may very well be that in ten years you'll have to worry more about keeping your ebook reader charged than bandaging your skin.
1) Plug me on your blog in a special post, linking to this post here (click "this post here" to get to the post you should link to). It's helpful if on your own post you mention the giveaway, say that the book should be ordered by 9/3, what the book is, that there are some sample poems to check out, how attractive I am.... You know, get others to post about the giveaway, too.
2) Come here to this post and leave a comment with a link to your own post so I can make sure you did your homework--then you'll be entered in the giveaway.
3) Sometime after 9/3 I will randomly pick 3-5 lucky winners, contact them, and each will get a free copy of the book mailed to them after the publication release on 10/29. That's it! Now get going. Please.
*Void where prohibited. Limit one book per blog author. Special taxes may be enforced by certain states (what they might be is anyone's guess), and payment of those taxes are the responsiblilty of the winner. Winner agrees to hold author free of winner's like or dislike of poems, and poems are in no way guaranteed to be good or interesting or moving or even written in modern English (a good 80's band, though). Some poems may require additional reflection, so please use caution while using your brain. Paper cuts may also ensue, but since the publishing industry is in turmoil, it may very well be that in ten years you'll have to worry more about keeping your ebook reader charged than bandaging your skin.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Preorder My Poetry Chapbook Now
My second poetry collection is ready to preorder. Place those orders by 9/3/10. The book's release will be 10/29/10, but if you order now you only have to pay $1 in shipping.
The more preorders sold, the higher the press run, and the more books I get to sell and to send to reviewers, contests, et cetera.
(You can also enter the GIVEAWAY by linking here)
So....
$14 for the book, $1 for shipping.
Order by 9/3
Go here to order, scroll down (way down, it's alphabetical by author) until you see the cover image of my book, and then pay online (you can also mail checks to Finishing Line Pess).
Benjamin Vogt’s Without Such Absence is a book filled with unanswerable questions, as if plenitude – of world, or body, or love – can be felt only framed by loss. Vogt loves the natural world and makes us love it, too, especially when he gives formal gardens voice. It’s his wit, and terror, and delight that frame these fine poems, finally, that speak the stories behind the old photographs in all our albums.
-- Hilda Raz, author of All Odd and Splendid and What Happens
‘No one remembers unless they have a souvenir,’ writes Benjamin Vogt. In Without Such Absence, poems themselves become souvenirs. These are photographs of a lost America—wooden schoolhouses, clotheslines, faded flags, and strange gardens—a poetry so polished and formally rigorous that we cannot forget the places Vogt has captured.
-- Jehanne Dubrow, author of Stateside and From the Fever-World
------------------------------
Suddenly, Autumn
Is it here at the window where we truly see
the brown-leafed oaks, the drying grass,
the bulge of clouds that darkens asphalt roads?
Is it within a frame of measured faith and chosen
color, relief of temperatures in flux—the southern
wind that fishtails from the north in thirty minutes,
sun spots glancing blows through tattered canopies?
How everything is almost everything we feel?
Loosening cold clothes from our tired limbs,
the quick friction warming us against the air,
then against ourselves, between our knees, our
arms and torsos, bone and streaming lungs.
Is morning like hot tea gripping at your chest,
flooding down and through you like some
revelation, incantation of the perfect pitch,
choral song of waking, sparrow, passing cars?
Will emptiness feel as bold, will the space
our body’s voices leave be sacred words
that vision won’t speak, that sound won’t touch—
a place the mind can’t frame without such absence?
Japanese Garden
Enter through the hedge like wind slipping from itself a stained earthly veil. Step forward with calm to find a stone in your path—all flowers open slow. Beside the tea house rinse your hands and mouth to show you walk from rivers. Speak softly in shade, smell cool dew against your feet, hear nothing but light. Yatsuhashi leads across calm water, trains stars beneath the surface. Beside a black pine one stone looks up, one over; something speaks inside. Waves of sand move still around three green islands, yet mountains cry within. Weeping willows trace the arc of my back like clouds—one leaf trembles. Lotus in the pond; we must rest here awhile like wonted stones. As the sky, gravel; as rivers, flesh of peony; without me, you.
The more preorders sold, the higher the press run, and the more books I get to sell and to send to reviewers, contests, et cetera.
(You can also enter the GIVEAWAY by linking here)
So....
$14 for the book, $1 for shipping.
Order by 9/3
Go here to order, scroll down (way down, it's alphabetical by author) until you see the cover image of my book, and then pay online (you can also mail checks to Finishing Line Pess).
Benjamin Vogt’s Without Such Absence is a book filled with unanswerable questions, as if plenitude – of world, or body, or love – can be felt only framed by loss. Vogt loves the natural world and makes us love it, too, especially when he gives formal gardens voice. It’s his wit, and terror, and delight that frame these fine poems, finally, that speak the stories behind the old photographs in all our albums.
-- Hilda Raz, author of All Odd and Splendid and What Happens
‘No one remembers unless they have a souvenir,’ writes Benjamin Vogt. In Without Such Absence, poems themselves become souvenirs. These are photographs of a lost America—wooden schoolhouses, clotheslines, faded flags, and strange gardens—a poetry so polished and formally rigorous that we cannot forget the places Vogt has captured.
-- Jehanne Dubrow, author of Stateside and From the Fever-World
------------------------------
Suddenly, Autumn
Is it here at the window where we truly see
the brown-leafed oaks, the drying grass,
the bulge of clouds that darkens asphalt roads?
Is it within a frame of measured faith and chosen
color, relief of temperatures in flux—the southern
wind that fishtails from the north in thirty minutes,
sun spots glancing blows through tattered canopies?
How everything is almost everything we feel?
Loosening cold clothes from our tired limbs,
the quick friction warming us against the air,
then against ourselves, between our knees, our
arms and torsos, bone and streaming lungs.
Is morning like hot tea gripping at your chest,
flooding down and through you like some
revelation, incantation of the perfect pitch,
choral song of waking, sparrow, passing cars?
Will emptiness feel as bold, will the space
our body’s voices leave be sacred words
that vision won’t speak, that sound won’t touch—
a place the mind can’t frame without such absence?
Japanese Garden
Enter through the hedge like wind slipping from itself a stained earthly veil. Step forward with calm to find a stone in your path—all flowers open slow. Beside the tea house rinse your hands and mouth to show you walk from rivers. Speak softly in shade, smell cool dew against your feet, hear nothing but light. Yatsuhashi leads across calm water, trains stars beneath the surface. Beside a black pine one stone looks up, one over; something speaks inside. Waves of sand move still around three green islands, yet mountains cry within. Weeping willows trace the arc of my back like clouds—one leaf trembles. Lotus in the pond; we must rest here awhile like wonted stones. As the sky, gravel; as rivers, flesh of peony; without me, you.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Cover for the Poetry Chapbook
They usually aren't nearly as sexy as full length books, but my 2nd chapbook, Without Such Absence, will be in color--which is like having black tulips in the garden. We all know how black tulips are. Don't we. Oh yeah.
So below is an approximation of the cover. Prepub sales aren't until August, and the book itself won't appear until late October, but you may want to start saving up now for the $14 cover price. I feel like a writer for a little while. (Now someone please publish the full length poetry collection and the memoir!)
That image would be of the chicken coop from my dad's very early boyhood homestead in Oklahoma. No chickens in there now, just rolls and rolls of barbed wire (which could be reproducing--it's likely, actually).
So below is an approximation of the cover. Prepub sales aren't until August, and the book itself won't appear until late October, but you may want to start saving up now for the $14 cover price. I feel like a writer for a little while. (Now someone please publish the full length poetry collection and the memoir!)
That image would be of the chicken coop from my dad's very early boyhood homestead in Oklahoma. No chickens in there now, just rolls and rolls of barbed wire (which could be reproducing--it's likely, actually).
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