PINYON REVIEW 19, SPRING 2021, LIMITED EDITION

Chenier, a glass piece by Karen Bourque

This pocket-sized literary and art journal is another hand-sewn treasure produced by talented Susan Entsminger, editor/publisher of Pinyon Publishing in Montrose, Colorado. Susan, who began her artistic work alongside her husband, Gary Entsminger, (deceased) a decade or more ago, has continued designing and producing unique poetry and art books since Gary’s death. She has expanded this independent press's list to include international writers, photographers, and artists.

Susan has added poetry to her painting, drawing, and design repertoire in this issue of Pinyon Review 19 with an introductory poem entitled “Cured.” As I read the poem, I imagined the voice of my former editor (Gary) speaking to Susan: “She only heard/one message from the other side/he said, do not waste your joy/Sun on snow… Crows kept calling on the telephone wire/long after she had forgotten his number…” While reading author bios in this issue of Pinyon Review, I also discovered that Susan has been publishing poetry in Mudfish, Main Street Rag, and SAL. As I read, I envisioned Gary agreeing that she hasn’t “wasted her joy.”

In this hand-sewn edition, the poets Susan showcased  include renowned Luci Shaw, whose “Wishing Flower” is a poignant verse featuring a small child who observes “…dandelions proliferated enough/to cover the field with a tablecloth of gold/stars blowing in the wind…” Shaw, a long-time contributor to Pinyon, is Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver, and received the 2013 Denise Levertov Award for Creative Writing.

I’ve had sporadic correspondence with the poet, Chuck Taylor, former Creative Writing Coordinator at Texas A&M who operates Free Slough Press. Chuck, also an accomplished photographer, contributed four lovely nature photographs, “Seeing More Than You See,” in this issue of Pinyon Review. He showcases his photographic work through shows in galleries, literary magazines, and on the web.

My dear friend, Karen Bourque, contributed a glass rendering of Ridges, my recent book of poetry and Don Thornton’s paintings published by Pinyon. The art piece features chenieres of Louisiana that publisher Susan describes as “vivid, visceral paintings.” Karen used stained glass, Apache tear, and kyanite to create her portrayal of the chenieres. It’s an arresting art piece that accompanies selected poems from Ridges, my book Susan will release in May.

Four haiku by Gary Hotham, a long-time contributor to Pinyon Publishing, will delight readers of “Dark Matters, ” a quartet about “early stars/fireflies changing/places.” Hotham is the Vice-President of the Haiku Society of America and has received several book awards for his haiku contributions.

As I said earlier, Pinyon #19 is a treasure created by Susan Entsminger, from the cover art and design of the High Country, Ouray Colorado to the last untitled poem by Simon Perchik “…in ashes, making room on the stove/in rest by a river/where there was none before.”

Limited Edition. Order through Pinyon Publishing, 23847 V66 Trail, Montrose, CO 81403

 

PINYON REVIEW NUMBER 5

In Editor Gary Entsminger's message to readers of the latest issue of the Pinyon Review, he quotes Aristotle: "Every art and every investigation, and likewise every practical pursuit or undertaking, seems to aim at some good; hence it has been well said that the Good is that at which all things aim." To this quotation in his editorial, "Fool on the Hill," Entsminger later adds, "the work of many great writers sometimes waited a generation or more to entice. But we all have the satisfaction of knowing that originality—whether in music, art, or writing—trumps any other play."

This fifth issue of the Pinyon Review displays a diversity of styles in art and writing and features the work of poets, writers, and artists that offers readers a glimpse of originality in those who choose to follow their play impulse. The issue also includes a poem by editor Entsminger that shows an innovative approach to composing lyrics similar to that of e. e. cummings, one of the most inventive American poets of the 20th century. The poem, entitled "Dream Tracking," is a call and response type poem between two lovers that begins with "the first green-tailed towhee...beneath the window..." and ends with the memorable lines "she: everything impresses memory/he: expressing everything else." It's a unique poem that invites a reader to take a second look and as I said, reminded me of cummings' provocative lyrics that called for more than one reading.

Entsminger, who says he keeps a book of philosophy beside his bed, is committed to reminding folks, via poems and prose, to reconsider how they treat people and other wildlife, and the Pinyon Review, showcases the works of writers and artists who seem to reflect his interest in human behavior, environmental ethics, and his love of the natural world. I counted at least eighteen poets who contributed work that ranged from haiku by Gary Hotham: "warmer coats/the days for vine ripe tomatoes/over" to an eleven-page poem about the natural world entitled "Ouroboros," by David Cravens. And I'm sorry I couldn't review all of the featured writers because the quality of their work is first rate!

Poems of the writers who are featured in the Review vary in form and content and comprise the majority of the issue, but I was equally impressed by the artwork of both Susan Elliott, managing editor of Pinyon Publishing, who executed the cover design and the title page of the magazine, and the paintings of John Tomsick. Tomsick's painting of Billie Holiday or "Lady Day," the blues and jazz singer popular during the 1930's -1950's, is featured on the cover of the Review, and his five paintings of jazz performers entitled "In Performance" within the journal will captivate readers and lovers of jazz music.

Tomsick experimented with pastel on colored mat board to design five paintings based on photographs of jazz artists in performance. As I'm a progressive jazz fan and an admirer of Miles Davis, I particularly liked the rendering of Davis taken from the Apple poster, Think Different in which Tomsick experimented with vine charcoal to achieve "Miles in Thought." However, I'm equally appreciative of New Orleans jazz and was also drawn to the King Oliver Creole Jazz Band with Louis Armstrong on slide trumpet. The painting featured pianist Lillian Hardin, or "Hot Miss Lil," who was the first woman to be a major jazz instrumentalist and who became the wife of Louis Armstrong. The painting of Louis Armstrong, rendered in color on a black mat, is particularly arresting and shows the musician standing in a meditative pose, eyes closed, holding his beloved trumpet. As Tomsick wrote in the text accompanying the paintings, the pieces have a story to tell, and he invited readers of the Review to explore the stories of these gifted musicians and to listen to their music.

I am grateful to Gary Entsminger for featuring three of my poems, which he dubbed the signature poems for the issue, and I agree with him that writing poetry certainly trumps any other form of play. Entsminger noted in his editorial that the work of many great writers sometimes waited a generation or more to entice readers, but he's doing his best to showcase poets and artists he thinks will entice readers and art admirers NOW. Thanks, Gary, from all of us who were given space in the Pinyon Review Number 5.

Copies of the Pinyon Review Number 5 are available from Pinyon Publishing, 23847 V66 Trail, Montrose, CO 81403.

SPILLED MILK: HAIKU DESTINIES

After a long journey of 2,000 miles, round trip, we returned to the quietness of The Mountain at Sewanee yesterday. The trip incited feelings I already possessed when I left on the trip – that there’s too much noise in the world – and traveling to several tourist spots in Virginia helped to deepen those feelings. When I left The Mountain, situations I had observed and read about caused me to consider how much noisy divisiveness and polarity is rife in the world today – from querulous family clans to warring factions of religious and political groups. As my old friend, Rumi the poet ,wrote: “Silence is an ocean./Speech is a river./When the ocean is searching for you,/Do not walk into the language-river./Instead, listen to the ocean/and bring your talky business to an end…”

So when I picked up my mail and found one of Pinyon Publishing’s award-winning books of poetry in my mailbox, an hour later, I was deeply immersed in this book of well-crafted poems entitled Spilled Milk: Haiku Destinies,” written by Gary Hotham, a book that emphasizes the brevity of language in haiku. As I read the pithy, quiet lines, a bit more peace entered my world, and I finished the book in one sitting.

Haiku poetry is a contradiction – the 5-7-5 syllable count, or other less strict but brief, lines are minimal but they require time and deep consciousness to absorb the meaning of what one critic calls the “haiku moment of awakening.” Implicit in the book’s message is that Gary Hotham was absorbed in deeply-conscious “noticing” to see the small moments in his everyday world that resulted in the lovely revelations he records in Spilled Milk: Haiku Destinies. The revelations contain universal messages and emphasize the gratifications we can experience by observing small occurrences in our daily lives – if we look and listen carefully, rather than engage in “talky business.”

As I’ve just returned from a time when I looked out of hotel windows every morning, I was drawn to  the succinct lines: “enough sunrise—/a small window/in an old hotel.” The poem encapsulates the first moments of pulling back the curtains to peer at a sunny day from the vantage point of a venerable motel room where a person may not wish to be, but the sun and promise of a new experience makes the hotel room seem bearable.

I love the clear allusion to what we would call a “bad day” or reference to a time when we feel burdens are heavy on our shoulders in Hotham’s poem: “worn out day/rocks the river left on top/of each other.” And think of the implications of an unbridled energy, the promise of a peak moment down the road that lies in the haiku: “morning walk—/nothing for the stone fence/to stop.”

Spilled Milk: Haiku Destinies contains over 100 of these metaphysical gems, and is interspersed with section pages of Susan Elliott’s lovely black and white paintings of birds and plants rendered in simple brush strokes, Oriental style. The two spare renderings of poetry and art complement each other in a volume that will give readers moments of peace and insight.

The introduction and essay at the end of the book provide entry into the realm of haiku and the art of creating short words in short poems. The entire book is a commentary on the art of being quietly alive and stands in antithesis to the experience I mentioned above concerning the world’s noisiness.

Gary Hotham was recently awarded an Honorable Mention in the Summer 2012 Mildred Kanterman Memorial Merit 2011 Book Award competition sponsored by the Haiku Society of America, which honors excellence in published haiku, translation, and criticism.

Spilled Milk: Haiku Destinies rates another cudo for Gary Entsminger, Pinyon publisher, and award-winning poet Gary Hotham – and brava, Susan Elliott, for capturing the haiku moment with your deft brush!

Order from Pinyon-Publishing, 23847 V 66 Trail, Montrose, CO 81403.