Description
- Kind: Perfectbound
- Pages: 118
- Language: English
- Published: May, 2014
- ISBN: 978-1-939929-11-2
Praise
Tracking the Bahamas out-islands Pines reads for signs of what lies beyond sight. Sea-farer, ethicist, psychotherapist, metaphysician, he sees the implicate order in all things as “an alphabet/of birds spells out/his name/on the visible surface/of an invisible/world.” —L. S. ASEKOFF
The sea’s endlessness, its glittery surfaces, the often scruffy island life of the Bahamas are wonderfully recorded in Paul Pine’s Fishing On The Pole Star. Bright-scaled marlin populate the text, as do Wayne Atherton’s mysteriously beautiful collages. The vision is spacious and colorful, awe-filled and deep dwelling. —MICHAEL HELLER
Fishing on the Pole Star is full of wonder, for Pines knows that fishing correlates with the Arthurian Graal-search, the poet’s hunt for the poem, the deep sea-voyage to heal the wounded soul. This collection places him in the tradition of Hektorović, Walton, Melville, Hemingway, and Hughes. —RICHARD BERENGARTEN
This fishing world is not my territory, so all the more honor and glory that I was hooked and didn’t want to make my escape. In fact I wanted to be eaten and recycled and renewed, as of old in some sacrificial ceremony. —ANTHONY RUDOLF
Excerpt
IMPLICATE ORDER
At sea we
organize
the world
measure it
in arm-spans
hand’s breadths
coiled lines
we observe
the way
birds circle
or swoop
mirror aloft
what can’t be
seen below
the waterline
approaching
Cat Island
the sea turns
from blue
to turquoise
my wife’s face
blooms
in a wave
from our bow
that breaks
in our wake
About the author
PAUL PINES grew up in Brooklyn around the corner from Ebbet’s Field and passed the early 60’s on the Lower East Side of New York. He shipped out as a Merchant Seaman, spending 65-66 in Vietnam, after which he drove a taxi and tended bar until he opened The Tin Palace in 1970, the setting for his novel, The Tin Angel (Wm Morrow, 1983). Redemption (Editions du Rocher, 1997), his second novel, is set against the genocide of Guatemalan Mayans. My Brother’s Madness, a memoir, was pub- lished by Curbstone Press, 2007. He has published ten books of poetry: Onion, Hotel Madden Poems, Pines Songs, Breath, Adrift on Blinding Light, Taxidancing, Last Call at the Tin Palace, Reflec- tions in a Smoking Mirror, Divine Madness and New Orleans Vari- ations & Paris Ouroboros. Poems set by composer Daniel Asia appear on the Summit label, and opposite the work of Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai in Asia’s 5th Symphony commissioned by the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra. Pines lives in Glens Falls, New York, where he practices as a psychotherapist and hosts the Lake George Jazz Weekend.
http://www.versedaily.org/2013/aboutpaulpines.shtml
About the Artist
WAYNE ATHERTON is senior editor of The Cafe’ Review, Maine’s oldest literary and art journal since 1989. For many years he has been building a rather large body of mixed media collage and is currently setting about to expand the exposure of his work to include gallery exhibition, art magazine profiles, and online journals. He has an ongoing exhibit of 18 collage which may be viewed at: www.bigbridge.org, archived issue no. 15. He may be contacted directly at: latheris@comcast.net
