The frog-priest in my poem
1) I was astonished to find that guys like my poetry, too. Here are some of their comments on Released From the Wheel:
Martha is a world-class poet!
–Brad Yazzolino, artist, filmmaker
I loved your book, Released from the Wheel, so lyrical and full of wonder. You’re able to achieve, through a sparsity of language, complex thoughts and philosophical conceits. Brava!
–Steven Dansky, documentary filmmaker
Martha Shelley is a genuine great poet in a culture made constantly smaller by inhibition, repression, and poverty both financial and emotional. She has an enviable ability to go from the immediately personal to the cosmos themselves. Her work both surprises and thrills me in its frankness and poetic melody. She notices so much, for instance that we have to work twice as hard now to be one-tenth as secure, and to be noticed at all. I will notice her as a poet forever.
–Perry Brass, author of The Lover of My Soul, King of Angels, and A Real Life.
I read a lot of poetry, and the only poetry I can read over and over again is Martha Shelley’s. Her work brings tears to my eyes.
–Kenneth Harmon, Vietnam Veteran, hurricane tracker, nuclear waste container welder
FYI–two of these guys are gay, two are straight. Besides the men and a few gay, straight, and bisexual women, I haven’t heard from other categories of human, at least not yet. And I don’t think the Post Office will deliver to extraterrestrials, should any place an order…
2) And for your pleasure, a short poem from the book
The Sermon in the Swamp
The frog-priest hopped
onto a lily pad and preached:
“Heaven,” he said,
“is just like this,
but forever:
an eternity
of mud and mosquitoes.”
* * *
Readers, if you haven’t purchased Released From the Wheel yet, think about it for a holiday present. Delivery in the U.S. is within a week. No problem with the supply chain–it’s not produced in China, not stuck in a ship in the Suez Canal or backed up in the Los Angeles harbor. Author will sign and dedicate upon request.
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