Thickets

As the day is yet another of reading many books for an award, plus cleaning up for the arrival of child no. 1 from North Carolina, I leave you with an introduction and poem borrowed from Phoenicia Publishing and Ancient Lights. The book is available in paper or hardcover direct from the publisher (ordering direct is, of course, beneficial to a small press) or by order through your favorite indie or online site.

On Dick Jones:

Dick’s work has been published in a number of magazines, print and online, including Orbis, The Interpreter’s House, Poetry Ireland Review, Qarrtsiluni, Westwords, Mipoesias, Three Candles, Other Poetry, Rattlesnake and Ouroboros Review, and in several print anthologies, including Sing Freedom! (Amnesty International), Brilliant Coroners (Phoenicia Publishing), andWords of Power (qarrtsiluni/Phoenicia). His chapbook,Wavelengths, was a finalist in the 2009 qarrtsiluni chapbook contest, and he was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010 for his poem, “Sea of Stars.”

In addition to thirty-five years of teaching drama in progressive schools, Dick Jones has been an avid musician all his life, playing bass guitar in rock, blues, and folk bands. He lives outside London with his wife and children, and blogs at Dick Jones’ Patteran Pages. 

LOVING

Love has always been for me
something of a thicket. Turning
in my own breadth has backed me
into thorns even as I've reached

for blooms. Trapped, I guess, for
the duration, like the deer hunted
through brakes and bowers then
found motionless, terrified, waiting.

--Ancient Lights: Selected Poems by Dick Jones (Montreal: Phoenicia Publishing, 2012)


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Gorey at Columbia here
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A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage book page
A Death at the White Camellia Orphanage chapter one
The Foliate Head book page