San Antonio Small Presses The Books Published by Pecan Grove Press & Wings Press Publishers: H. Palmer Hall & Bryce Milligan
The Color of Faith by Mo H Saidi
The Color of Faith A Book of Poetry by Dr. Mo H Saidi Published by Pecan Grove Press Review by James Brandenburg
In his latest book of poetry, The Color of Faith, Dr. Mo H Saidi weaves poetic images and metaphors into the scientist’s attention to detail, taking us on a journey from the poet’s birthplace in Iran to his life as a professor and OB/GYN physician in San Antonio. After retirement from medicine, Saidi received a master’s degree in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University. His poems lead us on geographical journey of complicated human relationships, but they also deal with ethnic differences, war, religion and faith. In "Neutral God," he knits together themes of war and of faith, "Allah sees the slashing swords in the trenches of war, / hears the wailing of dying soldiers. God is hopeless; / Allah is inept but the Son is not neutral. / The Son feels the pain; sheds tears bleeds and dies; / a hero, He revolts against injustice. / In wars and peace God is a powerless, passive observer. / He merely watches the suffering of man." In "Waiting for Khoda," which is set in Iran, he compares waiting for Khoda to the play he is reading by Samuel Becket, Waiting for Godot, which is about waiting for something to happen. Man spends his entire life waiting for something (graduation from high school and college, career, marriage, children, and retirement), never satisfied and continuing to wait. Toward the end of his life man is still waiting, this time for God to come. He implies that the culture we grow up in that determines the God we believe in and how we see reality.
Through poetic images Saidi bridges the gap of culture and language. In the poem, "The Land of Sorrow and Land," he writes, "They must cover their sultry skin with a black veil, / for the sun with its golden arrows might penetrate their skin / lips, mouth, throat, chests and groins. / The only gender who may roam the fields is herded into the stadium to watch a spectacle / the stoning of two homeless women who were caught embracing in the city park." In his poem, "Chautauqua Lake," he once again uses powerful poetic images to draw us into the color of faith. "A man moors the boat to its berth / loops the cord tightly around an old pine / and climbs the road to the hall of philosophy. / Along the narrow road close to the lake a woman in yellow pants holds a strap / an old dog follows its master obediently. In the hall one speaks about the myth / the faith, the third the religious wars / the lonely loon screeches, the sun collects its wings". In his title poem, "The Color of Faith," the last stanza sums up Dr Saidi’s views on faith, "A deep silence prevails when he says Jesus was white / with blue eyes, long blond hair, a rarity in the Middle East. / He singles me out: Look! Mo is from Persia, / fair skin with a small nose; we leave / unscathed, nobody changes his faith." Throughout the book, The Color of Faith, we are dazzled by Mo H Saidi the poet, and we are enlightened by Mo H Saidi, the scientist.
Ours Is a Flower
Ours Is a Flower
Poems by Marian Aitches
Pecan Grove Press
Reviewed by Mo H Saidi
Two important factors influence Marian Aitches’s poetry: the first being a native of San Antonio and growing up in Victoria Courts, one of the oldest subsidized public housing complexes in the country, the second her eagerness to understand the plight of the American Natives and ethnic minorities. Aitches expresses revulsion against wars, unspeakable war, "I keep planting firebirds, purple sage, / gold lantana /a frenzy / of blessings for women mourning / war-lost children we can’t forget." In "Message to the Artist," Aitches makes us re-think history when she compares the massacre of American Indians to the Holocaust:
Did you read the news, See the army photographs? Dead Indians trapped (or sacked like Jews in trenches, but that was after your time.) Where is the red? Bloody snow.
Aitches’s poems are deeply moving; because they originate from her concern for young men going to winless wars and women that may never see their sons, they convey both anger and resentment against men who play for prizes: "Women’s bodies, / fields of nightmares / where men play for prizes / while women always die / at least a little, / no matter which side wins." In one of the last poems of the collection, "Cultural Studies," she memorializes the First People of the New Continents, and sympathizes with other groups too: "How hard is it to be Black / on the streets / of this beautiful Georgia town. // . . . // Cherokee, Chicksaw, Creek, / to name a few. Mad at the lack / of local community, importation // . . ." Marian Aitches speaks of all Americans, Natives, African-Americans, and subsequent people who over-spent the kind welcome of the earlier inhabitants. She ends the book with a well-rendered lyrical poem, "Ours is a flower," and writes that "The earth insists on circles, / always a woman. Children fall / from wombs―water to air." Aitches received her PhD from the University of North Texas in 1990 and is an award winning professor at the UTSA.
Wings Press attempts to produce multicultural books, chapbooks, CDs, DVDs and broadsides that, we hope, enlighten the human spirit and enliven the mind. Everyone ever associated with Wings has been or is a writer, and we know well that writing is a transformational art form capable of changing the world, primarily by allowing us to glimpse something of each other’s souls. Good writing is innovative, insightful, and interesting. But most of all it is honest.
Boacaditos by Ana Castillo
New Releases from Wings Press
Bocaditos: Flash Fictions by Ana Castillo, hand sewn
Bocaditos: Flash Fictions is Ana Castillo’s first chapbook in many years. Limited to 300 numbered and signed copies, this 40-page chapbook is printed on non-acidic, 80% post-consumer waste recycled paper, with a hand-sewn spine. A die-cut window in the cover reveals a self portrait painted by Ana. As Ana writes in her Preface: “These are independent stories or excerpts from much longer ones that developed from my solitary life and my singular desire to write. They came to me in my condo in Chicago and in my desert home in New Mexico. When I lived in those places. Or, hoped that I was living.”
Harbingers of Books to Come: A Texas's Literary Life by Dave Oliphant
Harbingers of Books to Come: A Texan’s Literary Life by Dave Oliphant Hardback , 548 pages
Dave Oliphant’s Harbingers of Books to Come is unlike most autobiographies where the author thinks back fondly (and vaguely) to youth and the rise to mastery and recognition. This memoir moves moment to moment, driven by so many interconnecting memories that it reminds one of Proust. But along the way, Oliphant illuminates the literary history of Texas over the last half of the 20th century. Figures now frozen into icons come alive again under Oliphant’s admiring gaze; even J. Frank Dobie’s memory is cherished by this scrupulous and thorough chronicler. As wayward student, ardent reader, gifted editor of a student literary journal and eventually the University of Texas’ Library Chronicle, Oliphant has been a passionate champion of the written word. His own books of poetry and those of his Prickly Pear Press are carefully reconstructed and take their place among the texts of this astonishingly detailed summing up of a life of words in the Lone Star state. This modest narrator has grasped what may well be the golden age of Texas literature; I doubt another five decades could ever be as rich as these have been, with Dave Oliphant somewhere in the middle of it all, taking notes. This is the encyclopedia of that tumultuous era. Paul Christensen, Professor, Texas A&M University. Author of West of the American Dream: An Encounter with Texas
The Books Published by Pecan Grove Press by Publishers: H. Palmer Hall
Counting by Jim LaVilla-Havelin
Counting Poems by Jim LaVilla-Havelin Reviewed by Mo H Saidi
Jim LaVilla-Havelin has been writing poetry for decades, so it’s not surprising to have his fourth book of poetry published by Pecan Grove Press. LaVilla-Havelin who moved to Texas some fifteen years ago, yet he still pronounces pecan like a Northerner. However, reading the poems of Counting, one realizes quickly the depth of his poetic sentiment, his effective voice, and his understanding of ordinary people’s feelings whether there in Boston or here in San Antonio. LaVilla-Havelin writes in the poem, "what we can’t know," that there are things we as humans cannot comprehend, e.g., "an insect’s view," or "how we are remembered."
The poems reflect his personal experience dealing with students in schools, both in the northeast and lately in Texas. In "Career Day 2004," the bulletin board cannot hold the message of hope because an "e" is missing, and what’s left is "HOP":
. . . . . . . . .
and less than a week before the election we can only hope a word that hop’s gone looking for an e for
we can only
HOP
Throughout the book the poems convey messages of hope, but they also remind us of realities of life. As in "Some Things to Do in the Face of Death," LaVilla-Havelin writes that despite the ominous ending of life, "Paint the casket," we must move on and ". . . / Make food. / Make art. / Make peace. / Make love. // Continue the work." He mourns the loss of the Twin Towers yet he moves on and reminds us of the tragic consequences ensuing war in the last poem of the book, "The Current Count":
4701 Iraq War Coalition Dead 1686 Afghan War Coalition Dead 1,366,350 Iraqi Deaths due to Foreign Invasion 17,000 Children a DAY die of hunger 23 Whooping Cranes at Port Aransas Dead in 2008-2009 due to Low Water Levels (our usage)11 Siberian Tigers Dead of Starvation in a Zoo in China of a world population under 500
As an arts administrator, educator and critic, LaVilla-Havelin coordinated National Poetry Month in San Antonio in April 2010. He also read his own poems as one of many who celebrated poetry in our town, and the most moving occasion was when he and five other local poets read at Mitchell Lake Audubon Center on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. You had to be there!
Registration on or use of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy. Voicesdelaluna.com The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached, or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Voicesdelaluna, Inc. Thank You
