Thanks to Jason B. at What To Wear During An Orange Alert for another fine piece on a KSE author’s work—-this time Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal’s GARDEN OF ROCKS (KSE #103). Luis’s beautiful, melancholy lyrical meditations on life and death have been getting great feedback from readers in the month that the chap’s been out, and Orange Alert has always been very appreciative of Luis’s work…and of KSE’s output in general. Many thanks!
You can read the article in its original context here:
http://wearduringorangealert.blogspot.com/2008/07/orange-spotlight_27.html
or read the text below:
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Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal Garden of Rocks (Kendra Steiner Editions, July 2008 )
“Once dreamers too,/the dead, out of time,/are buried like seeds,/safe from the lightning bolts.”
As I settled in for the lengthy car ride with the family to our annual camping trip, I pulled out one of the newer chapbooks from one of my favorite publishers
Kendra Steiner Editions. It was the latest offering from Luis Berriozabal called
Garden of Rocks. I imagined it was about gardening or perhaps hiking, but I could not have imaged what awaited my eyes. As the van buzzed with chatter and the miles faded behind us, I was wrapped in a somber and insightful meditation on death.
Not just death, but the life and deeds wasted or valued, lost and gain before death. He debates the concept or need for dying, he fears dying, but does not want to continue to live in this world. He talks about the scent of death, death being so near that he can speak to it, the safety and cares of the death. His focus and understanding is so clear and tangible. I got so caught up it in the moment, the fear, the loss… “I don’t want eternal life when I feel so alone.” I am snapped back to reality, and the girls wanting to play the license plate, and all happiness and security is restored for the moment. However, my awareness is somewhat heightened by the knowledge that one day my seed will be planted in a “Garden of Rocks”.
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GARDEN OF ROCKS is Luis’s 4th chapbook for KSE. The others are WITHOUT PEACE (out of print), KEEPERS OF SILENCE (out of print), and NEXT EXIT: SEVEN (KSE #100), which is a collaboration with Ronald Baatz and still available.
We plan to issue a fifth chapbook from Luis, another solo collection, in the Fall-Winter of 2008, sometime before the holidays. Do a Google search of “Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal”, WITH the quotation marks, and you’ll find dozens of fine and diverse poems to read absolutely free! After that free taste, why not send $8 for Luis’s two available KSE chaps: NEXT EXIT: SEVEN and GARDEN OF ROCKS while they are still available. Our earlier chaps are selling for $10 and more in the collectors’ market. Why wait and pay a collector who had the good judgement to stock up in advance on these important works , when you can pick up fresh copies for only $4 postpaid (or 3 different chaps for $10) NOW. Ordering instructions are just to your right, at the page listing “available KSE chapbooks.”
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