new poetry chapbook from JOHN SWEET, “Heathen Tongue” (KSE #392)

JOHN SWEET

“Heathen Tongue” (KSE #392)

edition of 61 hand-cut, hand-assembled copies

$6 USA postpaid (see below for postage rates outside USA)

payment via paypal to   django5722(at)yahoo(dot)com

please leave note with your order listing what you’re buying and mailing address…thanks!

10 new poems by John Sweet: THIEF; COSMOLOGY; MONDRIAN, THROUGH THE BIG WINDOW: MY BLEEDING HEART AND ITS CROWN OF THORNS; SHOTGUN GRACE; MURDER; VIOLENCE; INTO THE JAGGED DEPTHS OF SILENCE; GHOST ALCHEMY; ARTIFACT 3 (My Father’s Legacy)

Happy to welcome back Central New York state poet JOHN SWEET for another chapbook of new poems. KSE first published a collection of his in 2008, and I had been reading his work for probably another ten years before that. He is truly an original–with an instantly recognizable voice and poetic form.

Sweet’s poems are lean and sculpted to be razor-sharp. They embody real-life voices, beaten-down by real-life problems, with the extra salt in the wound of bullsh*t and hypocrisy and permanent war and militarized police and domestic violence and insane fundamentalism and mass delusion. The speakers in Sweet’s poems are survivors, and they are leaving poetic messages in the bottle of a KSE chapbook, giving a testimony to the insane, violent, corrupt, painful world that  has been created around us, and he does not flinch when documenting our own complicity. His work never whines and never editorializes and never presents any pat answers. It should be clear to all by this point that this experiment we’re all part of is not working. In a restrained but tense voice, Sweet’s poems point out that the emperor is wearing no clothes. His poems cut through the crap, and there’s no macho posing or laughable “outlaw” self-deception. If I peel off the blinders, this is what life is like. Friends, that is an amazing accomplishment, if you think about it. I remember that kind of feeling when I first read Theodore Dreiser….or Richard Wright…or James T. Farrell…or Georges Simenon…or David Goodis….or maybe Celine.

With dozens of books to his credit over the last few decades, and probably hundreds of individual poems published in printed and online literary journals in addition to those in the books, John Sweet continues to have his finger on the pulse of what’s wrong with this society and its people.

When we had the KSE 9th Anniversary event in Dallas 3 years ago, I read poems by three KSE authors in addition to my own poems: the late Doug Draime, Luis Cuauhtemoc Berriozabal, and John Sweet (in fact, if you look at the pic that I use as my Facebook profile photo, and look at it closely, you’ll see it’s one of Sweet’s books I’m holding and reading from, NOT one of my own!). I believe in these poets’ works, and I am proud that KSE has gotten behind them and gotten many new creations of theirs out into the world over the years….thus, I’m glad to present these TEN new pieces from John Sweet. If you’ve never read him before, I can assure you, you won’t soon forget his work once you do read it. Get your copy now. Limited hand-cut, hand-assembled edition of 61 copies.

Visit John Sweet at  http://bleedinghorse.blogspot.com/

And while you are at it, why not try some of our other poetry offerings, listed below. Foreign readers pleases note the postage prices…it pays to order multiple books as the price goes way down, and also, if you order two music albums (see our general list elsewhere on this website) for overseas shipment, each poetry chapbook after that is only $5.

Of course, in the US, poetry chapbooks are only $6 each, postpaid!

POETRY CHAPBOOK PRICING:

$6 each USA postpaid….

POETRY CHAPBOOK ORDERS OUTSIDE THE US (reflecting the much higher rates as of 1/22/2018):

MINIMUM  FOREIGN ORDER, 3 CHAPBOOKS. The cost of 3 will be $19 postpaid, and each book after the third will be an extra $5. Thus, 3 chaps will be $19, 5 would be $29, 6 would be $34, etc.

EACH CHAPBOOK ADDED TO A FOREIGN ORDER OF 2 OR MORE CDR’s CAN BE ADDED FOR ONLY $5. Thus, 2 albums costs $20 postpaid, but 2 albums and a poetry chapbook would be $25.

Why not just add a poetry book to your overseas music order for only $5!

Other chapbooks available:

KSE #364 (poetry chapbook), LUIS CUAUHTEMOC BERRIOZABAL, “Make The Light Mine”

KSE #393 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Arising, Abiding, and Decay,” 7th of the Natchez  Poems

KSE #386 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Trimmings”…composed in New Mexico and El Paso, after the Natchez poems

KSE #391 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Satori In Natchez,” 6th of the Natchez poems

KSE #382 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “The Difficulties, The Impossibilities,” 5th of the Natchez poems

KSE #380 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Time Crystals,” 4th of the Natchez poems

KSE #378 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Meltdown,” 3rd of the Natchez poems

KSE #376 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “New Jerusalem,”  2nd of the Natchez poems

KSE #374 (poetry chapbook), BILL SHUTE, “Guest Register,” 1st of the Natchez poems

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With this poetry chapbook, KSE will be taking a break from new releases for about 3-4 weeks, when we’ll be back with two new albums: from MASSIMO MAGEE and from DANE ROUSAY. Stay tuned on those….