Summer Reading Recommendations #poetry #prose #updates

Dear Readers,

Here are some of my summer reading recommendations. I haven’t ranked-ordered them. They are all excellent choices.

Summer recommendations:

Midnight With Words: Late Night Conversations in Poetry.

An anthology in which you will find poetry of stunning refinement, of beauty, and subtle meanings. An exceptional recital of verses that enchants the mind and the senses. This is one of the most impressive anthologies I’ve ever read.

Author: Lisa Alletson, Joe Barca, Cynthia Capri, Delilah Doe, Mark H. Fitzpatrick, Ty Gardner, Jeffrey Haskey-Valerius, Rebecca Hooper, Andy MacGregor, Jared Mulhair, Antonia Wang, and Wanjiku Wanjiru.

A Ferryman and the Sea Witch by D. Wallace Peach

Enter a world of fantasy, and with that the mesmerizing writing style of D. Wallace Peach. The book has a fascinating plot, passages of powerful imagery, and emblematic characters; in short the real ingredients of a bestseller.

Visit Diana’s site here.

The Anthropocene Hymnal anthology is here.

Please do not forget that you can order now The Anthropocene Hymnal anthology. The Anthology is “a poetic response to the joint crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.” (Ingrid Wilson, ed.) Read more on Ingrid Wilson’s site.

Crossroads (Winds of Love) by Jude Itakaly

A dazzling collection of poetry written by a young author. Let’s listen to him:

“I wrote Crossroads for all who have not found romantic love and are on the threshold of giving up on it, for all who have love and may be about to give it up, and for all who have been wounded gravely by love and are scared of ever trying it again. It is a companion that stirs memory in reminiscent and also horrific ways only to finally awaken hope and new life in us, where the best love may come to us.”

Jude’s landing page

Update on my upcoming collection of poetry Woman: Splendor and Sorrow

For those of you who are interested in my upcoming collection of poetry Woman: Splendor and Sorrow my publisher and I decided we will not open it for pre-order. The book will be published on July 31. Both versions e-book and paperback will be available via Amazon. I will post the links on July 31.

MasticadoresUSA updates

There are several new posts up at MasticadoresUSA. For me MasticadoresUSA is a labor of love. Thank you to everyone who supports this site.

You can read the work of your fellow poets and follow the site here.

@Gabriela Marie Milton

I am thrilled to have my piece Who Am I? published by Shabd Aaweg – A Quarterly Review of Literary Fiction, Politics, and Philosophy, Issue VIII

Here are some teasers:

“…floats above the water as innocent as the breast of a young girl… Soon the sun will try to catch her naked and burn her skin … Pigeons will carry her across…

… I can see no relationship between my destiny and that which I do. I am …

At noon, the sun kneads the waters with rapture … the movement of the water on my skin. Its cyclical quality sends me in a state of ecstasy. No, it is not the ecstasy of Saint Teresa of Ávila. It is something similar to a soporific trance. I am dead and I am alive at the same time. I come from the sea. I return to the sea.

In the afternoon, my rational self awakes… I get preoccupied with verbs. I set one triangle in the normal position and I invert the other one. I bind them together….. You are the goddess of vines, the mother earth, the chalice, the blood, the fertility of the womb. I mull over these desperate….

..I feed my iguana with cookies soaked in champagne… One kiss and you borrow my tears. One touch and I borrow your pain. A passage rite. I keep a coffin adorned with lilies in my bedroom. I sleep besides death like Sarah Bernhardt. Did you hear that noise? A rosary…”

Please read the entire piece here.

Thank you.

This piece will be included in my upcoming poetry collection Woman: Splendor and Sorrow: Love Poems and Poetic Prose.

My book Passions: Love Poems and Other Writings featured in San Francisco Book Review and Manhattan Book Review.

@Gabriela Marie Milton

I am honored and delighted that my poem “i am your soul” was acknowledged by Go Dog Go Café. For more beautiful poetry please visit Go Dog Go Café.

look for me my love

my body shines like lightening

striking down from Mount Olympus

i’m in the tremble of each tear

that poor hungry children shed

i’m the prayer of the lonely

the garden where the virgins blush

the mystic bite of occult ecstasies

i’m hidden in the Sistine Chapel

in haunted graveyards at midnight

i’m bursting from the keys of the piano

which plays alone Beethoven’s 5^th

now call for god and breathe me in

for i am your soul.