Description
Poetry. With art by Marc Shanker. "It is rare to find a poet so attuned to silence, that time—and space—between words, which for Paul Pines is 'the abyss / of mind-before-thought.' His practice is to listen for patterns in the silence, which turn to whispers and then into these wise poems."—Michael Coffey
"If the origin of consciousness is a wound, would it not be logical that someone looking back might observe that life has been mostly sadness with moments of joy? What to do with such a conclusion? Perhaps there'd be time to lighten the darkness by forging the 'ability to contain the tears in things.' Paul Pines does just this in MESSAGE FROM THE MEMOIRIST. The 'Memoirist' as defined by Pines 'understands that Memory is not a bin where pieces are stored and retrieved but a field in which the Soul's narrative continues to unfold.' Poems—such as the ones in this book—are resonant effects of a Soul's unfolding."—Eileen Tabios
Author Bio
Paul Pines grew up in Brooklyn and passed the early 60s on the Lower East Side of New York. He spent 65-66 in Vietnam, after which he drove a taxi and tended bar until he opened his jazz club, The Tin Palace, in 1973. It became the setting for his novel The Tin Angel (Morrow, 1983). Redemption (Editions du Rocher, 1997), a second novel, is set against the genocide of Guatemalan Mayans. His memoir, My Brother's Madness (Curbstone Press, 2007), explores the unfolding of intertwined lives. He has published several books of poetry: Onion; Hotel Madden Poems; Pines Songs; Breath; ADRIFT ON BLINDING LIGHT (Ikon, Inc., 2003); TAXIDANCING (Ikon, Inc., 2007); LAST CALL AT THE TIN PALACE (Marsh Hawk Press, 2009); REFLECTIONS IN A SMOKING MIRROR (Dos Madres Press, 2011); DIVINE MADNESS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2012); NEW ORLEANS VARIATIONS & PARIS OUROBOROS (Dos Madres Press, 2013); FISHING ON THE POLE STAR (Dos Madres Press, 2014); MESSAGE FROM THE MEMOIRIST (Dos Madres Press, 2015); CHARLOTTE SONGS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2015); and GATHERING SPARKS (Marsh Hawk Press, 2017). Pines is the editor of Juan Gelman's selected poems translated by Hardie St. Martin, Dark Times/ Filled with Light (Open Letters Press, 2012). Composer Daniel Asia's settings of Pines' poems appear on Songs from the Page of Swords, Breath in a Ram's Horn, and Purer Than Purest Pure (BBC Singers) on the Summit label. Asia's 5th Symphony, recorded by the Pilsen SO, features poems by Pines and Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai. Paul Pines conducted workshops for the National Writers Voice and lectured for the National Endowment for the Humanities. A fellow at the MacDowell Colony, Ossabaw Foundation, and Virginia Center, he was also a recipient of an Artists' Fellowship, N.Y.S. Foundation for the Arts. Pines died June 27, 2018, just as A FURNACE IN THE SHADOWS - SELECTED POEMS (Dos Madres Press) was about to go to press.
Author City: GLENS FALLS, NY USA