Sudden Prose Reprints: Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), seventh and final selection

Here is the seventh and final prose poem from Greek Passages: 

Bright sunlight, sharpening the edges of the house, the blazing secret of it, the day. / A reason for coming here. And gathering messages from petals on the stony hillsides and the feathers of birds in flight, and small moths hesitating on grass stalks. / The hopes and fears of peoples, cast on the sea shattered into particles of light

You can purchase the collection directly from the publisher here.

Sudden Prose Reprints: Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), sixth selection

Here is the sixth prose poem from this admirable collection I wanted to share: 

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(3) Dear Rough Guide, Some of the eating places you recommend in Plaka are little more than dens of food bandits. One you don’t mention is Kapnikaréa, tucked away in a corner of the square of the same name. They don’t give the stuff away but it’s good food at reasonable prices for the area, casual, friendly, and seems to have impromptu live bouzouki music from about 2 p.m. / People doing things well. If you can’t find it in poetry look for it somewhere else.

You can purchase the collection directly from the publisher here.  

Sudden Prose Reprints: Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), fifth selection

Here is the fifth prose poem from Greek Passages I wanted to bring to a wider audience:

I lie in bed dreaming the street plan / corners of dark northern towns, complex of small back streets I can’t quite remember / My mother held my hand at the street edge / long ago, and we had our thin riches / there too, the future sailed up the bay as the potential, it seemed, of the entire land / held in the local hand // I dream this. Sound outside, swishing / of trees in gusts of wind / the red earth under the sky’s black cloak / That I should come so far from such streets / rejoicing in the same fear.

You can purchase the collection directly from the publisher here.

Sudden Prose Reprints: Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), fourth selection

Here is the fourth prose poem from Greek Passages I'd like to share:

But you will turn, in the end / and look back across the silence waters, the / roaring gap // deep and wide, perfect justice / on the other side. Listen. Small bells. 

You can purchase the collection directly from the publisher here. 

Sudden Prose Reprints: Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), third selection

Here is the third prose poem from Peter Riley's collection that I'd like to share with a wider audience:

Our sustenance dragged across our fear / purposeless gloom in half light / long fields of grey stalks pulled by the wind, our profit / hauled onto the land / up the long valley and into the hills // Turn and look back, strong hot wind in the face with some water in it, the olive trees thrashing / Our wealth, weighing, working, wearing us / on / to the empty monastery.

You can purchase Greek Passages directly from the publisher here.

Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), second selection

Here's the second of six prose poems from the collection that will appear here: 

Sweetly then / the whole thing / complete and / sailing away, singing: Noë noë noë . . . // Sings shouting: new, new born. // Welcome home, little turnip, welcome to the old song.

You can purchase Greek Passages directly from the publisher here.

Peter Riley's Greek Passages (Shearsman, 2009), first selection

The prose poems in Peter Riley's Greek Passages are untitled. 

There was no journey. The moment we opened our eyes we were there: / the colours across the bay / the red on the blue / Trinakrian Sea, its / turning islands, and all thought of betterment in the world / Bringing trouble. That lives here like a stone. / Bringing upright posture, anxiety, and longed-for repose. That live here like the flowers of the mountain.

You can purchase Greek Passages directly from the publisher here.

Forthcoming books for Sudden Prose at Bath Spa

These are to improve our holdings in prose poetry and have just been ordered. I'd be glad for suggestions for short-short story collections beyond what we already have.

Jamey Dunham, The Bible of Lost Pets. Salt, 2009.

Gary Young, Pleasure: Poems. Heyday Books, 2006.

Ian Seed. Anonymous Intruder. Shearsman, 2009.

Peter Riley, Greek Passages. Shearsman, 2009.

Lesle Lewis, Small Boat. Iowa University Press, 2003.

Charles Simic, The World Doesn't End. Mariner, 1989.

Charles Simic, Selected Poems 1983-2001. Faber, 2004.