Available through Amazon.com/bookstore ($16.96) Preoccupied With Austin
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Preoccupied with Austin celebrates 20 years of the Austin International Poetry Festival. In this volume Dr. Stone has put together 156 poems from two dozen poets from the US and abroad. The theme of the poems in this volume (Book 02 of the Written Word Series) is Austin as a place for poetry and the Festival as a gathering spot for inspired writers.
Sample poem:
Where Language Starts
poets have lived
in cracks and fissures of society
since the first words
were rhymed
their backyards are saturated
with the scents and tastes
of air around them
and dusted by the effluvium
of commerce and busy-ness
of those who live on flat surfaces
in the light
in austin, texas
the subterranean channels
yield poetry in four quadrants
north or south of the lake
east or west of the avenue
poetry at the intellectual crux
of the quadrants
however
is tedious
the focused shape of words
the intensity of their images
change as poetry moves diagonally through
quadrants
until it is absorbed
by the womb of the heartland
where it waits for lightning
to strike
or the great flood to return
before resurfacing
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