BIRD EFFORT
By Ronald Baatz
Kamini Press
Ringvagen 8, 4th Floor
SE-117 26 Stockholm, Sweden
Limited to 225, 125 signed and numbered.

The poetry of Ronald Baatz sings with unparalleled beauty, and Bird Effort is one of the best examples of that song. I like Baatz’s work. He tends to draw the reader into his voice, and, once inside, you cannot help but become part of the song that he sings. Kamini Press’s edition of Bird Effort is smooth and stylistic, too. I highly recommend that the reader of this review go out of his or her way and secure a copy of it. Trust me, you won’t regret the purchase.

—B.L. Kennedy, Reviewer-in-Residence

From The Beatnik: http://whollycommunion.blogspot.com/

Sunday, March 22, 2009
REVIEW: “Bird Effort”
BIRD EFFORT
by Ronald Baatz

Kamini Press Ringvagen 8 4th floor SE-117 26, Stockholm, Sweden

This is another of those gorgeous little editions Henry Denander, who’s a poet of considerable talents himself, is producing on his Kamini Press, and number 4 in the series is another selection of poems by Ronald Baatz. 46 (I make it!) American tanka, one might as well call them, and two haiku about nature, animals and ageing–which may not sound promising to anyone who prefers urban poetry or who isn’t versed in the traditional forms Ronald adapts so marvellously to the modern idiom. But trust me if you can! The poetry is melancholy, funny, lyrical and even the simplest observation echoes in the mind with revealed truths for a long time afterwards.You’ll read it, then you’ll step outside and notice something you’ve never seen before. He’s the successor to Kerouac as a poet in adapted Chinese and Japanese verse forms, to my mind, is Ronald, and very few people could have taken Jack’s mantle off his shoulders.

Posted by Fred Abbey at 4:51 AM

By Barbara Bialick

When turning to read Ronald Baatz’ new chapbook, BIRD EFFORT, first you note it’s undersized with a handsome bird watercolor cover and some 24 pages of minimalist poems without much punctuation by an experienced poet. Will it be easy to read, you wonder, but no, the book is very deeply written about death as visualized through nature imagery, particularly of birds…

But who is the poem’s persona speaking to? That remains a mystery, though now and again he’ll mention either the presence of or a memory of his mother, his dead father, old girlfriends, his three-legged dog, a dead pet canary, and yes, the lord. There in the foothills of the Catskills in New York, nature and the seasons are always present, ultimately leading him to conclude “how soft my ashes will be…” He maintains sadness throughout, wishing he could be as happy as his dog “just being let in”…

You wonder who else is there because the goal or theme of the book is expressed early:
“You sing to the bird in me/I sing to the bird in you/an effort/we love to face/each dawn.”
With that line’s staccato rhythm, he also suggests a pace like bird songs.

“If time had a shadow…,” he says, “It’d be a swiftness having/no nest to return to”.
“enough/sleep is so difficult/now dreams of my dead father/have come to/spend the winter/Oh lord, let me stay drunk somehow/without all this drinking…”

The life in the poems is often cold to him. There are “crows in fog-/their backs turned to me/ignoring me”; and “winter’s white shoulders–just how beautiful and cold/they really are.” Or his old three-legged dog ”chasing after/a winter sun/that’s cold and/hobbling on one leg”.

To go on pulling beautiful quotes would be unfair to the author and reader. Readers there certainly should be. It’s a nice pocket-size book to carry with you on a nature walk when you might wish to ponder poems about the cruelty of death in the elegance of nature. By all means read them out loud…

By Barbara Bialick, author of Time Leaves (Ibbetson Street Press)

Read the review at the blog

By Tim Grobaty, Columnist Posted: 02/25/2009

POCKET OF POEMS: For some reason, we’ve taken quite a liking to “The Plot of Il Trovatore,” the probably 80-somethingth book of poems we’ve received from and by Long Beach’s finest poet, Gerald Locklin.

We tote it around with us, reading a piece from time to time while waiting for a vet or a dentist, or a bus to show up or for our daughter to emerge from the schoolyard.

Perhaps because it’s pocket-sized, or maybe we just thoroughly enjoy Henry Denander’s watercolor of, we’re guessing, Verdi’s Manrico on the cover – it’s likely those two things and the obvious fact that the poems in the slim but beautifully constructed collection are among Locklin’s best – and coming here so long after the poet’s slightly imaginary friend’s rompings through the bar-life and debauchery of Long Beach in the 1970s have long since crashed into near-death and the life ever-after.

The range is huge. At one end, there’s the wry Locklin humor in the self-deprecation – or the spousal deprecation – of “Toad’s Medic-Alert Bracelet,” in which the aging alter ego’s wife offers to order it for her Toad, an act for which he is grateful, until it arrives bearing the inscription:

low i.q.

advanced hypochondria

and chronic intolerance of household chores.

And then there are the works inspired by Locklin’s lifelong love of the fine arts and the jazz form of music – a brace of indulgences he uses in much of his work now, in some ways to offset some of Advertisement the things in which he or his muse no longer indulge, though those things inevitably sneak in.

We are still happiest when he is a bit melancholy, as he is in “Good People,” which resonates a bit uncomfortably with our own experiences, and which we don’t even feel good about excerpting here – you’ll just have to somehow acquire your own copy, which you can through Kamini Press (www.kaminipress.com) for $6.

Bird Effort

Check out our website – new Kamini Press book out now.

Kamini Press Office

I just published some background information on Kamini Press, along with some photos from our offices. Check it out at our website: www.kaminipress.com/about us

Beat Scene 57

The magnificent UK magazine Beat Scene just published a very nice review of Locklin’s The Plot of Il Trovatore.  Check out Beat Scene, lots of interesting stuff; other reviews and 62 pages of Beat-related articles and photos. http://www.beatscene.net

Ahh…

Warm wishes, Henry, and may the time shortly to commence
on the island give you the pleasure this book has given me.