Yuyu will share his experiences and recite mantras and prayers to evoke the Himalayan world, especially, Devataatma, a Sanskrit word for the Himalayas, meaning the place where Soul of the God lives. After years of traveling the globe as an itinerant poet, Yuyutsu Sharma has earned the respect and admiration of thousands of people all over the world. Yuyu will unravel the secrets of Himalayan spirituality, inducing the participants to write fresh poetry likely to be published in the second volume of Eternal Snow.
The Reading will be the
The Brooklyn launch of
“Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty-Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma”
will take place.
Editors will share their experiences of editing this mammon anthology.
Select Poets include:
David Austell, Ruth Danon, Carolyn Wells, Catherine Gigante-Brown, Jack Tar, Nancy R Lange, Bill Wolak, Mindy Kronenberg, Su Polo, Robert Scotto, Michael Graves, Bari Falise, Christi Shannon Kline, Dan Szczesny, Kymberly Brown, James Romano, Jack Tar, Marion Palm, Eugene Hyon, Patricia Carragon,
Jan Garden Castro & others will read from the book.
‘A 320-page poetry anthology, entitled, Eternal Snow, dedicated to the internationally renowned poet Yuyutsu Sharma has just been published. Subtitled as ‘A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty-Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma’ the book explores the interactions, collisions, and intersections of over 125 poets from four Continents with the Himalayan poet.
Edited by distinguished American litterateurs, David Austell of Columbia University, New York, and Kathleen D Gallagher, of University of Akron, Ohio, the mammoth anthology is “a testament to the power of words to inspire, encourage, and heal across vastly disparate cultures and distant places.”
Yuyutsu Sharma is a Himalayan poet whose works have gained a global recognition. This anthology, in particular, is a homage by poets who’ve interacted with Sharma during his legendary world tours. The poems reflect praise, appreciation, and gratitude to the mountain poet, Yuyutsu Sharma.
Not only poets, the book contains poems written after meeting or listening to Sharma’s Himalayan recitals by people from various walks of life including teachers, scientists, social workers, photographers, priests and Yoga teachers.
“When you first meet Himalayan poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma,” says, James Ragan, Professor Emeritus of English from the University of Southern California, “you are taken immediately by his quiet passion and reverence for the art and purpose of poetry, which, when taking the stage, he transforms into a voice that crosses continents and soars like the snow in wind that permeates “the solemn silence of sacred sounds” in his beloved Nepal. Through his intercession, poems become chants of eternality.”
Ragan adds, “He has sought the same in the poets represented in his anthology “Eternal Snow,” a hundred voices who, like him, give reverence to the power of words in translating truth through passion into a universal poetic of sacred sounds.”
In the Preface to the Anthology, Professor David Austell, opines, “Yuyu has touched the hearts and minds of a multitude of people and writers around the world, as evidenced in this wonderful book… It is my delight and honor to be among such a cloud of witnesses.”
“No matter where the poets live, from a small city to large, to countryside or village,” points out Kathleen Gallagher, editor of the Anthology, “Yuyutsu’s poetry and teachings transform writers from across the world, allowing them to reach into their own writing dreams and visions.
“Indeed, each poet no matter his or her walk in life, whether professional poet, performer, professor, minister, or word-loving hairstylist who scribbles down thoughts about her love for her dying mother,” Gallagher discerns, ”all have discovered his or her own creative awakenings when encountering Yuyutsu Sharma’s work. Yuyutsu’s work has far-reaching effects in personal transformation.”
In addition to scores of literary luminaries like David Ray, James Ragan, Ravi Shankar, Eileen O’Connor, Gorka Lasa, Pascale Petit, Elena Karina Byrne, Chuck Joy, Amarendra Khatua, Ruth Danon, Tim Tomlinson, Verónica Aranda, John Clarke, David Axelrod, Tony Barnstone, Art Good Times, Robin Metz, Barbara Novack, Hélène Cardona, Irene O’ Garden, Carolyn Wells, Diane Frank, Bill Wolak, ‘Eternal Snow’ is also special as it contains nearly a dozen Nepali poets including Bishwa Sigdel, Arun Budhathoki, Revegya Joshi, Shreejana Bhandari, Barun Bajracharya and Civa Bhusal.
At a local poetry gathering in Kathmandu when Nepali poet Arun Budhathoki last met Yuyutsu, he said, “With the publication of this book, I can finally pause and take a deep breath.” He added, “It’s humbling to know I have been able to speak to the world’s most sanguine voices during my decade long ramblings across the far flung continents. Not all poets have the fortune to get touched so meaningfully in their life time as I have. Now I finally can rest in peace.”
The book will be launched in New York at Yoga Sole, Brooklyn on Oct 21, 7:30 pm.
Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma
Edited by David Austell & Kathleen D Gallagher
ISBN : 81-8250-088-5 2017 Paperback pp 309 plus 24 Photo pages
Eternal Snow is a testament to the power of words to inspire, encourage, and heal across vastly disparate cultures and distant places. Over one hundred and twenty-five poets from around the world come together in this anthology to explore their interactions, collisions, and intersections with Yuyutsu Sharma, renowned Himalayan poet, journalist, translator, and editor from Kathmandu, Nepal.The book is a clear example of the new world itinerancy of the modern poet, and the global efficacy of poetry, in that Yuyu’s world travels have touched the hearts and minds of thousands of people who have heard his readings around the world and read his words in print and on-line. Not all the contributors are professional poets. Eternal Snow also captures the poetic voices of a hairstylist, a photographer, a Yoga teacher, a priest, a nurse, and a social scientist. In these pages, a young poet in Kathmandu sees her late father in Yuyu’s face; a social worker conjures the Goddess of the Children while serving the Bhutanese refugees in California; a New York University professor ponders an Asian challenge: setting her house on fire to become a real poet. The results captured in these poems attest to the literary collisions which occur when global poets meet. Eternal Snow is a singular, remarkable, and moving work of art. Includes poetry by John Clarke David Ray James Ragan Ravi Shankar Eileen O’Connor Gorka Lasa Pascale Petit Elena Karina Byrne Chuck Joy Andrew Taylor Amarendra Khatua Ruth Danon Tim Tomlinson Verónica Aranda David Axelrod Tony Barnstone Art Good Times Robin Mets Barbara Novack Hélène Cardona Irene O’ Garden Carolyn Wells Diane Frank Bill Wolak and Others
CONTENTS
PREFACE/5 INTRODUCTION/9
POETRY
All the Way from Kathmandu John Clarke / 23
It is so dark so I made me a torch Tracie Morell / 25
Old Ways Lori Ann Kusterbeck / 26
Oppositely Charged Ions Ravi Shankar / 28
Annapurna’s Mercy Eileen O’Connor / 30
Solar tear Gorka Lasa / 31
Machapuchere (Fishtail Mountain) Pascale Petit / 33
The Mountain man and Cold Fish Chuck Joy / 35
Getting High Lorraine Conlin / 36
Yuyutsu Paul Nash & Denise La Neve / 37
hello yuyutsu Andrew Taylor / 38
for yuyutsu Amarendra Khatua / 39
Ancestral Home Meera Ekkanath Klein / 40
Three Poems Sometime Whose Lodge Is This in the Holy Sky? Who We are Eskimo Pie / 42
His Dark Eyes Christi Shannon Kline / 45
From a Lotus Petal Revigya Joshi / 48
Two Poems Snow After Tagore David Ray / 50
Two Poems Lake Erie: Daughter of Sorrows Failure to Bloom Kathleen D Gallagher/52
Two Poems The Judgment of Innocents Three Kathmandu Poems David B. Austell/56
Parnassus to New York Maria Heath Beckett / 63
Moving Everest James Ragan / 70
Stateside Renay Sanders / 72
Himalayas Shawn Aveningo / 74
El Cartero Del Rey The King’s Postman Juan Carlos Abril / 76
Yak Brothers Tim Kahl / 79
Ode to a Himalayan Poet Dom Kafley / 81
Travel in Solo Class Judy Ray / 83
Below the Tatra Mountains Tera Vale Regan / 84
Four Poems Canon for Bears and Ponderosa Pines Letter To Scott From The Waterfall Letter From A Secret Mountain Place Last Night In The Himalayas Diane Frank / 86
Of Yuyu Lady K (Kathy Smith) / 92
In the Silence of the Snow Karen Corinne Herceg / 93
Two Poems Ushas Namaste Kate Lamberg / 94
O Holy Bagmati River Penny Kline / 97
Burning on the Pyre Sharon Metzler-Dow / 99
Tibetan Still Life, Pokhara, Nepal M. L. Williams / 102
Two Poems The Durbar of Nepal Pinnacles Robert Scotto / 104
Exile Nicole Barriere / 107
Four Poems To Yuyu On the E train After Yuyu At Gray’s Papaya on Broadway Anne Fritz / 108
Intersections Irene O’Garden / 112
Vocation Ruth Danon / 113
Three Poems The Forehead of the sky To slap my Face A Dawn of Democracy Mary E. Weems / 115
The little Lamp of Mine Roopa Ramamoorthi / 117
The Summoner Dan Szczesny / 119
Seven Stanzas for Yuyutsu Sharma Nancy Aidé Gonzalez / 121
The Circle Nancy R Lange / 123
Four Poems Easter Monday Climb Sleepers Imperfect Human Michael Graves / 126
Pilgrimage to Changu Narayan Eugene Hyon / 130
Meeting Sharma Marcus Bales / 132
Poems Peter V. Dugan / 133
Beasts are awakening… Aixia de Villanova / 134
Hey you there, in a Katmandu bookshop Leah Taylor / 137
Man from the mountains Cristina Querrer / 139
Two Poems New Have you been to Tibet? Incense Bari Falese / 141
Two Poems Vertigo Travelmarvel Agnes Marton / 144
Two Poems Living in Silence Outdoor Yoga Meditation Haiku Patricia Carragon / 147
Long After Dd. Spungin / 149
Ayer anochecía en Katmandú Yesterday Dusk Was Falling in Kathmandu Verónica Aranda / 151
This is Yuyutsu Samantha Bear / 155
Great Divides Darlene Costello / 158
Three Poems City Gardener Veiled Yahrzeit Mindy Kronenberg / 159
Yuyutsu in America David Axelrod / 162
Two Poems Beast in the Apartment The Parable of the Burning House Tony Barnstone / 163
Dhaulagiri Russ Green / 168
After Yuyu Alessandra Francesca / 170
The Quataquatatankua Nabina Das / 171
Sharma Charms Ronnie Norpel / 176
Two Poems This Time in Kathmandu Bishnu’s (pie & chi) Eddie Woods / 177
Two Poems It Will Not Be Apparent from the Crazy Circus
From the Crazy Circus Kim Nuzzo / 180
My Looks Cliff Fyman / 182
One Rupee Barun Bajracharya / 185
The Birth of Sagarmatha Charles Peter Watson / 186
Want Christopher Wheeling / 188
Voor Yuyutsu, For Yuyutsu, Merik van der Torren / 189
After Li Po Art Good Times / 191
All That Falls Robin Mets / 194
Landscape with Snow Erica Mapp / 195
Yuyutsu Ram Dass Sharma Bill Wolak / 197
Someday you will understand Roxanne Hoffman / 200
Two Poems Wishes Your Smile Civa Bhusal / 202
I’ll simply proceed D. B. Meltzer / 204
Untitled Gypsy Poem Cee Williams / 205
If you die one day Bidur Prasad Chaulagain / 207
Namaste Vicki Iorio / 208
What Matters Barbara Novack / 210
Sherpa Wisdom Mary Ryan Garcia / 211 Blue Panther Grey Theresa Göttl Brightman / 214
A Steady Trundle of Footfalls Steve Brightman / 216
The Dirt the Dirt Jack Tar / 218
Upon Meeting Maya Kymberly Avinasha Brown / 220
Namaste Catherine Gigante-Brown / 221
Meeting Yuyutsu Sharma Marion Palm / 223
Three Poems My Mother Ceridwen Peregrine Pantoum Parallel Keys Hélène Cardona / 225
Pre-Acid André Baum / 229
I’m an “Open Mic Gypsy” Phillip Giambri / 231
Kirat Devin Wayne Davis / 235
Spice Alex Symington / 237 A Poet of Higher Realms Rajesh Siddharth / 238
Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma
Edited by David Austell & Kathleen D Gallagher
ISBN : 81-8250-088-5 2017 Paperback pp 309 plus 24 Photo pages
Eternal Snow is a testament to the power of words to inspire, encourage, and heal across vastly disparate cultures and distant places. Over one hundred andtwenty-five poets from around the world come together in this anthology to explore their interactions, collisions, and intersections with Yuyutsu Sharma, renowned Himalayan poet, journalist, translator, and editor from Kathmandu, Nepal.The book is a clear example of the new world itinerancy of the modern poet, and the global efficacy of poetry, in that Yuyu’s world travels have touched the hearts and minds of thousands of people who have heard his readings around the world and read his words in print and on-line.
Not all the contributors are professional poets. Eternal Snow also captures the poetic voices of ahairstylist, a photographer, a Yoga teacher, a priest, a nurse, and a social scientist. In these pages, a young poet in Kathmandu sees her late father in Yuyu’s face; a social worker conjures the Goddess of the Children while serving the Bhutanese refugees in California; a New York University professor ponders an Asian challenge: setting her house on fire to become a real poet. The results captured in these poems attest to the literary collisions which occur when global poets meet.
Eternal Snow is a singular, remarkable, and moving work of art.
“When you first meet Himalayan poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma, you are taken immediately by his quiet passion and reverence for the art and purpose of poetry, which, when taking the stage, he transforms into a voice that crosses continents and soars like the snow in wind that permeates “the solemn silence of sacred sounds” in his beloved Nepal. Through his intercession, poems become chants of eternality. He has sought the same in the poets represented in his anthology “Eternal Snow,” a hundred voices who, like him, give reverence to the power of words in translating truth through passion into a universal poetic of sacred sounds.”
–James Ragan, Distinguished American Poet & Author of Too Long a Solitude & The Hunger Wall among others
Yuyu has touched the hearts and minds of a multitude of people and writers around the world, as evidenced in this wonderful book, Eternal Snow…The poetry included in this volume speaks to the constant intersections with Yuyu Sharma, collisions of persons, spirits, literary visions, affect and effect, all of which have at their center this remarkable person and precious talent. It is my delight and honor to be among such a cloud of witnesses.–David Austell in Preface to Eternal Snow
No matter where the poets live, from a small city to large, to countryside or village, Yuyutsu’s poetry and teachings transform writers from across the world, allowing them to reach into their own writing dreams and visions. Indeed, each poet no matter his or her walk in life, whether professional poet, performer, professor, minister, or word-loving hairstylist who scribbles down thoughts about her love for her dying mother, all have discovered his or her own creative awakenings when encountering Yuyutsu Sharma’s work. Yuyutsu’s work has far-reaching effects in personal transformation.–Kathleen Gallagher in Introduction to Eternal Snow
David B. Austell, Ph.D. is Associate Provost and Director of the International Students and Scholars Office at Columbia University in New York City where he is also an Associate Professor of International Education in Teachers CollegeColumbia University (adjunct). David has over thirty years of executive leadership experience in International Education, and is a frequent writer and presenter in his professional field. David has undergraduate and graduate degrees in English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he also completed his Ph.D. in Higher Education, focusing on International Education; his doctoral dissertation, The Birds in the Rich Forest, concerned Chinese students in the United States during the Student Democracy Movement. David was a Fulbright Fellow in Japan and Korea in 1992. He is also a poet, and his third book of poetry, The Tin Man (regarding the life of St. Joseph of Arimathea), is forthcoming from Nirala Press in 2017.
Kathleen D. Gallagher is a poet, writer, editor, graphic artist, and distinguished senior lecturer of English at the University of Akron/Wayne College. She is an award-winning writer (Honorable Mention for the feature article, “Cutting Storm” (2007), and Honorable Mention for the essay, “Flying Objects” (2011) in Writer’s Digest competitions). Kathleen’s poetry has appeared in journals including the South Coast Poetry Journal: Issue #15 (Honorable Mention for the poem, “Focal Point,” judged by writer/poet James Dickey). In the graphic arts, her collage, “One Woman,” was chosen for the cover of Pushcart nominee Michelle Reale’s book, If All They Had Were Their Bodies (Burning River Press, 2011). Kathleen was a finalist in the Writing Knights Press First Grand Tournament which resulted in her first poetry chapbook, I See Things are Falling. She was nominated for a Pushcart Prize in December 2012. In addition to her writing, poetry, and artwork, Kathleen has edited several books including Footpaths to Ancient Campsites in Copley Township, Ohio, by Robert Haag (2006); and Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer, by Todd Allan Gates (2006).
Yuyutsu Sharma is South Asia’s leading poet published by Nirala with growing International acclaim. He is currently in New York City as a visiting poet at Columbia University and had several readings in New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Florida and California. He has just returned from Argentina where he had gone to participate in XI International Poetry Festival, Buenos Aires. Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home. Here is a list of some of his upcoming readings in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (Only Public readings are listed)
New York
Friday, July 8, 2016 at 7:00pm
Yuyutsu Sharma Reading with Ruth Danon and David Austell to read at Open Center New York to benefit victims of the Nepal Earthquake at New York Open Center
22 East 30th Street, New York, NY 10016 Phone (212) 219-2527 http://www.opencenter.org/
Pennsylvania and Ohio
Sunday, July 10, 2016, 6;30
Sunday Special with Yuyutsu Sharma and David Austell at Poets’ Hall- 16 W 10th Meeting Room 210, Erie, Pennsylvania 16507 Hosted by Cee Williams
Monday July 11, 2016, 7 pm,
Yuyutsu Sharma to read with David Austell at Barberton Gallery of Fine Art
33 3rd St SE, # 103 Barberton, Akron, Ohio, (330) 328-7619, admission free, donations encouraged. Hosted by Thomas Jenney
Wednesday July 13, 2016, 7.00 to 9.00 pm
Yuyutsu Sharma with Elizabeth Onusko and David Austell at Mac’s Backs– Books on the Coventry, 1820 Coventry Rd, Cleveland Heights, OH 44118 Phone: (216) 321-2665 http://www.macsbacks.com/
Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu Sharma will read his fresh poetry from his new book, Quaking Cantos Nepal Earthquake Poems along with American poets, David Austell and Ruth Danon.
Austell will read from his new book, Garuda focused on the Hindu deity. Danon will read from her just published book, Limitless Tiny Boats.
The poets will pay tribute to the people of Nepal and read poetry to celebrate the people’s resilience and faith in life on this earth suffering from limitless human greed and senseless globalization.
Associate Provost and Director of the International Students and Scholars Office at Columbia University in New York City, David Austell is the author of Little Creek and Other Poems, containing the best of his work written over a decade, David often depicts memories of his childhood in the small American town where he was raised against the backdrop of the U.S. war in Vietnam and the Cold War Era. Currently, David is working on his third book, The Tin Man, focusing on the life of Saint Joseph of Arimathea. David is also fascinated by the planet Mars. He nevertheless makes his home in Harlem which is a very, very long way from the Tharsis Plain.
Ruth Danon is the author of the poetry collections, Limitless Tiny Boat, (BlazeVOX, October 17, 2015) Living with the Fireman (Ziesing Brothers, 1981), and Triangulation from a Known Point (North Star Line, 1990), and a book of literary criticism, Work in the English Novel (Croom-Helm, 1985). New work is forthcoming i The Florida Review. Her poetry was selected by Robert Creeley for Best AmericanPoetry, 2002, and her poetry and prose have appeared in NOON: The Journal of the Small Poem,Versal, Mead,BOMB, the ParisReview, Fence, the Boston Review, 3rd Bed, Crayon, and many other publications in the U.S. and abroad. She is a professor of creative and expository writing in the School of Professional Studies of New York University and founding Director of the SPS Summer Intensive Creative Writing Workshops.
Recipient of fellowships and grants from The Rockefeller Foundation, Ireland Literature Exchange, Trubar Foundation, Slovenia, The Institute for the Translation of Hebrew Literature and The Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature, Yuyutsu RD Sharma is a distinguished Himalayan poet, journalist and translator. He has published nine poetry collections including, Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems,A Blizzard in My Bones: New York Poems, Milarepa’s Bones, 33 New Poems, Nepal Trilogy, a 900-page book with renowned German photographer, Andreas Stimm, Space Cake, Amsterdam, & Other Poems from Europe and America and Annapurna Poems, Selected & New Poems. Widely traveled author, Yuyu has read his works at several prestigious places and held workshop in creative writing and translation at Queen’s University, Belfast, University of Ottawa and South Asian Institute, Heidelberg University, Germany, University of California, Davis, Sacramento State University, California and New York University, New York. Yuyutsu’s own work has been translated into German, French, Italian, Slovenian, Hebrew, Spanish and Dutch. He edits Pratik,A Magazine of Contemporary Writing and contributes literary columns to Nepal’s leading daily, The Himalayan Times. He was at the Poetry Parnassus Festival organized to celebrate London Olympics 2012 where he represented Nepal and India. Currently, Yuyutsu is in New York as a Visiting Poet at Columbia University. Half the year, he travels and reads all over the world to read from his works and conducts creative writing workshop at various universities in North America and Europe but goes trekking in the Himalayas when back home
Yuyutsu Sharma’s Himalayan Recitals: Yuyu will read from his extensive writings, including his newest published work Quaking Cantos: Nepal Earthquake Poems. at The Yoga Exchange Address: 24 Exchange St, Holliston, MA 01746, Phone:(508) 429-9642 Hosted by Kimberly Cozza Collins and Melanie Harrington.
Tuesday, April 12 at 2 pm – 3 pm
Yuyutsu Sharma at Griffen Free Public Library, 22 Hooksett Road, P O Box 308, Auburn, New Hampshire, (603) 483-5374
Wednesday, April 13 at 11pm
Yuyutsu Sharma reading with Dan Szczesny at Moving Mountains – Personal Stories of Perseverance, Juggernaut Fitness, LLC, 141 Old Turnpike Rd, Concord, New Hampshire 03301 Hosted by Jake St. Pierre
Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 7:00pm Yuyutsu Sharma Reading at Columbia University Global Poets Series, poetry reading and audience talk‐back with Eliza Griswold at the Nicholas Roerich Museum, 319 West 107th Street, between Broadway and Riverside Drive, New York NY 10025 Hosted by David Austell : Admission Free
Sunday. May 1, 2016, 1;30-4.00pm
Yuyutsu Sharma Reading at Oceanside Library, Long Island, New York, 1:30pm -3:30pm Hosted by Peter Dugan
Tuesday May 3, 2016, 7 pm,
Yuyutsu Sharma at the BookMark Shoppe, 8415 3rd Avenue, Brooklyn. NY 11209 Hosted by Anthony Vigorito
Tuesday May 31st, 5:45 – 7:45
Yuyutsu Sharma as Guest Poet at Ken Siegelman’s Brooklyn Poetry Outreach, at Brooklyn Public Library, Park Slope Branch, 431 6th Avenue, Brooklyn NY 11215 Hosted by Anthony Vigorito
Wednesday June 1st, 5:45 – 7:00
YUYUTSU SHARMA TO READ AT RUBIN MUSEUM: HONORING NEPAL IN POETRY AND FILM, HIMALAYAN HERITAGE MEETUP at The Rubin Museum of Art 150 West 17th Street, New York, NY 10011 Phones: 212.620.5000, 212.620.5000 x344 There is a 24-hour parking lot on the corner of 17th Street and 6th Avenue. There are also a number of parking garages and lots on 17th Street between Union Square and 7th Avenue. Learn more about discounted parking with Central Parking System.SUBWAY: A, C, E to 14th Street (at 8th Avenue), 1 to 18th Street (at 7th Avenue), 2, 3 to 14th Street (at 7th Avenue), F, L, M to 14th Street (at 6th Avenue), N, Q, R, 4, 5, 6 to 14th Street-Union Square http://rubinmuseum.org/
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 6:30
Yuyutsu Sharma at Port Jefferson Free Library, 631 473-0022 100 Thompson Street Port Jefferson, NY, 11777, 631-473-0022 Fax: 631-473-2903 info@portjefflibrary.org Hosted by Kat Lamberg
From Garuda to Saluda (that is, from the Hindu man-bird deity to a tiny town in North Carolina), David Austell’s new collection explores recurring themes of masculine identities and human complexities with precision and grace. This poetic world is one of unerring attention to tight image and emotional nuance, with a sometimes terrifying undercurrent of recurrent meanings drawn from a wide range of cultural allusions, all shared by a guide whose capacious voice can contain both deep mysteries and no small dash of humor. Austell shows us the unforgettable feel of the club of young adolescent “He-men” on a quest for a secret stream; a southern woman looking back to the Dixieland of ambiguities of raced, gendered, and classed expectations; the dangerously aching erotics of the male gaze or the musical score. The final long poem “The Final Pitch on Olympus Mons” is an utter tour de force of baseball, poetics, science fiction, and a shiveringly unstable encounter with absolute Otherness. Not many volumes of poetry are real page-turners as well as perfect pitches: this one is.
-Dr. Meg Harper Glucksman Professor of Contemporary Writing in English University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland David B. Austell, Ph.D. is Associate Provost and Director of the International Students and Scholars Office at Columbia University in New York City. The Tin Man is David’s third published book of poetry.
The Tin Man
by David B. Austell
ISBN 9-788182-500792 2016 pp.320 Hard Demy
The Tin Man,by distinguished American poet and educationist, David B. Austell, is a very moving homage to a little known but charismatic figure in the Christian biblical narratives, Saint Joseph of Arimathea.
Completed after five years of research and writing, The Tin Man is the poet’s magnum opus.Based on meticulous research in myriad source materials including archaeology, alchemy, religious texts, scrolls and murals, poetry and private writings, Austell conceives a grand narrative poem in epic style regarding the key intersections of Joseph of Arimathea’s life both with Pontius Pilate, Roman Governor of Palestine, and with the strange and charismatic Jesus of Nazareth. The poem explores the experiences of a dramatically flawed man, and the transmutation of his inner being in the presence of the Numinous.
Joseph of Arimathea appears as a key figure in the “passion narratives,” those sections of the four Christian Gospels that focus on the trial and death of Jesus in Jerusalem immediately prior to the celebration of the Jewish Passover in 33 A.D. It is here that we learn of Joseph’s status in the community as a wealthy man, a secret follower of Jesus, and a member of the high council of Jerusalem. It is also here that we read of Joseph’s unenviable task in the interment of the maverick rabbi who many believed to be the Son of the Living God. In the apocryphal gospels and later writings, Joseph’s influential role in the early years of the Christian Church is brought to light. For the first time, we are introduced to Joseph of Arimathea as a member of the Davidian royal family, the uncle of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the great-uncle of Jesus. Later in the Vulgate, Joseph is referred to as the NobilisDecurio (Noble Decurion). Thereafter he becomes the Roman citizen, provincial Senator, and the legendary Roman superintendent of tin mining operations in the southwestern shires of England. In the final analysis, Austell writes of the life-changes that transform an arrogant and troubled man into a Christian saint, missionary, evangelist, and church leader.
The Tin Man is Joseph of Arimathea’s epic song. As the reader turns the pages, he will find a grand modern day classic which can be read as biography or eclectic rhapsody, either of which demonstrate a vital and visionary saga of great mystery and shared humanity.
Eternal Snow: A Worldwide Anthology of One Hundred Twenty Five Poetic Intersections with Himalayan Poet Yuyutsu RD Sharma
