Shaken & Stirred represents the work of 13 poets from around the world. I was proud to be a small part of it.
"The most gentle poetry in this collection comes from the Argentine born Carmen Ruggero. Although she is represented with only four poems, she reflects warmth and sincerity through and through. The poem for her daughter shows motherly love, whilst poems The House that Floyd Built and The Passage express cosiness and homely entiment." Nicholas Cubic"This anthology is definitely a must have for anyone who is interested in keeping abreast of the next great wave of poetic voices." Stephen M. Heffen
Excerpt
Excerpt from
"The House That Floyd Built"
Her silver head resting on her pillow now,
Mary Beth closes her eyes,
And hears the words
That repeat themselves each night:
“Till death do us part.”
"Sleep well, my love,” she whispers,
Knowing she will love him
Until time comes
For that final good night.
It all stood perfectly still,
From majestic oaks,
To the frail daffodils.
Birds hushed their song
In silent prelude
To nature’s rage.
Eyes wild with fear,
Animals scurried;
The calf, the dove, the deer.
A musty green veil
Spread throughout.
My child wrapped in blankets,
I sought to hide.
Then, charcoal
And purple rimmed clouds,
Lowered their darkness,
Upon the ground.
Carmen Ruggero @2002
Professional Reviews
Shaken and Stirred
Shaken and Stirred
BeWrite Books (2002)
Reviewed by
Nicholas Cobic
To verse (lat. Poesis), to let out the voice from the inner being, is the ultimate expression of passion, feeling, love, anger. When that inner feeling is transformed into words and language, it becomes poetry, an art form.
We live in a time where boundaries between people and cultures have never been fainter, yet it is also one where people have never felt more distant from each other. We live in a time where emotion is expressed by the manufactured greeting card, the email or text message. It should be easier to communicate, but it isn’t. We grow apart. People no longer talk face to face. People live to work instead of working to live. Emotions become fake, manufactured, digital. What have we left? Poetry. And poetry is the one thing that truly makes people communicate, that causes the emotions to flow and become real, almost tangible. By assembling worldwide feelings expressed in the beauty of language and words into one book, as is done here with Shaken and Stirred, one can truly begin to feel just how much the human race has developed and changed.
To say that Shaken and Stirred is loaded with poetical genius and huge undiscovered talents would be pretentious and a lie. Poets, just like people, differ, and thank God for that.
What Shaken and Stirred does provide is a healthy variety of poetry and a choice of poetical work that reflects modern life. Poetry as used here becomes a universal means of understanding the world around us with no geographical barriers or prejudices to confuse the mind. The anthology is like a huge marketplace where one can walk through and pick into the basket of their soul the poetry that best suits their own world.
The opening poet of this collection is PF Allen, who uses idyllic imagery combined with modern thought: “Four syllable words martinis and tiffany lamps”. Similarly, the combination of “normal” and idyllic living is reflected in The Roof Remembers where everyday life, filled with pizza deliveries and street and insect lights, is shadowed by a ghost embracing memories. Here the reader will find echoes of their own everyday life. Allen’s poetry can become surreal and humorous, as with the poem Jesus Christ, Roy and Ted at 7 Eleven and his experience is easily discernible in the obvious care taken over every line that is committed to the page.
Donna Biffar’s poetry is mature and precise. Anyone who appreciates the work of Carol Ann Duffy or Selima Hill will be drawn to Donna Biffar. Her lines depict images of growing up, loving, and travelling through emotional maturation. Such poetry, it seems, is best written by women poets - as the feelings exposed are very specific and real.
Heather Grace, the editor of this collection is perhaps the poet who exhibits the greatest love of life in this collection. Her poems are filled with a deep inner passion for the most ordinary things. Not every poet can express this. Heather Grace successfully makes a poem become a short film where everything can be imagined just the way the author wants us to see them. In a Café and Afternoons show this with clarity. Her best afternoons are shaken and stirred with imagination, just like this collection. Although she sometimes finds it hard to escape the obvious topics, such as the September 11 tragedy, Heather still reflects these topics in a much different light than an ocean of other poets would, and do. However, the main thing is – the passion is always there, even in a cup of coffee.
Jan Oskar Hansen is the only poet in this book who gives us ‘a non-English language’ cultural angle. Although he writes in English, he has not lost the Nordic sentiment. Even in his brief interview he admits to the strong influences of Scandinavian literature, old and new. His poetry is concise and wise. The wisdom is revealed in poems Serenity - Their whisper is a gentle ripple/against the strand of time… and in others like Portrait and Homecoming, whilst the beauty of metaphors is expressed in August and Town in Italy. Hansen uses no unnecessary words.
The poetry of Dazz Jackson is filled with political influences and arguments where the poet uses language to display cries for freedom, racial equality, human understanding. However, much of today’s poetry caters to themes like these and they definitely fail to be fresh. However, whilst it can be argued that such themes dominate the work of many poets, rarely do they do so with a compassion to match Jackson’s.
A few stolen kisses, the beer unleashing/all sensibility and with it a truth/consuming… Truth and the hunger for it, in poetry and life, is the dominant feeling one gets after reading Athena Karnesis’s poem Truth, a theme repeated in poems 1947 and Nightly Judgement. Life memories are beautifully displayed for all to bite on in The Dance and Mother’s Hands, but it is the cunning use of adjectives and metaphors that makes Athena’s poems so readable.
‘A modern Emily Dickinson’ is probably the closest description of Lyn Lifshin. Her works are mature, exact, often sharp. But this is a female sharpness, one of matriarchal images, daughters, the Madonna. Uncommonly, Lifshin often becomes cold in places where one expects warmth. Conversely, she boils with passion in places where someone else (read less experienced poet) would come across as common and plain. And that unpredictability is absolute splendour as used here.
Dr. Maiti uses imagery of snow, sand, sky to express his adoration for the beauty of the Asian landscape but his poems are equally filled with love of existential feeling. Calcutta is the Mecca of his poetry. The multicoloured days and streets are a stage set up for philosophical thinking.
And then there’s the Scottish poet, Hugh McCracken. Unlike anyone in this collection, he runs with a Henry Miller-like hunger through cafés, concentration camps, passages of time, religion and even aliens. His poetry is the most varied in choice of topics and shows true originality. Even when one looks carefully and deeply, one cannot find strong influences of almost any poet in McCracken. He truly speaks with language of his own.
Andrew J. Műller is possibly the most mysterious poet in this collection. Obviously influenced by landscapes and travel, his poetry voyages through emotions like a Fenland train. Using rhyme in poetry can often cause predictability and vagueness, but Műller uses rhyme cunningly, and thus avoids taking the reader on an already familiar journey through clichéd language.
The most gentle poetry in this collection comes from the Argentine born Carmen Ruggero. Although she is represented with only four poems, she reflects warmth and sincerity through and through. The poem for her daughter shows motherly love, whilst poems The House that Floyd Built and The Passage express cosiness and homely sentiment.
Both aspects of modern life and classical poetry influence Wynn Wheldon’s work. He is a family man even in poetry (or perhaps he sees poetry as his own family), but the family in his mind is more than sacred. Not just plain and simple love, but the adoration of family life and actions are easily spotted in his work. His language and standpoint is both ironic and witty, and this gives real joy to the reader.
The final poet in Shaken and Stirred is Bristol born David Whippman. Although his poems are quite narrative, they are at the same time analytical, especially of relationships. Different Myths and Relationships in a Landscape mirror the affiliation of two souls. I hate the way the clock cuts time… the opening line of Time Piece is one of the most memorable. It perhaps sums up the aspect of time and expression as the two dimensions in which poetry resides. It certainly explains the way Whippman writes his work.
The might of Shaken and Stirred is in its variety and the wide spectrum of poetry that it feeds to the reader. In poetry, there are no rules. The only rule of poetry is language and it surpasses all barriers and limitations. One can decide which of the Shaken and Stirred poets one prefers, but quality is in the mind of the reader. A wide choice of narrative, descriptive, metaphoric or emotional poetry here waits to be digested and absorbed into the soul. Poetry does not belong in the mind. It belongs in the soul and in the bloodstream. Shaken and Stirred proves that brilliantly. This is a collection with great potential and one to which a reader of modern poetry will want to come back for inspiration, again and again.
Author’s Biography:
Nicholas Cobic was born in 1975 in Belgrade, Serbia. He has been living in London since 1991. Because a poet has only one true language in which to express the inner potential of a soul, Nicholas writes poetry in Serbian, but translates it into English. He is also the author of many biographical, political and literary essays. His work has been published in numerous magazines and small presses, and Nicholas was awarded two literary prizes in both Serbia and the UK. Currently working on his first collection, Nicholas Cobic is also the Co-editor of the freshest poetry magazine in the UK – The Wolf.
Inspirational poetry, written from the heart and soul. Verses that are well-suited for reading on a rainy day and that are guaranteed to bring a smile to your face.
This is a book of free verse poetry that addresses the seven main tests in life and offers some sensible solutions to passing those tests with minimal discomfort.
