Little Poem Press Little Poem Press Category:  Poetry Publisher: Little Poem Press ISBN-10:  simpletruthsandcoughingthings Type: Non-Fiction Pages: 18 Copyright: March, 2005 18 pages, stapled. Cover art by Michael Paul Ladanyi © 2005 Patricia Gomes:  Author of the chapbook Stroking Castro's Beard, Patricia was named First Place winner in iVillage's Annual Poetry Slam in 2002 and 2003.  She was awarded Second Place in 2004.  Included in numerous anthologies, her recent works appear in Literary Potpourri, Shadow Keep Magazine, Dark Krypt, Poetry Super Highway, Unlikely Stories and Scorched Earth. Creator of the Octologue, an 8-line syllabic form of poetry, Ms. Gomes is the Editor-in-Chief of Adagio Verse Quarterly and an interviewer for Lily - an Online Literary Review.  A member of the Massachusetts Poetry Society, she can be found on the web at: www.patriciagomes.com. Michael Paul Ladanyi:  The two-time 2005 Pushcart Prize Nominee lives in the foothills of the North Georgia mountains with his wife and two daughters.  His poetry, reviews, and interviews have appeared in hundreds of print and online journals in the US and abroad.  He is the author of two full poetry collections, eight chapbooks, and has just completed work on his latest full poetry collection Raindogs in the Sun. He is the creator and publisher of the ezine Adagio Verse Quarterly and an Assistant Managing Editor with Underground Window.  Additional information aboul Michael, including how to purchase his books, is available online at: www.geocities.com/michael_paul_ladanyi/   Excerpt Excerpt from Rain and More Rain and Winds and More Rain: " ...Shall I call these The Hospital Poems? No— I won't infect you with that memory. Eloise, in my poetry group, has a series we call (not to her face!)The Mother Poems. Depressing as all hell. She reads a new one each month; this has gone on for over a year now and we continue to humor her. I have no desire to ever be humored ... "

Raves for Simple Truth and Coughing Things
The Poetry of Patricia Gomes

A Review by Susan Culver, Editor of Lily

In this collection of poetry, Patricia Gomes captures the full color spectrum of the human experience with a bit of grit and plenty of fresh, intriguing images. In one piece alone - Unpainted Cribs - she covers the subjects of the eccentricities of great writers, defines felines as "Slant-eyed knowbots amassing data," touches on death, regrets and babies; circling through the line up as life often does, returning again to a seemingly simple question: "shall I write, then, of cats?"

Time and time again, Patricia,s work engages the reader, invites them along for the ride. From The Latest Style: In Answer to Your Letter, she writes: "Belly shots are the thing now;/can you imagine us doing that,/ baring our scars,/our rolls, our/mother-bellies for all to see? Exposed/for all the world to gawk and point at/it is very like poetry ... don't you think?"

And in Memo from Barnstable, Midsummer, she explains: "The last time you were here/I am not dwelling!/it rained tadpole omens/we chose to dispel./I rediscovered them/ under the blue cardigan/ you left behind."

Finally, there is again the grit; the lines of Patricia's work that she surely must have written with a strong, proud tilt of the chin, the lines that draw a similar tilt from the reader. Lines such as these, from Simple Truths En Pointe: "Wrap me in angel's wings/if there are such things,/but know that I would pluck a feather,/hide it in a tight fist/ to later test its authenticity."

and from Rain and More Rain and Winds and More Rain: "Let them imagine/my eyes follow them/around the pock-holed drawing room,/as if I could be bothered,/as if I cared enough, as if I ever/gave a damn."

From purses with too many compartments to dreams one wishes they remembered, Patricia tells the universal story of human spirit in her own, distinct way and the way is refreshing. It's the kind of poetry that leaves this reader nodding an enthusiastic yes.