Given a nod by USA Book News, this collection of ecologically oriented poems from multi award-winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball traverses a wide terrain, moving from the loss of species to the beauty of the natural world, from drought to the exploration of alternative planets. It's an exhilarating collection that breaks boundaries and leads the reader deep into the personal heart of perception.
Sublime Planet As Featured in the Earth Day Issue of The Pasadena Weekly
Coauthored by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Photography by Ann Howley
Proceeds from Sublime Planet go to World Wildlife Fund
"Lucid and erudite." ~ Midwest Book Review
Released by award winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball to celebrate Earth Day, this is a collection of poetry that weaves the personal with the universal.
Here are some recent endorsements:
"Sublime Planet begins with Carolyn Howard Johnson's love poems to the living world, rapturous poems, expansive in spirit yet precise in detail:
‘An impossible moth,
dark eye at its center, opaque
helicopter blades buzz and blur... .’
In Magdalena Ball's darker meditations, hurt and thirst have entered the world facilitated, in part, by the machinations of civilization. While Howard-Johnson's poems praise, Ball's seem to sound a low warning. I recommend SublimePlanet particularly to those individuals who reside on the planet." ~ Suzanne Lummis, UCLA poetry instructor and LA's unique contribution to the poetry world
"The [environment] is a hard one--not to get didactic or preachy, remembering to be a poet first, and both you [and Magdalena] succeeded. Congratulations and the best of luck with Sublime Planet." ~Rochelle Jewel Shapiro, author of Kaylee's Ghost
". . . a breath-taking book of poetry . . . "~ Joyce A Kovelman, Ph.D., author
Excerpt
This Franklin Christoph prize-winning poem appears in Carolyn's section of Sublime Planet:
Endangered Species
A dragon, hiding as dragons
do, to pounce upon prey, shock
them into submission with forked
tongue, spiked tail, blue-green
scales, brimstone breath. But not
a sea dragon, this—nearly misnamed
a seahorse—dainty—
disguises herself in briny
fronds, sways with the current.
her delicate horn-shaped
snout trumpets silence.
Long like a dragon,
long as a water-lily stem,
soft, and—presumably,
slick. She flourishes
her leaf-like fins, the translucent
shade of her underwater forest
of amber seaweed pads, exactly,
matches her dance to that of the kelp,
ballet in slow motion
so the visitor to her underocean
home will not see her. She will take
them by surprise
with tenderness.
Professional Reviews
Rapturous, Expansive Poems
It begins with Carolyn Howard Johnson's love poems to the living world, rapturous poems, expansive in spirit yet precise in detail: "An impossible moth,/dark eye at its center, opaque//helicopter blades buzz and blur...". -- In Magdalena Ball's darker meditations, hurt and thirst have entered the world -- facilitated, in part, by the machinations of civilization. While Johnson's poems praise, Ball's seem to sound a low warning. I recommend Sublime Earth particularly to those individuals who reside on the planet. ~ Suzanne Lummis, UCLA poetry instructor and LA's unique contribution to the poetry world
Earth Day--The Continuation
Reviewed by Walter M. Brasch "journalist/author/"
This review is from: Sublime Planet (The Celebration Series of Poetry) (Kindle Edition)
April 22 is [our] annual Earth Day. The first Earth Day involved students from almost all of America's colleges, and about 20 million others, believed to be the largest grassroots effort in America's history. But, there were dissenters--far too many believed that Earth Day was nothing but a bunch of tree-hugging liberals who were getting tired of protesting the war in VietNam. The anti-war protests did provide an organizing base, but Earth Day has grown so much greater, and is now celebrated in virtually every country on Earth. Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson, in their new book of poetry, SUBLIME PLANET, have created an excellent way to celebrate our planet. In their poems you can learn about a diversity that makes our environment and its people worth keeping. There's Van Gogh, Casini, and Greek school girls; there's poppies and giraffes, dragons, sea horses, seagulls, and sand. There's the forests and the rivers. Dig deep into each poem and you'll better understand why we need to protect our planet and its environment. More important, you'll learn that all people, animals and plants have a place, and to destroy any one is to destroy us all. Read it. Understand it. And do something positive to preserve and improve what we are blessed with. ---Walter Brasch
Reviewed by Walter M. Brasch, Ph.D., is an award-winning syndicated columnist , radio commentator, and the author of 17 books. His latest is Fracking Pennsylvania, an in-depth investigation into the effects of fracking upon the environment, health, and worker safety. He also looks into the economics and political corruption within this controversial practice.
Breath-Taking Book
"Sublime Planet" by Carolyn Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball
Both poets share a breath-taking book of poetry that is sublime, gentle, accepting, and allowing of all forms of life presently existing on Earth. Whether big or small, dwelling on land, soaring though the skies or swimming beneath the waves. whether a demure flower, a blade of grass, a burst of raindrops or even a Buddha, all are acknowledged and respected. Each poetess also share an awareness of a humanity that is both loving and, at times, far less kind to other forms of life dwelling on our planet.
Magdalena remind us of nature's "Cacophony of Life," while Carolyn reveals "the arachne spider that spins threads of silver," and both describe the generous bounty of Earth's oceans, the beauty of our planet, and the heavenly skies above. Thank you Carolyn and Magdalena for sharing your beautiful words. They are exquisite. I am eagerly looking forward to your next book of poetry, and more words of wisdom from both or you.
Blessings,
Joyce A KovJoyce A Kovelman PhD
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Reviews for "Sublime Planet, A Chapbook Celebrating the Planet and Universe"
