Read A Good Book: Bike Snob by Eben Weiss

Bike Snob: Systematically & Mercilessly Realigning the World of Cycling by Eben Weiss and illustrated by Christopher Koelle is a laugh-out-loud book. Let me just say that I am not a cycling enthusiast by any means. My husband loves bicycles and used to work in a bicycle shop so he spotted this book, bought it, and then proceeded to laugh hysterically to the point he could hardly read it out loud to me.

So, my curiosity piqued, I eagerly awaited my turn to read it and it was just as funny to me as it was to him. Eben Weiss is dead-pan funny with similes and metaphors that will crawl inside your head and make you snort and giggle when you’re trying to be a normal human being at your desk or while making dinner or doing life’s mundane chores. When your mind wanders you will envision Weiss’ descriptions of various cyclists such as The Lone Wolf who dresses and rides to the beat of his own drum or the girls who flout all bicycle laws while wearing their pretty dresses and sailing through busy intersections emerging miraculously unscathed. The illustrations of these people are just as funny as the words used to describe them thanks to the illustrator Christopher Koelle’s skilled hands.

From beginning to end you will learn, laugh, and be inspired to take your bike out for a ride. Eben Weiss even devotes a section to riding bikes amongst cars and why you shouldn’t be afraid of them (I am). Practical advice, tales of the impractical, and have I mentioned the similes and metaphors that will burn into your brain and make you snort while sitting at your desk? This book is worth reading even if you’ve never ridden a bicycle in your entire life. If you need a good laugh by a smart and witty writer, Eben Weiss is your guy! To top it off, he has his own blog where this book stemmed from to begin with so check him out at:

http://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/


To purchase or read a laugh-out-loud copy of Bike Snob by Eben Weiss for yourself, you can visit your local library, book-store, or please go to:

http://www.amazon.com/Bike-Snob-Systematically-Mercilessly-Realigning/dp/0811869989


Thanks always for reading, please drop in again next week…

Right Hand Pointing Open Submissions

Themed Issue coming up is about cities and towns! All poems must have a city or town in their title and when you use the on-line submissions system at Right Hand Pointing be sure to indicate that you are submitting to Issue #46 which is due out in December.

Make sure to look over their website to see if your poems fit the aesthetic and pay very close attention to how to submit your poems, they prefer short to long.

For more details go to:

http://sites.google.com/site/rhpissue99/issue-46-cities-dec-2011

Good luck to all who submit, please stop in tomorrow for another featured book…

Poems Found by Poet Hound

https://sites.google.com/site/44righthandpointing/alec-hershman
“Coming Home” by Alec Hershman

https://sites.google.com/site/44righthandpointing/scot-siegel
“Meth Labs In The Rain” by Scott Siegel

Thanks for clicking in, please drop by tomorrow for more Open Submissions…

The Plath Poems by Nava Fader

Published in 2009 by Dancing Girl Press, Nava Fader’s collection The Plath Poems takes the first lines of Sylvia Plath’s poems and turns them into her own. Ranging from abstract to fanciful the poems deserve to be read a second and third time. Below I am happy to share a couple of my favorites:

It is no night to drown in

tunnels are tokens if you could run
slippery sides echoes
murmuring rock demurs
rumbling volcanic gut ash
whispers whippers whippoorwhill
small singing caught
corner of your eye. Soot marked
and steamy. Bottom dwellers have
stones for pockets. Their mouth
an eternal stone. All guesswork gypsy girl
done.

This poem has me envisioning the entrance to a cave and the exploration of its dark and cavernous mouth. I could be wrong about what this poem is about but the tunnels, the soot, and the mention of bottom dwellers paints such a picture for me. I can hear the eerie sounds “murmuring rock demurs/rumbling volcanic gut ash” described in the lines above. It’s a poem that makes me want to go out into the woods and find such a place.



One match scratch makes you real

sprites are not
ghosts are not harpies
or changelings You are just
as I left you The flower in your throat
furry velvet fills
the space of howls.
Can I get there
By candlelight? yes
And back again The black bag
opens and shuts like an eye
come too soon
to light Sit
and stew steaming crock
held in my knees groans
from time to time burns
and blooms your cheeks Mercury
irises rises the metal
stays hot

In this poem I picture the poet brining fairies out of the darkness by striking a match to light a fire. Again, I could be wrong as to what the poem is truly about but this is the interpretation that comes to mind with the first line/title tying to “sprites” and the mention of candlelight. I wonder what is in the steaming crock and what is in the black bag that “opens and shuts like an eye.” I picture magical things happening in the night in this poem.



In this collection there are also words that are used throughout the poems such as “tooth” and “tongue” so I wonder about Nava Fader's mind-set through the collection, if things are taken from a visceral feeling of taste, touch, and sound and then abstracted outwards when using the first lines of the poems. The collection is, as I said, fanciful and abstract and altogether enjoyable.



If you enjoyed this review you can purchase a copy of The Plath Poems by Nava Fader from Dancing Girl Press for $7.00 at:
http://www.dancinggirlpress.com/plath.html

Thanks always for reading, please click in tomorrow for more Poems Found by Poet Hound…

Jingle Monster Site

Rebecca from Jingle Monster sent me a link for the Jingle Monster site’s poetry section which is pretty groovy because it takes current news events and turns them into rhyming jingles, check it out at:

http://jinglemonster.com.au/category/the-times-in-rhymes/


To learn more about creating a jingle through their web-site, visit:
http://jinglemonster.com.au/

Thanks for clicking in, please stop by tomorrow for another featured poet…

The Winner of Poet Hound's First Give-Away IS:

Samuel Snoek-Brown is our contest winner!
Congratulations, I'll be e-mailing you so you can receive your prize.

Thank you to all who entered! There will be another give-away in the future so please be on the look-out for it, please drop by again this week...