Direction For A Wind That Has Nowhere To Go

Declaration For Your Bones, the latest release from Yuganta Press, collects the poetry of Duane Esposito, wherein he shares decades of grappling with loss, memory, grief and mortality, both as personal and unavoidable universal experiences.

In a culture often all-but-frantic in its dedication to keeping pain at bay, Duane's guest reading of poetry from Declaration, held at Curley's earlier this month--and the discussion it inspired, proved an uncompromising reminder that the things that happen to each of us over the course of our lives, for better or for worse, become an indelible part of us, no matter what we might have in mind. In particular, the introductory correspondence between Yuganta publisher (and academic colleague) Ralph Nazareth and the poet, which led up to this collection, speaks to the honesty and searching courage of Duane's observations.

You can watch Duane reading "Here Are The Days", "Spring" and three other pieces below:

One of the scheduled participants in next month's "Mysteries of Light" reading at the Unitarian Universalist Society in Stamford (see Upcoming Events on the left), Duane Esposito is an Associate Professor of English at Nassau Community College in Garden City, New York and holds an MA from SUNY Brockport, as well as an MFA from the University of Arizona. Duane's writing was selected in 1994 by Diane Glancy for an Academy of American Poets Award and twice earned him a nomination for a Pushcart Prize (2003, 2009). Besides Declaration, Duane has published two other collections: The Book of Bubba (Brown Dog Press,1998) and Cadillac Battleship (Broken Tribe Press, 2005).

Find Duane is in conversation with three other poets on Bill Buschel's Just My Eyes blog here, or comment on his work and contact Duane directly on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/duane.esposito.

Introducing Poets at The Lock Works

The Home Theater can seat more than twenty people

The Lock Works' main plaza

PoemAlley now has a second ongoing venue in Stamford where poets, writers and other artists can congregate, share and critique one another's work.

Courtesy of Joe Avalos, a recent addition to PA and Lock Works resident, Poetry at The Lock Works represents a new and exciting, multi-media complement to the downtown intimacy of Tuesdays at Curley's.

One of the amenities of The Lock Works apartment complex (part of Stamford's newly-revamped South End) is an elegant Media Room/Home Theater facility, which affords video projection, A/V capabilities for enhanced live readings, recorded performance art and other possibilities in a comfortable setting, limited only by participants' imagination.

Poetry at The Lock Works meets the last Thursday
of each month, from 7-9:30 pm.

For more information, contact Joe at joeavalos@me.com,
or Jim Janke at Curley's Diner, Tuesday at 7:30 pm:

The Lock Works (across from Fairway Market)
121 Towne Street
Stamford, CT 06902

One War's One-Month Twilight: WWII Veteran Hoby Rosen To Speak At Curley's This Tuesday

This week's featured poet and artist, Hoby Rosen, will be sharing his recollections of his military service during the grueling closing winter months of World War II in Western Europe. Launched on December 16, 1944 in a rash attempt to break up the American/British/French alliance by crippling Allied supply channels, Hitler's surprise Ardennes Offensive became more widely known as the Battle of the Bulge for the bulge it created in the Allies' front line.

Me-262 "Swallow" jet fighter-bomber

From the misery of trench foot and the historic, if ineffectual, introduction of the first jet-propelled fighter, to the melancholy of wartime holidays and the atrocity of the Malmédy Massacre, the conflict, involving the biggest engagement of the war by U.S. forces, (600,000 soldiers) and costing more than 190,000 lives all around, encapsulated the pyrrhic confusion of horror, hope, suffering, ingenuity and cruelty that characterizes all wars. 

POW massacre, Malmedy, Belgium, 1945

Hoby went on to study at Johns Hopkins and the University of Southern California, where he concentrated on writing, drama and film production.

Soldiers exchanging Christmas gifts, 1944

PoemAlley member and sculptor--with studio space at Stamford's Loft Artists Association (one of numerous art organizations with which he is affiliated), Hoby enjoys working in wax for bronze casting, though he also dabbles in treated paper, glass casting and wood. Click here to see some of his work. He can be reached at hobyart@aol.com.