Gerry Crinnin – Igneus Press

Gerry Crinnin, Forest Lawn Poems (1st Edition) (Buy this book)

When I first got this manuscript in my hands, I was thrilled. It made pictures in my mind. I could feel each leaf and cold stone, hear the crickets as they hesitated, waiting for me to pass before continuing the song.

Each poet brings us a different offering – this feels obvious, but I think it’s worth contemplating regularly. In each case, though, there’s the same message: Please look at what I found in the world, something you might have missed, or maybe you saw it, too.

In Forest Lawn Poems, I found someone who’d seen it, too.

I was tasked with the layout of this book, and decisions needed to be made. I wanted lots of irregular space, like walking an uneven path between old tombstones. I hoped, through typesetting, to reinforce what the poet had shown me, perhaps to make that uneven path a little more worn. I’m grateful that the publisher and the poet agreed with me.

Each piece is a hyper-focus on a sound that caught your attention or a bit of sunlight catching something glittery. But you don’t worry about what caught your attention; you see what’s there in front of you, in the now. This is a very immediate collection of poetry. Keep it nearby, like a cigarette break or a handful of chips.

Intersections are important to me. So when I recorded a reading, I chose to bring this sweet and sentimental work into the modern age and post it on TikTok with contradictory silly filters. Please enjoy:

@debdoesntlikeyou
♬ original sound – deb

@debdoesntlikeyou
Forest Lawn Poems by Gerry Crinnen So many tombstones on the verge. If you died you devoutly almost erased from the 18th century. Face west to feel the ripping weather. On the other side moss mixes mums with ever moisture, tilting work, soapstone turns to soul wafers. One tombstone is off its plinth, another sunk, sideways awkward. If sunk equally in all corners and bent backwards some give shade to near neighbors. Most toppled stones kneel forward or drop full on. igneuspress.com #poetry #indie #smallbusiness
♬ original sound – deb

This has been a big month, with two new books out. Pay attention to this space for upcoming readings and discussion of Gerry Crinnin and Jack Foley, their work, and why we need these books.

Creative Death, by Jack Foley (Igneus Press, 2023)

“Jack Foley is doing great things in articulating the poetic consciousness of San Francisco.”
–Lawrence Ferlinghetti, “Cover to Cover,” KPFA-FM radio.

“I’ve been following Jack Foley’s work for many years now…What he gives us here, with a nod to Rilke & others, is his own add-on to an ancient orphic poetry of love and death.”
–Jerome Rothenberg, poet, author of the Technicians of the Sacred

“To read this books is to enter the mind of a poet who embodies living history. His intellect is not less formidable than ever, while his accumulated knowledge and wisdom are at their peak.” –Deborah Bachels Schmidt, poet

“There is no one alive who has done more for California poetry than Jack Foley. He is the most important living person for California poetry…the leading man of letters of California [though] Jack remains scandalously underrecognized.”
–Dana Gioia, poet and author of Can Poetry Matter?

Forest Lawn Poems, by Gerry Crinnin (Igneus Press, 2023)

The Valor Sector At Forest Lawn Cemetery

Coasting down a slight hill I saw them
buried in battalions. I parked the bike
and took off the helmet, waded right in
to the names. I laugh-cried to find
so many guys named Elmer, an old soldier
named Harry Quick. Head to toe, buried
close to each other, like in boot camp,
and stepping back, their graves
like dragons’ teeth, the final tank trap or
just enough room to lay behind and shoot,
pray.

–from Forest Lawn Poems, by Gerry Crinnin (Igneus Press, 2023)

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: