tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27933171542097757682024-03-13T11:16:42.202-07:00Little Eagle Press / Red BootsRalph Murrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11949171899797301924noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2793317154209775768.post-80506409593766605192009-11-25T05:53:00.000-08:002010-07-29T15:19:18.128-07:00"Red Boots" by Michael Koehler<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_slHiYHQtWS8/Sw0-t-7DIBI/AAAAAAAAABY/mKyU8toPwYo/s1600/Red_Boots_front_cover_III.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5408047687247536146" style="DISPLAY: block; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 268px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 400px; TEXT-ALIGN: center" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_slHiYHQtWS8/Sw0-t-7DIBI/AAAAAAAAABY/mKyU8toPwYo/s400/Red_Boots_front_cover_III.jpg" border="0" /></a> <strong>Red Boots </strong>ISBN: 978-0-9823419-5-7<br /><div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_dRy93nfd_3M/SigK3cyRDNI/AAAAAAAAAww/Og9sGlWYcmk/s1600-h/Red+Boots+front+cover+III.jpg"></a><span style="color:#cc0000;">" So what's up at Little Eagle Press?", you ask - or maybe you don't - but I'll tell you anyway:</span></div><br /><div>We here at Little Eagle Press – no, truthfully – I here at Little Eagle Press, am wildly proud to announce publication of the first book to receive the press’ R. M. Arvinson Manuscript of the Year Award. The book is Michael Koehler’s RED BOOTS, a collection from one of Wisconsin’s finest, which leads the reader through a good bit of Koehler’s life - his longings, his triumphs, his blues. Women. Brothers. The road. The loss of a father and the finding of a poet.</div><br /><div>Michael Koehler seems to find the poem wherever he looks, but takes it home and polishes it beautifully before putting it on display. Somehow, he does this without losing a feeling of immediacy, a sense of conversation. Here's the first poem in the book:</div><br /><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">MEDICINE FOR A FRIEND</span></div><br /><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">Let me give you this:</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">Tall prairie grass humming like old women</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">gathered to quilt their long memories into</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">a tan and green and dark brown field</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">where, underneath, small things can be warm as the sun on sumac. </span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">Take this, too:The sky a peerless blue,</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">high clouds rippled like the flesh of walleye.</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">And here, in my heart,</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">my love, one leaf that never falls,</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">waving like an anthem,</span></div><div><span style="font-family:times new roman;font-size:130%;">keeping the bare tree rooted to the earth.</span></div><br /><div>There are poems here that will stay with you; poems that I believe will become a part of you. The book contains a rather handsome 82 pages, including 17 of my own pen & ink drawings inspired by this manuscript.</div><div><span style="font-size:130%;">You may order RED BOOTS, by Michael Koehler, for <span style="color:#ffff66;">$12. plus $3.</span> s&h from:</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffff66;">Little Eagle Press</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffff66;">P.O. Box 684</span></div><div><span style="font-size:130%;color:#ffff66;">Baileys Harbor, WI, USA 54202</span></div><div><a href="mailto:littleeaglepress@gmail.com"><span style="font-size:130%;">littleeaglepress@gmail.com</span></a></div><br /><div><span style="font-size:130%;">checks cheerfully accepted, until I get stung.</span></div><div align="center">-----</div><div>And if you're not already following Mike's blog (<a href="http://onehandarmands.blogspot.com/">http://onehandarmands.blogspot.com/</a>) , wake up!</div><div align="center">-----</div><strong>Back</strong> to Little Eagle's nest, click <a href="http://littleeaglepress.blogspot.com/">http://littleeaglepress.blogspot.com/</a><br /><div align="center">-----<br /></div>A first impression of Red Boots, this from t.k. splake, the Bard of the Keweenaw: <a href="http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/t-kilgore-splake-life-death-poet-trees/">http://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2009/06/03/t-kilgore-splake-life-death-poet-trees/</a><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">. . . read and enjoyed the . . . little eagle press . . . title RED BOOTS, and of course the ‘title poem’ was a literary given, helluva fine verse, but, for tommy (the splake-smith) I liked as well the koehler poem “road trip,” which may say something about my bardic personality, red trippin’ ohhhhhhhhhh and yes, and, goddammit, and, goddammit, the murre artwork was a plus, just as fine, nay excellent as the michael writings, more more more in the future, I AM HOPING, noticed that you are a pilot pen man, precise v-5, well, I buy my pilot razor sharp ii pens by the dozen, eh, I have this thing about pilot ii’s . . . again kudos and congrats on RED BOOTS – poetry and drawings . . .</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">best</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">cheers</span><br /><br /><span style="color:#cc0000;">t.<br /></span>Ralph Murrehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11949171899797301924noreply@blogger.com0