Summer of Dreams

It is always important to know where we stand. But with that knowledge also comes the responsibility of holding our ground. In fact, it can be argued that if we don’t hold our ground, then we really don’t know where we stand. And if we don’t know where we stand, then it also follows that we really don’t know who we are. And if we don’t know who we are, we certainly can’t be comfortable with ourselves, or with the specific, peculiar reality that makes us who we are. In fact, we might not even be aware such a reality exists. And if we’re not aware such a reality exists, then what’s the point? And if . . .

“Summer of Dreams” first appeared in Barbaric Yawp.

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Note: Poems, Slightly Used, a growing collection of work first published in my blog, Recently Banned Literature, can be found here.

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POETRY COLLECTIONS IN PRINT
Available from Cosmopsis Books of San Francisco

Winter Poems
by William Michaelian



ISBN: 978-0-9796599-0-4
US $11.95; $8.95 at Cosmopsis Books
52 pages. 6x9. Paper.
Includes one drawing.
San Francisco, June 2007
Signed, numbered & illustrated copies

Winter Poems displays the skills and abilities of Mr. Michaelian at their most elemental level, at the bone. Wandering amidst a barren world, a world scraped bare, he plucks the full moon like fruit from the winter sky, goes mad and befriends a pack of hungry wolves, burns his poems to keep warm. He is a flake of snow, a frozen old man, a spider spinning winter webs. Spring is only a vague notion of a waiting vineyard, crocuses, and ten-thousand babies. The author is alone, musing, reflecting, at times participating. But not quite alone, for he brings the lucky reader along. I’ve been there, to this winter world, and I plan to go back.

                                                            — John Berbrich, Barbaric Yawp


Another Song I Know — Short Poems
by William Michaelian



ISBN: 978-0-9796599-1-1
US $13.95; $10.95 at Cosmopsis Books
80 pages. 6x9. Paper.
Includes Author’s Note.
San Francisco, June 2007
Signed, numbered & illustrated copies

Another Song I Know is a delightful collection of brief, resilient poems. Reading them, one by one by one, is like taking a walk through our common everyday world and suddenly hearing what the poet hears: the leaves, a coffee cup, chairs — and yes, even people, singing their songs of wisdom, sweetness, and light.

                                                            — Tom Koontz, Barnwood poetry magazine