American Scenes (1971)
Very Short Patterned poems like Haiku, Cinquain, etc.
and specs on how to write in numerous syllabic patterns,
stressed (emphasized), and unstressed syllables..
You need not be a poet or poetry enthusiast
to enjoy this book. You really need to read these books.
This is true freedom of expression. Times may
change, along with how we put our feelings into words,
but human dreams, aspirations, and emotions never
change. This is poetry from the heart shared in words.
While at first a poem may sound simplistic or enigmatic,
if you read it again you’ll uncover its special merit and
realize why we selected it.
For example these magical lines (one of so many!):
Ballet by Charlotte Morris
“O’ beauty that the human can abound
Rare gifted bodies synchronized with sound”
I am confident that the poetry selections published by J. Mark Press
represent the best poems of our era in America by the best poets.
Our editors considered thousands of entries to select the poems
included here. After several years of publishing many amazing
contributions of poetry in Penman Magazine, it became apparent
that anthologies were needed, dedicated only to poetry. I tried to
quote exciting lines of expression that every reader will enjoy.
To do so was nearly impossible.
These early anthologies 1966 to 1972 were painstakingly
handmade using primitive stencil tools and an electric mimeograph
machine. Sometimes plugged ink holes on the drum escaped our
weary eyes and and some bald spots were printed. But we weren’t
going to let a modest budget stop us. We did whatever we could to
keep on publishing. Barbara Fischer invented a method to mimeograph
replicated color (similar to silk screen).
Professionally printed and bound anthologies were only a dream
back then, causing us to “take a break” in 1977. But in 1999 the
dream became a reality! High speed laser printing and the computer
made “real anthologies” a well-earned reward, a professional book.
J. Mark Press published and copyrighted poetry anthologies from
1966 to 2003 (some years I took “time-out”)