Immaculate Bright Rooms
Michael Hettich

She runs her hands across her body,
patting herself, looking out. She will never

swim out through the dark water, beyond
herself, toward those tiny lights, she

promises herself
And neither will she swim to shore.

ISBN 1-882983-15-7
39 pages/$6

Michael Hettich has intelligence, feeling, and musical skill. When I finish reading any one of his poems, I feel like I know something about myself and my world that I didn’t know before. I feel ennobled. His poems are finely observed, precisely felt, and they bring magic to domestic life, the real magic of language that has the power to transform a world, to float a “cankered minnow,” to save us all. These are rich and finely textured poems full of that sad knowledge of the wound at the center of our existence—the love that vanishes. Immaculate Bright Rooms recreates the world the way Ovid did, flower by flower, bird by bird, and it it a first-rate book of poems that will enrich the reader and leave her breathless.
—John Dufresne

Michael Hettich writes with lyrical passion for images of totemistic transformation and natural grace amidst ordinary life. These are poems of alchemistic essences, the darker side of the domestic dream.
—Campbell McGrath

We just received this announcement from Swan Scythe:

SWAN SCYTHE PRESS/ RELEASE
James DenBoer
515 P Street #804
Sacramento CA 95814
jimzbookz@yahoo.com

2011 SWAN SCYTHE PRESS CHAPBOOK CONTEST WINNER

SACRAMENTO, CA, JULY 10, 2011—Swan Scythe Press announced today the winner of the 2011 Swan Scythe Press Poetry Chapbook Contest. The winning manuscript is The Measured Breathing by Michael Hettich of Miami Shores, Florida.

Hettich's manuscript will be published by Swan Scythe Press in Fall 2011, and he will receive a cash award for his work. According to Swan Scythe Press editor, James DenBoer, the contest winner was selected because of on Hettich's distinct voice. "His work stood out immediately from the large number of competent and interesting poets who entered our contest," DenBoer said. "I was particularly impressed by his ability to write a book of lyric poems without using the word I and by his startling images of transformation and transcendence." Hettich's poetry has appeared in Alaska Quarterly Review, Cake, Hamilton Stone Review, International Literary Quarterly, Poetry East, and many other literary journals. His most recently published book of poems is Like Happiness, from Anhinga Press; a new book, The Animals Beyond Us, is forthcoming from New Rivers Press. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Hettich now teaches at Miami Dade College.

Swan Scythe Press was founded in 2000 by poet Sandra McPherson, and is now edited by James DenBoer, also a poet. The Measured Breathing was chosen as the contest winner from among 165 entries, from 34 U.S. states and four foreign countries. DenBoer made the final selection of the winner with the help of a group of volunteer readers. Mr Hettich's book will be the 32nd book of poetry published by Swan Scythe Press. Its authors have won many awards and prizes, and have distinguished themselves as artists and educators throughout the U.S. and abroad.

For more information on Swan Scythe Press itself, please see the Press's website at http://www.swanscythe.com, email the editor directly at jimzbookz@yahoo.com, or write to the press at 515 P Street, #804, Sacramento CA 95814.

xxx James DenBoer
515 P Street #804
Sacramento CA 95814

MAIL: jimzbookz@yahoo.com OR swanscythe@gmail.com
WEBSITES: http://www.paperwrk.com OR http://www.swanscythe.com
PROFILE: http://www.google.com/profiles/SwanScythe