Michael Hettich
You smiled and then in one gesture you took off your blue jeans as
though peeling back your skin and showed me the bruises all over
your legs. My mother collects butterflies you said as though that
explained things as you proceeded to unzip your body from
crotch to breastbone, pulling two halves of yourself apart, smiling
and beckoning me to step into the kind of garden that grows
inside our bodies, whether we like it or not: There was a snake and
a lizard and a tree of gleaming fingernails; and then you zipped
yourself shut and walked away with me inside, measuring your
bones, imagining new skeletons, echoing within you, already
dreaming of the sky.
ISBN 1-882983-37-8
20 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.[Hettich] recreates the world the way Ovid did, flower by flower, bird by bird, and it is 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
Michael Hettich has published three previous books of poetry, including Immaculate Bright Rooms, published by March Street Press in 1994. He is co-editor of an anthology of Florida writers titled Having a Wonderful Time! He lives in Miami with his wife and children and teaches English and Creative Writing at Miami-Dade Community College.
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
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