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Imagining the Future
Ruminations on Fathers
And Other
Masculine Apparitions
Third in the Celebration Series of
chapbooks
by Magdalena Ball and
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Cover and interior photography by Ricky Ian
Gordon,
www.rickyiangordon.com |
 Carolyn
Howard-Johnson and Magdalena Ball conceived
Imagining the Future
for the men in their lives (and yours)--men who aren't
particularly disposed to clichéd sweetness and light; men who
prefer bone truths and 24K sentiment. And the women who prefer
it that way, too. We know real and rational poetry can be
meaningful, can open discussions that lead to more meaningful
relationships. So, for birthdays, Father's Day, or any occasion
you gift special men in your life, we hope you'll try tucking
this book into an envelope, maybe try adding a white daisy and
let it stand as the best inexpensive and thoughtful gift you've
ever given to him.
Only
$6.95--Little more than a most greeting cards, less than some.
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Endorsement
for
Imagining the Future |
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Authors Magdalena Ball, and Carolyn
Howard-Johnson open the doorway of
memory through words echoing
thoughts, and feelings on fathers
that are so strong they can be
touched and heard through voiceless
memories that forever cling to us
all. Words unspoken between parents
and children are uttered in these
poems of pain, love, and always
truth.
~
Kim
McMillon, playwright, producer, and
host of the blogtalkradio show
Writers’ Sanctuary
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Review for Imagining the Future
by Joyce White |
Imagining the Future:
Ruminations on Fathers and Other
Masculine Apparitions
.
"Together they swam through a
remembered past."
Carolyn Howard-Johnson and
Magdalena Ball have woven their
Imagining the Future:
Ruminations on Fathers and Other
Masculine Apparitions (Volume 1)
on March 22, 2010, together like
sisters of the same mind when it
comes to the men in their lives.
Carolyn begins her medley of
childhood memories beginning
with “All
the sound in the world sucked to
a waving wailing note as I perch
on my father’s knee.” Later
giftedly pondering, “The things
I didn’t know about my father,
his coming and goings, the
fearing he would not return. One
day, only a dawn or decade ago,
he didn’t.”
“Then, then!” writes Carolyn,
“Decades of dread (conflicts?)
with names we remember and some
we don't. Bosnia, Kosovo, First
(!) Gulf War, Korean, Bay of
Pigs, Rwanda, Afghanistan, the
Berlin Crisis for god's sake.
More than 300 of them, words
like the bass beat of drums.
Vietnam when those troops who
did come home couldn't walk or
wouldn't talk. I tell my
grandson, then only 12, how we
who remember the grunt of that
war see it differently from
those who marched in the Double
W Wars, wars when we wanted to
be there.”
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's
grandson served two tours in
Iraq. Her husband is a retired
Army officer who served in the
1960s Berlin call up. I can hear
the
sober sounds of the National
Anthem in the background of all
her poetry, with the throat
voice of Uncle Sam warning, “I
want him. He’s mine. You can’t
have him!” All wives and little
girls cry.
Magdalena pulls metaphors out of
the air with, “You
recede a little more. I reach
for you over thought waves
little girl’s hand hung in the
air your absence, finally,
matches reality to imagination
trying to get truth from pretty
metaphors that can’t touch your
flesh still young somewhere
while the precious science you
drank like fine wine grinds your
atoms to dust.”
Carolyn Howard Johnson and
Magdalena Ball have written a
wonderful little memoir
celebrating Father’s Day and all
their sacrifices as girls and
women growing up in the 50’s and
together they swam through a
remembered past. I recommend
this little gem and I give it
Five Stars for Amazon. Happy
Father’s Day to all…wives,
children and our husbands who
take care of our very basic
needs while we write poetry.
By Joyce White
Sculpting the Heart Book Reviews
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Contents
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Imagining the Future |
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Poem Credits
Poems in this manuscript from
Carolyn Howard-Johnson have appeared
in literary journals
Dash (Spring 2009), Apollos
Lyre, and her chapbook
Tracings (Finishing Line Press)
Poems in this manuscript from
Magdalena Ball have appeared in
literary journals
Swords & Cyclamens, Earthborne,
and her book of poetry Repulsion
Thrust
List of Poems
From
Carolyn
Howard-Johnson
Deciphering
Earliest Remembered Sound
Long
Before They Shut the Napster Down
Reincarnation
Façade
Finally, Uncle
George,
Grateful: The
Last Lesson in Who He Was,
Who I Should
Be
Remembered for
his smile
Atrophied
Spirit
The War to End
All Wars
Unsung Heroes
From
Magdalena Ball
Father Earth
Bladderwrack
Chimaera
Narcolepsy
Junk DNA
Presence
Foaming Stone
Truth Versus
Fiction
Virtually
enhanced
Earth-Shaker
Grandpa’s
Birds
Horizon
Scanning
Boat Yard
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After poetry reading at the Glendale
Main Library l. to r. poets
Sona Ovasapyan, Rita Gabrielyan
(volunteer), Carolyn, Christina
Alexanians.
We are holding commendation
certificates from city and state
officials.
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Sample Poems
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Imagining the Future |
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Your
body imprints sand
then you’re off
drawn by sea-stained blowholes
crunched sand-dollar sting
dolorous seagulls.
Olive bladderwrack
spreading vesicles
on pale sand
kicked aside
as you move along the beach.
Ghostchasing
at twilight
waves break at the shore
empty
other than you, me
and one dedicated surfer
out there in shades of blue, green,
grey
sky, ocean, sand blending to memory.
I can’t keep up
scooping shell fragments, mother of
pearl, bits of seaweed
sticky clues
still wet with life.
In this frail opening
between the deception of time
and the prison of space
I’m always a few steps behind.
You broke
before I was born
crashing against the shore of my
mother
your secret hurt keeps you safe
untouched
while I scan the beach
a failed archaeologist
sifting flotsam in your wake.
How little I know of dragonflies,
how they come in August,
leave again without a word,
wonder where they live when I can’t
see them, whether they sting,
whether
that is a song they sing
or a warning.
This dragonfly, small, the first
I’ve seen
dressed in amber and gold sunlight,
joins me in a swim, skims
the water’s surface, divebombs.
Then comes
another—this one familiar
opal, much larger, mating perhaps,
two of them faster than one.
I duck to avoid them, frightened,
feel the water close over
my head. I choke, inhale air.
The things I didn’t know
about my father, his coming and
goings,
the fearing he would not return.
One day, only a dawn or decade ago,
he didn’t.
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About the Authors
of
Imagining the Future |
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Magdalena Ball
Magdalena Ball runs
The Compulsive Reader.
Her short stories, editorials,
poetry, reviews and articles have
appeared in a wide number of printed
anthologies and journals, and have
won local and international awards
for
poetry
and fiction. She holds a Bachelor of
Arts degree in English Literature
from CCNY (New York), an MBA from
Charles Sturt University (NSW,
Australia), and has studied
literature on a postgraduate level
at Oxford University (UK). Magdalena
lives in on a rural property in New
South Wales with her husband and
three children. She is also the
author of a poetry book Repulsion
Thrust, the award winning novel
Sleep Before Evening,
a nonfiction book The Art of
Assessment, and a poetry
chapbook
Quark Soup. Visit her
website at
www.magdalenaball.com,
The Compulsive Reader at
www.compulsivereader.com.
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's first
novel, This Is the Place, won
eight awards. Her book of creative
nonfiction, Harkening: A
Collection of Stories Remembered,
won three. An instructor for UCLA
Extension's world-renown Writers'
Program for nearly a decade, her book The Frugal Book
Promoter: How to Do What Your
Publisher Won't was named USA
Book News' "Best Professional Book
2004," and was given the Irwin
Award. Her second book in the How To
Do It Frugally series is The
Frugal Editor: Put Your Best Book
Forward to Avoid Humiliation and
Ensure Success. Both are now in
their second editions and have
garnered many other awards. Her chapbook of
poetry Tracings, was named to
the Compulsive Reader's Ten Best
Reads list and was given the
Military Writers' Society of
America's Silver Award of
Excellence. She is the recipient of
the California Legislature's Woman
of the Year in Arts and
Entertainment Award, and her
community's Character and Ethics
Committee awarded her work promoting
tolerance with her writing. She was
also named to Pasadena Weekly's list
of 14 "San Gabriel Valley women who
make life happen" and given her
community's Diamond Award in Arts
and Culture.
She blogs at
Sharing with Writers, aWriter's Digest 101 Best Websites
pick,
The Frugal, Smart, and
Tuned-In Editor, and on War, Peace, Tolerance, and Our Soldiers.
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Buy Links for
Carolyn's Books |
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Subscribe to
Carolyn Howard-Johnson's Sharing with Writers Newsletter
and get a FREE copy of
Great Little Last-Minute Editing Tips for Writers
"I have been a professional writer 40 years, and am also a
tenured full professor of journalism. Carolyn's Sharing with
Writers newsletter is most useful for me--and for my
students. I emphasize to them that while research is 90% of
writing, and the actual writing is about 10%, there's another
100% out there called promotion. Carolyn shows numerous ways to
get the message to the mass media."
~Walter Brasch, author
and educator
"A decade of bettering writers' careers
with how-tos, tips, and publishing news."
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Carolyn's Awards |
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Awards for Carolyn's Books, Blogs and More The New Book Review
Named to
Master's in English.org Online Universities'
101 Essential Sites for Voracious
Readers
Writer's Digest 101 Best Websites
for Sharing with Writers blog.
Best Book Award for The Frugal Book Promoter (2004) and The Frugal Editor (2008)
and the Second Edition of The Frugal Book Promoter
(2011).
Reader Views Literary Award for The Frugal Editor
New Generation Award for Marketing and Finalist for The Frugal Editor
Book Publicists of Southern California's Irwin Award
Military Writers Award of Excellence for
Tracings, A Chapbook of Poetry.
A Retailer's Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotion wins author Military
Writers Society of America's Author of the Month award for March, 2010
Gold Medal
Award from Military Writers Society of America, 2010.
MWSA also gave a nod to
She Wore Emerald Then,
a chapbook of poetry honoring mothers.
The Frugal
Editor
Named #! on Top Ten
Editing Books list.
Finalist
New Generation Book Awards 2012,
The Frugal Book
Promoter; Finalist 2010
The Frugal Editor;
Winner 2010 Marketing Campaign for the Frugal Editor
The Oxford Award
recognizes
the
alumna who exemplifies the Delta Gamma precept of
service to her community and who, through the years,
devotes her talents to improve the quality of life
around her.
The Frugal
Book Promoter is runner-up in the how-to category for
the
Los Angeles Book Festival 2012
awards.
Winner Diamond Award
for Achievement in the Arts
Glendale
California's Arts and Culture Commission and the City of
Glendale Library,
2013
And more than a dozen other awards for Carolyn's novel, short story collection and poetry.
See the awards page on this site.
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Proud
Member |
 www.wrwa.net
Honorary Member
ABWA is a group of highly
skilled networkering women in business.
Military Writers' Society of America
Also, honorary member of
Publishers and
Writers of San Diego, Greater Los Angeles Writers Society
(GLAWS), IWOSC, and Publishers Association of Los Angeles (PALA)
Book Publicists of
Southern California
(BPSC) Pix: Proud Irwin Award Winners
Carolyn and Janet
Goliger.
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Carolyn's
Poetry Books |
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Cover art by Vicki
Thomas, Poetry by Magdalena Ball and Carolyn Howard-Johnson
"Cherished
Pulse is full of poems that describe love from the eyes and
hearts of young and old. We see love in its youthful stage, stirring the
hearts of man and woman alike and tying a bond that even death cannot
break. As we continue reading, we understand that love deepens into an
awesome, but quiet joy as the couple grows older. These poems renew our
faith in love as they remind us of our own experience with this most
sought after emotion."
~
Lucille P Robinson for
Alternative-Read.com
Third in the Celebration
of Chapbooks with Magdalena Ball,
Imagining the Future is written expressly for fathers "and
other masculine apparitions."
She Wore Emerald Then is a book of Moods of Motherhood:
thirty poems by award-winning poets Magdalena Ball and Carolyn
Howard-Johnson, with original photography by May Lattanzio. A
beautifully presented, tender and strikingly original gift book, ideal
for Mother's Day or any day when you want to celebrate the notion of
motherhood in its broadest sense. Share this collection with someone
you love.
More on
Blooming
Red: Christmas Poetry for the Rational on this Web site.
Sublime Planet
is an e-chapbook and paperback
published in the time-honored
tradition
of poets everywhere.
This collection of
ecologically oriented poems traverses a wide terrain, moving
from the loss of species to the beauty of the natural world,
from drought to the exploration of alternative planets. It's
an exhilarating collection that breaks boundaries and leads
the reader deep into the personal heart of perception.
Released by award winning poets Carolyn Howard-Johnson and
Magdalena Ball to celebrate Earth Day, this is a collection
of poetry that weaves the personal with the universal.
Photograpy by Ann Howley.
“Whatever your age these
poems celebrating women will
speak to you of times to look forward to or to remember. These are not
poems to be read once. They will stay with you forever.”
~ Nancy Famolari, author.
Also by
Carolyn:
Tracings is winner of the Military Society of
America's Award of Excellence and named to the Compulsive Reader's Ten
Best Reads of 2005
 Imperfect Echoes is
Carolyn's newest poetry book. Writing Truth and Justice with Capital
Letters, lie and oppression with Small.
Cover and interior
art by Richard Conway Jackson
All proceeds go to Amnesty International |
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