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Imperfect
Echoes
Writing Truth and Justice with Capital Letters,
lie and oppression with Small
By
the multi award-winning poet
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Inspired by Nobel Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz’s poem
“Incantation” that lauds the power of human reason over the
recurring and seemingly insane political realities,
Howard-Johnson holds out hope but is not persuaded by trends
that seem worse now than they were in Milosz’s time. A
student of Suzanne Lummis, UCLA poetry instructor and the
Fresno School of Poetry fronted by US poet laureate Philip
Levine, she touches on the isms of the world—racism, ageism,
even what might be termed
“wallism” but was once referred to
as
xenophobia. In her poem “Crying Walls,” she sounds a low
warning reminiscent of
Robert Frost: “Chains linked. Wire
barbed,/ Krylon smeared. Feeble,/ useless, unholy
billboards,/
anything but mending
walls.”
"The word
choice was exquisite. The structure of the book allows
journey its passage, and though there is a destination the
author doesn't allow the poems to hurry themselves too
quickly through its lyrical foreshadowing. The standout poem
for me was "Little Red Hen and Friends." ~Judge Writer's
Digest 25th Annual Book Awards
My Fave Review for Imperfect Echoes
“Carolyn Howard-Johnson is articulate,
gifted, insightful, iconoclastic, and a
truly impressive literary talent.
Imperfect Echoes: Writing Truth and
Justice with Capital Letters, lie and
oppression with Small is an inherently
fascinating, thoughtful, and
thought-provoking read that is very
highly recommended for community and
academic library Contemporary Poetry
collections . . .”
~Jim
Cox, Editor-In-Chief of Midwest Book
Reviews
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Unsolicited Praise:
"This is how I want to write poetry,
with deep meaning for a world in need of
change. Sometimes a poem is more
powerful than other writing because its
condensed energy in words, ready to
explode in the reader's mind."
~ Mindy Phillips Lawrence, poet and
editor
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Paperback and e-book may be ordered from
Amazon
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Review of Imperfect
Echoes
by
Marlan Warren |
Carolyn
Howard-Johnson’s
“Imperfect
Echoes:
Writing
Truth
and
Justice
with
Capital
Letters,
lie
and
oppression
with
Small”
is
just
perfect.
This
Los
Angeles
award-winning
poet
lays
out
the
landscape
of
her
contemplative
thoughts,
feelings
and
reactions
with
such
honesty
and
deceptive
simplicity
that
they
have
the
effect
of
offering
a
peek
into
her
private
journals.
What
puts
this
poetry
on
par
with
leaping
tall
buildings
is
the
fact
that
each
poem
manages
the
feat
of
conveying
personal
and
universal
relevance
at
once.
Do
not
be
scared
off
by
the
prospect
of
political
rhetoric
masquerading
as
literature;
this
is
not
one
of
those
books.
Although
the
book's
subtitle
may
strike
some
as
rather
lofty,
it
is a
quote
from
Czeslaw
Milosz's
poem,
“Incantation,”
in
his
anthology,
“The
Captive
Mind,”
which
reflects
Howard-Johnson's
poetic
themes.
She
has
divided
her
prolific
poems
into
a
Prologue
plus
four
sections:
“Remembering
What
We
Must”;
“Nations:
Tranquil
Self-Destruction”;
“Acceptance:
Waiting
for
the
Gift”;
and
“Future
Stones
of
Distrust.”
Howard-Johnson
deftly
blends
the
"Truth
and
Justice"
observations
with
the
"Small"
moments
of "lie(s)"
and
"oppression"
as
they
intersperse
through
her
poet's
journey.
The
poems
in
“Remembering
What
We
Must”
address
the
stark
realities
of
war
and
global
misery,
which
Howard-Johnson
treats
with
her
practiced
light
touch
that
floats
like
the
proverbial
butterfly
and
stings
like
an
outraged
bee.
In
“Belgium's
War
Fields,”
she
compares
the
reasons
for
bygone
wars
to
our
present
day
confusion:
“And
now
a
war
that
takes
from
the
mouths
/and
hearts
of
the
stranded,
the
homeless.
/
How
different
from
those
who
/
marched
with
snares
or
flew
flags
/ in
a
war
when
we
knew
/
why
we
were
there.”
In
the
“Nations:
Tranquil
Self-Destruction”
section,
“The
Story
of
My
Missed
Connection
in
Minneola”
brings
to
life
a
brief
rest
stop
during
a
road
trip,
which
seems
rather
amusing
at
first
as
the
wife
relieves
her
bladder
and
the
husband
declines
the
coffee
with
“Let's
skip
it.
Coffee's
/
probably
been
stewing
for
days...”
but
hits
an
unexpected
bump
of
overt
bigotry
when
the
roadside
store
owner
confides
in
them
(in
between
the
screeches
of
his
pet
parrot)
that
he
left
Los
Angeles
to
get
away
from
the
“ragheads.”
In
the
“Acceptance:
Waiting
for
the
Gift”
section,
“Relatives”
takes
on
the
ways
in
which
"Small"
minds
can
make
a
family
dinner
feel
like
a
stint
in
Purgatory:
“Perhaps
you
won't
invite
me
back
/ if
I
mention
that
infamous
/
uncle.
You
know,
the
one
who
killed
/
three
of
his
wives
/
but
is
candid
/
about
who
he
is,
/
how
many
he's
killed,
/
the
methods
he
used
/
and
never
gets
invited
to
dinner.
In
the
“Future
Stones
of
Distrust”
section,
“Rosa
Parks
Memorialized”
opens
with
“On
the
day
our
September
losses
/
reached
2,000,
a
tribute
/ to
Rosa...”
and
asks
“If
she
were
alive
now.../
would
her
solo
/ be
enough
or
do
we
need
now
a
choir
singing,
/
thousands
screaming...?”
Imperfect
Echoes
allows
readers
to
witness
a
poet's
lifetime
revisited
in
memory
and
with
fresh
wisdom.
If
the
topics
of
oppression,
prejudice
and
war
seem
to
some
"overdone,"
Howard-Johnson
responds
in
her
Prologue
poem,
“Apologies
from
a
Magpie”:
Magpies
are
born
to
sing
others'
songs—
stained
notes,
imperfect
echoes—
until
the
world
begins
to
know
them
by
heart.
Note:
Proceeds
from
the
sales
will
be
donated
to
the
non-profit
human
rights
watchdog,
Amnesty
International.
ABOUT
THE
REVIEWER
Marlan Warren is an L.A. journalist, novelist, playwright, screenwriter, blogger, and publicist with Roadmap Communications and Book Publicity by Marlan. She reviews for the Midwest Book Review, and her blogs include “Roadmap Girl’s Book Buzz” and “L.A. Now & Then.” Her press releases are published in Broadway World Book News and the BBC Record. She is the author of the novel, “Roadmaps for the Sexually Challenged: All’s Not Fair in Love or War,” and the producer/writer of the acclaimed documentary, “Reunion.” Marlan is now in production for the documentary “What Did You Do in the War, Mama?: Kochiyama’s Crusaders,” based on her play “Bits of Paradise.”
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About the Author |
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Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s poetry reflects her background in
journalism. Her style owes much to her mentor Suzanne Lummis
(star poetry instructor for UCLA Extension’s Writers’
Program) and by extension former US poet laureate Phillip
Levine who was known for a straight forward style known as
the Fresno School of Poetry. That school is
down-to-earth—often with a nitty gritty edge—but more
importantly, as least as far as Carolyn is concerned, the
ability to find complete sentences across line breaks.
Carolyn’s several careers prepared her for promoting her own
books and those of others. She was the youngest person ever
hired as a staff writer for the Salt Lake Tribune—“A Great
Pulitzer Prize Winning Newspaper”—where she wrote features
for the society page and a column under the name of Debra
Paige. That gave her insight into the needs of editors, the
very people authors must work with to get free
 ink.
Being familiar with the way news is handled helps her see
how different books—even poetry—fit into different news
cycles.
Later, in New York, she was an editorial assistant at Good
Housekeeping Magazine. She also handled accounts for star
fashion publicist Eleanor Lambert who instituted the first
Ten Best Dressed List. Writing releases for celebrity
designers of the day including Pauline Trigere, Rudy
Gernreich, and Christian Dior required an eye for color and
form. Those same skills were needed when she helped produce
photo shoots for Lambert’s clients . . . and later as a
poet.
Carolyn’s
experience in journalism and as a poet and author of fiction
and nonfiction helped the multi award-winning author
understand how different genres can be marketed more
effectively. She was an instructor for UCLA Extension’s
renowned Writers’ Program for nearly a decade and has
studied writing at Cambridge University, United Kingdom;
Herzen University in St. Petersburg, Russia; and Charles
University in Prague. She worked as columnist, reviewer, and
staff writer for the Pasadena Star-News, Home Décor Buyer,
the Glendale News-Press (an affiliate of the LA Times),
Myshelf.com, and others.
Her HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers are all
multi award-winners and her marketing campaign for the
second book in that series, The Frugal Editor, won the Next
Generation Indie Best Book Award for marketing as well as
coveted awards from USA Book News, Global E-book Awards, the
Irwin Award, and others. She also has a multi award-winning
series of HowToDoItFrugally books for retailers.
Howard-Johnson was honored as Woman of the Year in Arts and
Entertainment by California Legislature members Carol Liu,
Dario Frommer, and Jack Scott. She received her community’s
Character and Ethics award for her work promoting tolerance
with her writing and the Diamond Award in Arts and Culture
from her community’s Library and Arts and Culture
Commissions. She was named to Pasadena Weekly’s list of
“Fourteen Women of the San Gabriel Valley Who Make Life
Happen” and Delta Gamma, a national fraternity of women,
honored her with their Oxford Award.
Carolyn is an actor who has appeared in ads for Apple,
Lenscrafters, Time-Life CDs, Marlboro, Blue Shield, Disney
Cruises (Japan) and others. She admits to being an English
major in college but denies preferring diagramming sentences
to reading a good daily newspaper.
Her Web site is
HowToDoItFrugally.com.
She blogs writers resources at Writer’s Digest’s 101 Best
Websites pick SharingwithWriters.blogspot.com and rants
about wordiness and grammar issues at The Frugal, Smart, and
Tuned-In Editor blog, TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com. |
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About the Artist |
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Richard Conway Jackson
 |
Richard Conway Jackson is serving twenty-five years to life
for receiving stolen property in California. His days are
filled with drawing and writing, some published in literary
magazines. His art is catalogued by
CHI-EY INC
that
publishes print-on-demand greeting cards using prisoners’
franchised art. His work was also published in an issue of
Rebel Rodz magazine and two poetry books: Swallow (Amsterdam
Press, 2009) and Barbie at 50 (Cervena Barva Press, 2010),
by Jendi Reiter.
The artist is waiting for Recall of Sentence proceedings in
Los Angeles Superior Court. In 2015 he will have spent
twenty-one years in California State prisons. |
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Reviews for Sublime Planet |
Small Press Bookwatch: January 2016
James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
278 Orchard Drive, Oregon, WI 53575
The Poetry Shelf
Synopsis: "Imperfect Echoes: Writing Truth and
Justice with Capital Letters, lie and oppression
with Small" is a work that was inspired by Nobel
Prize winner Czeslaw Milosz's poem "Incantation"
that lauds the power of human reason over the
reoccurring and seemingly insane political
realities. In "Imperfect Echoes", author Carolyn
Howard-Johnson holds out hope but is not
persuaded by trends that seem worse now than
they were in Milosz's time. A student of Suzanne
Lummis, UCLA poetry instructor and the Fresno
School of Poetry fronted by US poet laureate
Philip Levine, Carolyn touches on the isms of
the world--racism, ageism, even what might be
termed "wallism" but was once referred to as
xenophobia. In her poem "Crying Walls," she
sounds a low warning reminiscent of Robert
Frost: "Chains linked. Wire barbed,/ Krylon
smeared. Feeble,/ useless, unholy billboards,/
anything but mending walls."
Critique: Carolyn Howard-Johnson is articulate,
gifted, insightful, iconoclastic, and a truly
impressive literary talent. "Imperfect Echoes:
Writing Truth and Justice with Capital Letters,
lie and oppression with Small" is an inherently
fascinating, thoughtful, and thought-provoking
read that is very highly recommended for
community and academic library Contemporary
Poetry collections. For personal reading lists
it should be noted that "Imperfect Echoes" is
also available in a Kindle edition ($2.99).
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Sample Poems
from
Imperfect Echoes |
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Crying Walls
Near Jerusalem, razorwire
coils a brutal line
imposed like walls
Lennon imagined
might one day disappear.
This one much like the first wall
I unexpectedly came across somewhere
in memory, an ocean away
marking its territory
East from West, the wall
that called my husband to arms,
just in case. Another wall,
cleaves Irish from Irish. Foreign
walls, but now a new one
crawls from Baja,
through mountain passes
along the Rio Grande. Walls.
Chains-linked. Wire-barbed,
Krylon-smeared.
Feeble,
useless, unholy billboards,
anything
but mending walls.
~From
Imperfect Echoes. Originally published by
Penwomanship. Carolyn Howard-Johnson (c)
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On the occasion of my
visit to the Russian monument commemorating the siege of
Leningrad.
To commemorate what happened here, bronze erupts from a
slope slanting from the highway to the Neva. A tonsure
surrounds its thrust, bald land circled by summer’s sod,
trampled, evidence of those who stop along the way to
Staraya Ladoga.
This artery led the Nazis to Leningrad, opened itself a
spliced vein onto those behind its battlements. Numb.
Soldiers fertilized it here with relics, pocked the path
with remnants of their siege.
My uncle’s souvenirs laid out on a chenille spread. A
Glock. A green iron cross. A canteen in a canvas pouch. His
own Purple Heart.
A breeze from the river evaporates memories. At the
monument’s base rusty memorial bouquets. This helmet. That
blade. An exhausted hose, corrugated like a windpipe. Here a
mask; huge grasshopper head, mandibles, vacant eyes. They
tarnish there. No one here thinks to carry them home.
~ Carolyn Howard-Johnson (c)
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Buy Links for
Carolyn's Books |
"Careers
that are not fed die as readily
as any living organism
given no sustenance."
~
Carolyn Howard-Johnson
Studio photography by
Uriah Carr
3 Dimensional Book Cover Images by iFOGO
Logo by
Lloyd King
To
subscribe to Carolyn's FREE online newsletter send an
e-mail.
Learn more about Carolyn's
newsletter and blog.
Read
past issues of Carolyn's
Newsletter.
|
Frugal
E-Book Tip |
|
Kindle E-Books
Aren't
Just for Kindle Anymore
Did you know that Amazon’s Kindle
e-books are a low-cost/no-cost way to access books
even if you don’t have a dedicated Kindle reader?
You can read Kindle's e-books on smartphones,
desktop computers and any e-device in between. You
can even store the books on the Amazon cloud.
~
Quote from
Diana Schneidman author
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Special
Blooming Red Christmas Chapbook
Greeting Card Offer
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Tips |
For a list
of resources on tolerance related movies, books,
organizations, and more,
click here.
Find tips on writing, promotion, or
tech on every page of this Web site.
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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 Blogs |
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Sharing with Writers
All things publishing with
an emphasis on book
promotion. Named to
Writer's Digest
101 Best Website list.
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The New Book Review
Great way for readers, authors, reviewers and publicists to get more
mileage out of
a great review.
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The Frugal Editor Blog
This is the Frugal, Smart
and Tuned-In Editor blog.
Covers editing, grammar, formatting and more.
Get the answers you need.
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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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Site Sponsor |
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Chaz
DeSimone is my book cover designer, logo whiz, and
marketing partner. He is always right there with his poster
program, too. He always has one that fits
my most recent efforts--poetry, promotion, or about anything
else!
Check out
his free Ampersand posters.
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Endorsement |
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"There
are not enough compliments I could give to Carolyn.
She is certainly a mentor of mine and such a
tremendous inspiration! What doesn't she do, and do
well, after all? Talented as a writer/author, she is
also an amazing marketer/promoter who is generous
with her time and talent with other publishing
professionals. Carolyn is a STAR in the publishing
community and I give her the highest recommendation
I can give to any colleague I have. If you want a
passionate professional who delivers, Carolyn is
your woman!"
~ Bev Walton-Porter
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Real Poetry
Chapbooks as Greeting Cards
Available in Quantities of Twenty-Five |
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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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