The Victorian Violet Press & Journal

The Throne of Psyche

by Marly Youmans

When I think of Marly Youmans’ work, the word that comes to mind is “magic.” By this, I mean not only her language, but her evocation of mystery. Youmans’ poems always seem utterly new and startlingly familiar. Moreover, she has admirable range in terms of subject matter and tone. While I tend to favor her poems about the mythological, Youmans shows astonishing skill, whatever the subject. She is a poet working at the height of her powers.

~ Kim Bridgford, poet, editor, Mezzo Cammin, and Director, West Chester University Poetry Conference

 Songs from the Web

 by Carla Martin-Wood

In 1986, Songs from the Web was first publishedby a struggling independent publisher, Bitter Wine Press, with a limited printing of only 100 copies. It was Carla Martin-Wood's first chapbook. The book sold out in its debut reading, but a tape of that reading made its way to the English department of the illustrious University of the South at Sewanee. The poet was invited to read for their homecoming, and that reading was followed by performances at other colleges and universities, for charitable, civic, and women's political groups, and to Greenwich Village, where the poet was asked to lend the title of her book to a series of readiings by up and coming poets.  Songs from the Web sold out in its debut reading, and with Bitter Wine Press out of business,  those readers who asked for her book at subsequent readings left empty handed.  Fortunate Childe Publications is pleased to present these selections from the original Songs from the Web, together with a collection of the poet's more recent work.

Breakfast in Winter

by Carol Lynn Grellas'

chapbook, Breakfast in Winter, is a collection of sonnets, exploring a lyrical journey through life. From the spiritual to meditative and sometimes wavering on lighthearted, these poems unveil the unevenness of being human in a celebration of words meant to inspire.

How We Are Loved

by Carla Martin-Wood

With cadenced language that alternately screams, murmurs and sings, Martin-Wood has shaped a most remarkable cosmos. Therein, we are not only asked to confront the darkest aspects of ourselves, but also to rejoice in the wider creation that she has set before us. It is impossible to encounter the Virgin Mary of Holy Night without a shiver of recognition. No one can come away from How We Are Loved or Praisepoem without marveling at the author’s insight. Her vision embraces every boon, broken hope, bright or shadowed being that leaps or flies or darts through water. Rose, thorn and lamb are given fresh meaning in unexpected context. Though startled, we still understand.

Lavender Song

by Karen Kelsay

Reading these poems is like handling some lovely hand-made, carefully-wrought artefact from an age when craftsmanship and elegance still remained sovereign virtues. Karen Kelsay eschews cheap gimcrack-trendy modernisms and postmodernisms, and instead evokes a more organically traditional aesthetic and praxis. It is refreshing to read poetry that, far from urgently straining for effect and ersatz novelty, quietly and touchingly speaks to more durable human virtues. Yet within this exquisitely traditional poetic vision, Ms. Kelsay addresses concerns that are as relevant today as they ever were, and she does this from her own unique perspective, and in her own authentic voice. This is poetry that enriches the reader: and thank goodness such poetry is still being written!

~ Paul Christian Stevens, Editor of The Chimaera Literary Miscellany and The Flea Broadsheets

Dove on a Church Bench

by Karen kelsay

 “Pretend you've just been invited to a garden party at the most fabulous house you've ever seen, and all the guests are charming, funny, and fascinating: the grasshopper who vows revenge, the bad-tempered dove, the American wife who microwaves tea for her British husband, the little boy who discovers he has the power to scandalize all the girls simply by taking off his clothes, and the armchair race car driver – you'll meet them all in Dove on a Church Bench, the latest collection by Karen Kelsay. The gorgeous scenery and elegant writing with its occasional accent of stylish irony establishes Kelsay as a poet who can do it all.”    

~ Boston Literary Magazine

 Marriage Vows and Other Lies

 by George Bishop

“These poems open passages between interiors and exteriors, daring through spaces where love, death and addiction at once define and dissolve borders. When faced with loss, the characters in Bishop’s poems do what the living do; shake a watch to see if time still exists, walk the dog and make up stories. But this is not a book about regret. Someone is finding a way home. And, Bishop writes, “Guilt is part/of a good home.” Meanwhile, we find moments of absolution.” 
                                                         -Diane LeBlanc, Poet-St. Olaf College

Petrichor

by Adam Hughes

In his debut collection, Adam Hughes announces himself as a bold new voice in contemporary poetry. Whether discussing family, God, or simply the search for something just over the horizon, the poems in this collection are sure to stir the mind as well as the heart. From the scent of departed rain to the first moments of fatherhood, Hughes gives new words to the mundane and miraculous.