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Parallel Press releases 'Our Sainted Lady Esther' by Matt Welter

Posted 9/18/2000

Cover of Our Sainted Lady EstherMADISON, Wis.-- Poet, naturalist and storyteller Matt Welter becomes the latest Parallel Press chapbook author with the release of Our Sainted Lady Esther. This chapbook marks the ninth release for the publishers and features strong imagery, tongue-in-cheek elegies and dramatic narratives.

Our Sainted Lady Esther is a nature-filled collection of works that reveal the invisible connections between people, places and natural elements. Welter delves into the rich possibilities of blending the ideal and mythic worlds in 10 poems that reflect his work as a naturalist.

A chapbook is a small-format literary work, usually of poetry or essays.

Welter has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize four times, including once for the poem, "Our Sainted Lady Esther," featured in this chapbook. His works have been featured in hundreds of small press journals and this is one of two chapbooks that Welter will release this year.

Welter holds a bachelor's in English from New Mexico State University and a master's in environmental education from UW-Stevens Point. He works for the Wisconsin Conservation Corps.

Each Parallel Press chapbook is $10; annual subscriptions for six are $50. Titles may be ordered by writing:

The Parallel Press
236 Memorial Library
728 State St.
Madison, WI 53706

For information, see their Web site at http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu, or phone (608) 262-2600. E-mail inquiries may be sent to kfrazier@library.wisc.edu.

Here's a sample poem from the latest chapbook, which also appeared in Raspberry Island Red.

Offerings to Monica

The old fisherman's daughter
has hair the color of wonder
bread she crumbles and lets fly free
over the white and cobalt hull
of her vessel, the Wenonah,
she does this from the breast

for herring gulls who swoop
like clots of whitewash
flying off the Rock of Ages
lighthouse against ultramarine
pointed snowy wings interlace
fold, drop and baptize in aqua.

"You've got to make offerings
to the seagull gods or they'll hide
your fish under the deep blue sea
or not lead you back to shore
when there's a dense fog or
when the whitecaps are blowing."

Her words are tender as whitefish cheeks
and I can see the old man's nets
looming the veins of her hands.
A cloud of gulls follows her
like the spirit of her father
as she tosses her hosts skyward.

The Web page for the chapbook series of the Parallel Press is: http://parallelpress.library.wisc.edu/.

 

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