"Sonidos Cubanos" is a collection of poems, photographs, and paintings that chronicle the author's journey from a prominent wealthy family, to revolutionary activist, political pariah, struggling exiled mother, business builder, scholar and more. The subtitle, "Rimas De La Abuela" ("Grandmother's Rhymes") reveals the heart of this book in which the author unfolds before us the "rhyme and reason" of her life. the first section, "Imagenes Afro-cubanos" ("Afro-cuban Images) paints the backdrop: a traditional family in which black nannies were fiercely loved by white wards and their African tribal lore woven into nursery rhymes. the second, "Versos Juveniles" ("Youthful Verses") gives us the taste and feel of Cuba in the early fifties, as Caridad grows up surrounded by love and comfort. The tone changes dramatically in the third section, "Pasiones Revolucionarias" ("Revolutionary Passions"), reflecting Caridad's life changing encounter with Castro's rebel forces on her family lands, and her subsequent unconditional support of the revolution. these passions unavoidable turn to disillusionment as Castro's regime starts unfair political trials and sets out to persecute Caridad's family and loved ones. Her anguish is palpable and gut wrenching in "Camino al Destierro" ("Road to Exile"), and Caridad serves it up without dilution or apology. The following section, "Anoranzas" ("Longings") is a recollection of lost times and places, exquisitely distilled through the coils of absence. The last section in this remarkable book, "Sombra y Luz" ("Shadow and Light") reveals Caridad in a contemplative mood, ad peace with herself and ready to explore new directions, "without map or star to take me by the hand".

A book of poetry.

Profits of Learning and Dedication is about my own life and how I arrived at certain decisions about my life and ideas.

in the news...

Local award-winning author publishes book

Special to the Register

"The Profit of Learning and Dedication The Final Chapter" is now available through Trafford Publishing Suite 6E, 2333 Government St., Victoria, BC, Canada V8T 4P4, or online at www.trafford.com/robots/03-0408.html.

Written by Hershell Ray Gentry of Richmond, this book of poetry is about life in the 20th and early 21st centuries and the author's thoughts and ideas.

Gentry is the first local Afro-American resident to self-publish his own book.

The book "A Place to Call Home" is, in some small part, the author's biography - not a recording of individual episodes or events, but of emotions and thoughts at various stages in life. It is about the search to belong, to fit into a world that can be confusing. Most people experience such feelings at some stage in their life, but some feel more than others do.

This, then, is the book of the consummate outsider in American society. It is about growing up in the lower working class - the unskilled factory laborers' world - under the old auspices of the American Dream in a world that seems to deny the existence of, or the opportunity for, such a dream. It expresses that anger and frustration, the observations, and the occasional joys of someone who grew up in the working class but had an eye that tried looking past that horizon of old brick buildings and housing developments. It is not that one can't overcome the obstacles which society places in the way; it is about the emotional toil that is extracted in such efforts.

Each chapter is a mockery of the classical "Seven Ages of Man" writings. Each section vaguely deals with periods in life such as childhood, schooling, the search for religion, the working years, family, and so on. Poems written at those specific times are intermixed with poems looking back from later times to contrast the changing moods and visions of life. The core poems in this book follow the crests and valleys of emotional development in the author's life, but slowly and ultimately build to a crescendo of primal scream outrage and anger, followed by the calmer acceptance and resignation that come with middle age. The poems are predominantly from the years 1985-1997, with a few poems coming from earlier eras or more recent ones.

The book is about contrasts so prevalent in America: the promises of the Camelot years and the realities of America at the end of the 20th Century; about wanting to believe in equality when everything is so unequal. The work is a documentation of a struggle to climb from anonymity and despair, if just to achieve something slightly better than what one's grandfather had. It is, lastly, about trying to find a place where one can be content and accept the terms of life.

In Chapter 4, join Megan on a wild boat ride to save her dog, Lucky.

Do you ever wonder why there are so many mice around? Read "Mice Mania" in Chapter 7, and find out.

In Chapter 3, sit along the river bank with the author and her sister, Torrey, and let the lazy days of summer flow by!

Native Joy: Poems Songs Visions Dreams by Geoffrey Oelsner begins with the author's pre-birth and early childhood memories, proceeds to poems for his wife and family, then journeys on deep into the twin terrains of Nature and the world of dreams.

This big book of celebration and communion contains sections with topic titles like "Men, Mentors," "Hard Karmic Weather," "Great Mother, Women, World," "Older Brothers: Buddha and Christ," "Visions and Highs," and "U.K." (exploring human and Other realms in Great Britain). A performing singer/songwriter, Oelsner includes a selection of song-lyrics called "Morning Branches."

These poems leave traceable trails into our own innate native joy.

Cover painting by Robert Sudlow

History/American Studies

GREAT MOMENTS IN U.S. HISTORY...THROUGH THE EYES OF THE PEOPLE WHO CREATED IT Some of the names we know: Sacajawea, the Indian girl who guided Lewis and Clark through the wilderness...Sojourner Truth, the ex-slave who became a leading advocate for the rights of women and blacks...Julia Ward Howe, inspired to write "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Others could have been lost to history: Harriet Wilson, the first black American novelist...the first men to earn the Purple Heart...Alice Ramsey, the first woman to drive a car across the U.S.

Jane McCaw has uncovered their stories. In this collection of 44 traditional and free-verse ballads covering Colonial times through 1909, the 89-year-old author gives readers an intimate glance at the unsung heroines and heroes of our history. Many of them are women, many are not white, and some, like the eagle who led battle charges in the Civil War or the horses that made the Pony Express a reality, are not even human.

If you are interested in American history, patriotism, women's studies, or the experience of different cultures in the American melting pot, pick up this book and start your journey through American history, through the experiences of the people who took part in those events. It will be a journey to remember!

Recommended for ages 10-adult

Have you ever experienced brokenness or hopelessness, divorce in marriage, pain or loss, little faith or no faith? Poems of Hope reflect God's Almighty power and His glory to allow for us to endure life's "withering drought". Poems of Hope can be used as a road map for individuals or couples experiencing doubt, pain, lack of faith, or hopelessness. This journal of encouraging poems is a testimony to what is possible when we trust in God's promises. We certainly can, without doubt, survive the rough terrains of our earthly pilgrimage and live an abundant life.

Reading this journal of poems will instill, restore, and cause celebration for the gift of God's love and forgiveness. Additionally, it should be noted that this beautiful book also includes forty blank pages at the back of the book to allow for you to record your deepest thoughts and prayers. ENJOY!

In most religious traditions, a protagonist is called into the wilderness for a period of tribulation and there receives a new name. This is my story of that time in my life. I AM Waiting For A Name. It begins with "Minor Works" - written in childhood. We then begin to Emulate those whom we admire (Allusions), finally blossoming as an individual in the right time (Kairas). The struggle to believe forces one to re-examine values and forget those illusions which seperate us from responsibility (a stone so heavy). We find that what we held dearest is little more than nothing, and we elude the plan God has for us.

    What My Father Didn't Know I Learned from Him, by Harry Youtt, is a collection of poems that are a reminiscence of his father, one that carries within it the seeds of the universal that have meaning for all of us. A photo-album of a man's soul. The first selection: Skyline, sets the tone for the entire work:

When my father died, it was like the towers coming down.

Our skyline was changed beyond recognition.
Now, parts of my father I never recovered are still down there
buried in the rubble.

    The collection has been labeled as almost a new art form, as fresh a departure from the conventional poetry of our current culture as Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass was in its time. Easily accessible to everyone, it is the story of a "simple-complicated man," presented not as an epic or saga with a forced, over-arching theme, but as a series of starbursts, one episode at a time. The result is that, like a box of popcorn, one can reach in and grab a handful at a time from any place in the box, leaving the rest for later.
Most contemporary poetry strives to be poetry. It tries to twist language into a message the poet wants to get across. It seeks phrases that call attention to themselves as poetry. By contrast, in these poems, as Harry Youtt says, "I just write them down and let them reach back for me."
    This is a different approach. It is what Walt Whitman recognized when he characterized the poet as not an "arguer"but as pure "judgment"itself. "He judges not as the judge judges but as the sun falling round a helpless thing."
    The collection is a long-delayed search for the discovery of the poet's father Ð a search that reveals to all of us a part of the universal quest to find the significance of our immediate roots. As Harry says: "We are all mystified by our parents. And many of us spend a long time trying to make sense of things for ourselves, so that we can move on into our own individuality. In demystifying my own father, I hope that others will gain insight in their own separate singular struggles and will be encouraged or inspired to light out in their own directions. The book will honor me best if it stimulates others to seek to create their own poetic starbursts as they go."

A new title by Detlev Kirchgatter. Previous ones: Glimpses From Three Continents, My Berlin - Its People from Hitler to the Present and Voyage Into Life. This new book Canadian Verse is an excursion into the world of verse ably illustrated by his Berlin friend, Frank Zierach, to emphasize the meaning of each verbal palette. In precise diction the writer addresses himself to the issues of social/political concerns in the latter half of the 20^th century as they apply to Canada and the world at large.

Some of the biting criticism is ameliorated by the beauty of Canadian landscape, as one can find it in the ruggedness of a Canadian Shield, a Pacific Coastline, or an infinity of the Prairies.

A perusal of this volume will leave the reader pondering: Whereto humanity?

When these poems were first published, some of which had first appeared in the 'Fleet Poetry Broadsheet' in 1944 in Ceylon, a critic wrote that they 'echoed 'through the mind with an almost unbearable melancholy that is agonizingly poised and self aware without undue self-indulgence Anne Bulley movingly stresses the need to seize moments of happiness...'

So let the days spin out

In magic hours and laughter,

That I may hold the thought

Long, long after. {Elizabeth Saxon, Red Candle Press)

...

This verse is taken from a poem that has appeared in the following anthologies: Hands Across the Sea ed John Winton; BBC Woman's Hour 50th Anniversary Poetry Collection edited Pat McLoughlin; Chaos of the Night, (Virago) edited Catherine Reilly and Shadows of War edited Anne Powell. Any proceeds from the sale of the present volume, which contains nineteen poems and eighteen full colour paintings and collages will be given to Seafarers (UK) (formerly King George V Fund for Sailors) to commemorate 60 years since the end of the 2nd World War.

Anne Bulley is an historian with a special interest in marine India.

The artist, Hugh Bulley served with the Royal Navy in the Mediterranean, the Normandy landings and the Far East. He is at present engaged in painting classical studies from literature in series. He has had one man exhibitions in New York, Madrid, Basel and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. His lithographs have been published by Transworld Art of West 57th Street New York and screen prints by Ex Libris of Zurich.