Shelf Stable: September 25th |
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“A poet can survive everything but a misprint.” - Oscar Wilde
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It can be nice to be someone else for a little while. Whether that means disappearing into the perspective of a character in a book or a movie, or playing a video game or D&D, or creating your own work as another person, there can be something fun, even energizing about disappearing into another personality. And since it is so difficult to be someWHERE else, being someONE else takes on more importance.
And it can be a solution for writer’s block. When you are freed from the pressures of putting your name on something that other people will see, when you can write anything because it’s not actually “you” doing the writing, your mind opens up. (Especially when the last thing you want the work to be is “good.”)
And we’re all looking for fun things to do with our friends when we can’t share physical space with them.
So, we’ve brought back our Poetsonas from this thread for an anthology of their, uh, well I guess you would have to call it “work.” We’ve even added a couple more poetsonas! We’ve got poems, bios, other work, and even a video performance.
There is so much to be scared of today. (There will probably be something new in between when I write this and when you read it.) So many different things need our energy. We can fight all day, every day and still feel like we haven’t done our part. But we’re not machines. We need downtime. We need the chance to be with friends, goof around, do things without the weight of “consequences.” There are a lot of different ways to read read Emma Goldman’s famous quote, “If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be in your revolution,” and today I read this as, “If you won’t let me enjoy being a human being, you’re not creating a world I want to live in.”
So here is a small chance to dance. A few minutes to goof around. A chance to be someone else.
A big thank you to our contributors Caleb, Kate (who designed the covers!), Meaghan, Sarah, Shana, and Stacey!
Josh
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Read our reopen policies and hours! |
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Thanks to all our friends who've visited so far -- it's been wonderful to see everyone's face (well, the top half above the mask anyway) and we're so grateful to everyone who has been so respectful of our policies!
Updated In-Store Shopping Hours:
Monday: CLOSED
Tuesday-Friday: 3PM-7PM
Saturday: 9AM-6PM, with 9AM-11AM set aside for vulnerable customers
Sunday: 3PM-7PM
Curbside Pick Up: Daily, 3PM-7PM
We really appreciate your support!
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Join our next virtual events! |
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Tuesday, September 29, 2020 - 7pm
Virtual: Sy Montgomery and Rebecca Green, Becoming a Good Creature
PSB is delighted to present a virtual event for Sy Montgomery and Rebecca Green's new picture book, Becoming a Good Creature, called "full of conviction, wisdom, and essential truths" by Kirkus Reviews! This event is free and open to all, and hosted on Crowdcast.
School is not the only place to find a teacher. In this picture book adaptation of Sy Montgomery and Rebecca Green’s New York Times best-selling How to Be a Good Creature, learn the many surprising lessons animals have to teach us about friendship, compassion, and how to be a better creature in the world.
Based on the New York Times best-selling adult memoir, Sy Montgomery and Rebecca Green's beautiful, friendly guide is for readers young and old who wish to be better creatures in the world. Go ahead, pass it on.
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Mallet by Blake Marcotte
spray of dust from
the square of drywall
I punched through
next to the square of drywall
I punched through last week
logically there is no difference between
me punching a wall
and the wall punching me
except I can write poems
about scraped skin and
broken knuckles
talismans of manhood that still
aren’t enough for my father
but just might
be enough
for me
these strikes always feel like
I’m swinging more weight than I have
with more strength than I have
as if the give
in my flesh
when she grabs my forearm
to keep me from
leaving
again
is part of the fuel
--the force!--
driving my fist through the wall
like a mallet i
can strike so
hard
because I’m
just a little
soft
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Mallet is Blake Marcotte’s debut poetry collection. His other work has appeared in Verse for the People, The Enjambment, Grit & Sandpaper Quarterly, and The Weft, as well as a number of other literary journals and zines he made in his high school art room while he was finding a way to not be home too early. Blake grew up near Kerouac’s home of Lowell, Massachusetts, and has a bachelor’s degree from the factory floor and an MFA from Goddard College.
Karl McGregor's Response to Blake
ok boomer
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youclidian by TreLore
you are stuck on a graph
each axis an intersection with your heart
your limbs
your soul
like a pin
keeping you in place
this (x, y) is you
here (x, y) is your history
the person (x, y) you are supposed to be
let me lie tangent to your curves and calculate your slope
let me kiss each scar each wound each point
and mark the irregularities
take my hand
i will pull you free (x, y, z) into another dimension
when three ceases to be enough for us
together
we can write our own equation
to find the land
(☀,☁, ⛰)
of irrational imagination
(𝛑, i)
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They’re a professor of language and math at Yale and write poetry about gender and how it intersects with both. They have the same birthday as their idol, Ludwig Wittgenstein, separated by a hundred years, and they’re not saying that they’re his reincarnation, but there are a number of interesting parallels in their lives. TreLore lives with their cat, Whiskerstein.
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I was born from the salt
like Lot’s wife
In reverse. I am the stuff that remained
When the waters receded. In sixth grade
I was voted most likely to leave this place
And never come back. Who wants to live
Enshrined in amber, in the museum of
A childhood you’ve long left behind, scuttling
Sideways through time on too many legs?
I am the fossil leaching iron, learning
Again to be living, terrified and tender.
I looked out over the edge of longing
And saw nothing beyond it but alkali
Mudflat. I dissolved myself in the waters of the Virgin
River, under those striated pillars
Of halite and hematite. That’s how my father
The geologist would say rust and salt.
I worry that I do good things for bad
Reasons. I worry that it’s unreasonable
To want. I want to see in all directions
At the same time like the juniper, to smile
Gypsum and laugh mule-ear sunflower
And speak cliffrose. I want to root deep
Like the aspen, my many reflections
Reaching skyward, generations of me
Within me. To be acres upon acres. I want
To flourish after the fire, to learn how to mourn
The things I left behind, scatter them in sunlight,
Send them to the sky like the pinon jay, like woodsmoke,
The scent of sagebrush, a prayer at dusk.
But I’m only a woman, nameless, somewhere between leaving
And left behind, walking backwards
into Sodom, eyes fixed on the horizon.
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Aster Gosling-Michaels is a Capricorn sun, desert witch, protector of our Mother Gaia, and human being. Her roots are in land stolen from the Eastern Shoshone, but she has found herself blown like a tumbleweed to Cambridge, Massachusetts. She trusts in the power of purple summer thundershowers and red wine. She hopes her poems can be a balm for any city-chafed soul. Poetry MFA Boston University.
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BEFORE
Before the massacre,
the mass
communion
in body
and in mind
Eat
of my flesh
Drink
of my blood
Will this bring me to life
or kill me
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THE MASS
Sunday morning
I meet you at
the altar of eggs and toast
With litanies
of jam
The invocation
of bacon
We take our coffee
The same way
I think
we are one
but will it last
beyond the cleaning
of our dishes
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THE MASSACRE
On the battleground
Of love
I am thirsty
For blood
I draw
my sword
to run you
t h r o u g h
I am the tiger
you are the mouse
I like the
gristle of you
in my teeth
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Vulnerable Hours
From the hours of seven to eleven
We are closed
Eleven to noon
Is our lunch
And then we take a break
To prepare ourselves
Working the whole time to
Achieve
Believe
Deceive
I wouldn't tell a lie
And please don't tell me otherwise
A lie
I've told
Is that I'm wise
And I myself believe it
So knock again
And try the door
Knock once
Knock twice
From noon to four
We're closed and letting no one in
I'm letting no one in
From nine to five
I work to thrive
And trust me I'm succeeding
From six to ten
I win again
Of course
I am a workhorse
A winner
Champ
A thoroughbred
Determined and I'm so well-read
But also fear
I might be dead
But I will never tell you
It's midnight and this time is ours
Though you're not here
And thus can't hear
That's fine because I'm doing fine
At least I think I will be.
Workforce
The thing about being a part of it
Is that you're a compound
Word
You work
Because you're forced to.
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Hits the Fan
This is a love letter
So I'm putting it in the trash
(Where it belongs)
So it can find fertilizer
And grow
Karl McGregor isn't known for a whole lot and he'd like to keep it that way. He doesn't need your approval or your MFA. He thought about going back to school at one point but prefers to get his experience from the real world because it's a much richer experience and you'd know that if you weren't so caught up in the system. He has been published - under a pen name of course - in Kindling: A Disposable Digital Journal, Velvet Elvis Underground and Highlights.
Blake Mallet’s Response to Kurt
While I can appreciate the vibrant honesty of Kurt’s work and ultimately agree with moral relationship to work and labor that he lays out in these pieces, and in his scattered other publications, ultimately his poems read like opening a can of dollar store tuna and finding it empty; what you thought was the exact sustenance you need to get through another desperate night of wrestling with your demons is, after the slightest bit of effort, empty. It is the kind of work that gives those of us who trace our poetic lineage through the likes of Walt Whitman and Charles Bukowski a bad name. It is sad really, for I can see Kurt’s potential, in the rare but potent use of “we” in “Vulnerable Hours” and in the breaking and reforming of words in “Workforce.” If I had a time machine, and all the other important stuff had been taken care of, I’d make sure Kurt never saw Instagram. We would all be better for it.
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Limited by form
Simone Justine Symington
Communicates thus
Civilization
Will rise in destruction's wake
We must believe so
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Simone Justine Symington began experimenting with language more than two decades ago, when a classmate's father famously said "It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is' is." In recent years, Simone has left formalist language poetry behind, and she now works exclusively in haiku.
Simone, a fourth-generation Washingtonian, has long been celebrated for the literary salons and social gatherings organized at her Georgetown residence, but she chose to stop entertaining in January 2017, as a form of mourning and protest. When not pursuing poetry, Simone is a protocol consultant, teaching outsiders how to navigate the capital city's corridors of power.
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Want to show your love of Porter Square Books? Order your very own Porter Square Books T-shirt! |
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Some would say that poetry should be performed. For your viewing pleasure, here is Blake Marcotte performing his poem "Mallet."
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Visit your friends at Cafe Zing! |
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Did you know our beloved Cafe Zing is open for customers? Now you know!
Open Wednesday-Saturday, 8AM-2PM! See you and your extra-shot, biggest-size-you-have iced latte at the cafe.
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Antiracism Books: A Place to Start |
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Our bookseller bundles have expanded again! Hannah has joined the fun with her new horror bundle! Having trouble getting into spirit this unusual Halloween? Hannah will hand pick you three spine-chilling paperback novels that will make you double check your locks and hide beneath the covers. Let’s embark on a journey of short story compilations, female horror writers, horror poetry, Halloween books for youth, and classic horror together. Now light that pumpkin spice candle and let’s take a ride to Halloween Town.
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Porter Square Books is proud to partner with the Prison Book Program to help provide access to books to people in prison. Order any title off this wish list and select the "Curbside Pick Up" shipping option and we'll give to the Prison Book Program to distribute. |
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Missed our event on Thursday? |
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You can re-watch all of our virtual events on Crowdcast. Check out our event from Thursday with Cathleen Barnhart, Lorien Lawrence, Cat Scully, Kaela Noel, and Josh Roberts.
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When No One Is Watching by Alyssa Cole, read by Susan Dalian & Jay Aaseng
Rear Window meets Get Out in this gripping thriller from a critically acclaimed and New York Times Notable author, in which the gentrification of a Brooklyn neighborhood takes on a sinister new meaning…
“Cole’s thriller exposes the underbelly of gentrification and prosperity, taking a searing look at systemic racism. When a pharmaceutical firm plans to move its headquarters to a historically Black Brooklyn neighborhood, an influx of rich white people displace Black residents from their homes and their roots. Timely, groundbreaking, and thought-provoking, When No One Is Watching is essential reading for the #BlackLivesMatter movement.”
--Alyssa Raymond, Copper Dog Books
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Digital Audio Books:
A terrific way to support local indies!
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Want book recommendations, personalized just for you?
Fill out our form with your likes and dislikes, genres and favorites, and we'll crowdsource a bunch of great picks for you with our crack team of real life booksellers. Give it a whirl!
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EXPANDED OPTIONS:
Journals, Stationery & Crafts
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Sometimes a new notebook is what it takes to get the juices flowing!
We have now made a much wider variety of notebooks, journals, and even calendars available for order from our website, like this classic Moleskin. Now, along with items with an inventory status of "On Our Shelves Now," you can order journals, notebooks, diaries, calendars, planners, and more with an inventory status of "Available at Warehouses."
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Face Masks
Face coverings are going to be with us for a while, so we’re now offering non-medical grade cloth masks (including kid size) from a variety of makers. Right now quantities are limited, but additional styles are on the way. We’ll keep you posted!
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Additional Book Bundle Offerings
Make your shopping easy by buying bundles, handpicked by our expert booksellers!
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Check out what our booksellers are loving this month. |
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Featured Staff Pick for Children |
I fought off a whole bunch of staff members (including but not limited to Kate, Leila, and Stacey) in order to pick this book. And then I spent half the month trying to figure out how best to turn all of my feelings into words because this book was so good and so important. This is the queer latinx ghost romance story you didn't know you were missing from your life. Read it. You won't regret it.
Shana
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Featured Staff Pick for Adults |
Makumbi writes small stories that somehow encompass the entire world, turning the story of one one woman into an x-ray revealing the bones of society. Broken bones. Healed bones. Brittle bones. Strong bones. Powerful and wise, A Girl is a Body of Water is like a long conversation with an elder; the struggle of life is no less difficult at the end, but you feel you understand it more and can struggle better tomorrow.
Josh
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See you next time here at Shelf Stable! |
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Did you miss an installment, or want to share with a friend? The Shelf Stable Archive has all our past issues! |
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And don't forget to subscribe to our Events Newsletter for the full line up of events coming up, and to our Kids Newsletter for all the latest on events, new books, reviews, and more for young and young-at-heart readers.
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25 White St. Cambridge, MA 02140
617-491-2220
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