Denver Butson

This collection arrives from the spirit world buoyant, its rowdy soul intact.-- Ra l Ni o, Booklist The ghazal, a poetic form rooted in seventh century Arabia, became popular in the United States through the translations of Rumi, Hafiz, and Ghalib. As a young poet, Jim Harrison became enamored with ghazals, and while he ignored most of the formal rules, within the energized couplets he discovered a welcome vehicle for his driving passions, muscular genius, and wrecking-ball rages. The year Outlyer & Ghazals appeared, The New York Times honored the book with inclusion on their coveted "Noteworthy Titles" list, provocatively noting that these poems were "worth loving, hating, and fighting over." Collected Ghazals gathers all of Harrisons's published ghazals into a single volume, accompanied by an "Afterword" by poet and noted ghazal writer Denver Butson, who writes that with this collection, Harrison's ghazals "are ours to witness again in all their messy, brave, honest, grieving, lustful, longing humanity." These are raucous, boozy, at times sexually explicit journeys beyond standard forms, often expressing a young poet's exuberance. Harrison wills us to follow him: 'When I slept in the woods I awoke before dawn / and drank brandy and listened to the birds until the moon / disappeared.' Closing with an illuminating afterword by poet Denver Butson, this collection arrives from the spirit world buoyant, its rowdy soul intact.--Booklist

The world's premier publisher of Asian forms in English, Eastern Structures picks up where Contemporary Ghazals left off, publishing English-language examples of the Middle Eastern form, but now in addition to Korean sijo and Japanese forms such as haiku and tanka -- rendered exclusively in the 5-7-5 and 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic structures. Issue 5 features the ghazals of Denver Butson, John Philip Drury, Steffen Horstmann, William Dennis, Eric Torgersen, Mindy Watson and editor R W Watkins; the sijo of Tamara K Walker, Chi Holder and Pat Geyer; the haiku of Mark Redfearn, Priscilla Lignori, James Lignori, Michael Lustbader, Ann Hills and several others; the third in a series of sijo essays by L J MacDowall; and an introduction to the Cambodian pathya vat by Bob Newman with exemplary contributions by Gareth Writer-Davies. Issue 6 is expected in late Winter or early Spring 2018, and submissions of traditionally structured Asian poetry and relevant non-fiction are welcome and encouraged

The Complete Eastern Structures / Volume One provides the newcomer an excellent opportunity to own the first five issues of R. W. Watkins's groundbreaking magazine in one handy 8.5" 11" collection. Born out of the ashes of Watkins's Contemporary Ghazals, Eastern Structures is the only English-language print magazine dedicated exclusively to several major Asian verse forms. Always true to form, ES publishes the most accurate representations of the ghazal, sijo, haiku and tanka in English today. Also featuring essays and editorials, this collection offers an excellent cross section of the best work from the past two years by some of the premier poets working in such forms. Among others, Steffen Horstmann, Denver Butson, William Dennis, L. J. McDowall, Priscilla Lignori, Mark Redfearn, Clark Strand and Watkins himself are all well represented. Issues One to Five of Eastern Structures are still available individually from Amazon.

Consisting primarily of expanded or revised versions, 'vault' material and "stray bastards", the 'posthumous' Contemporary Ghazals No. 7 (in the words of magazine founder and original editor R. W. Watkins) "represents the furthest one can take the ghazal form while still preserving the fundamental dynamics of its structure, if not always some semblance of its basic self". Hence the inclusion of such cutting-edge and often lengthy treatments of the form at the hands of such seasoned practitioners as Steffen Horstmann, Mike Alexander, David Raphael Israel and R. W. Watkins himself. Other familiar names found in this issue include Denver Butson, William Dennis, Barbara Little, Daniel Hales, Bill West and Red Slider. There is even a 'cut-up' of Agha Shahid Ali (1949-2001) ghazals as assembled and embellished by Watkins and Eugene Melino. The groundbreaking Contemporary Ghazals was discontinued as a regular publication in 2016, when Watkins chose to replace it with Eastern Structures, a magazine more inclusive of various other Asian poetic forms. But this double-length special issue-the second in a series of CG-related archival publications from Nocturnal Iris-is a not-so-subtle reminder of the earlier mag's devotion to form and a testament to its continued appeal.