FootHills Publishing    |   home
Gelineau   |   Darling, Morton   |   Czarnecki   |   Ruggieri, Pruitt, Memmer   |   Huff   |   Desire Vail   |   Bruce Bennett   |   Czury   |   Conners   |   Gilman   |   M J Iuppa   |   Sweet   |   Brown   |   Arsenault   |   Leuzzi   |   Saling   |   MacPherson   |   Good   |   Harrier   |   Coffman   |   Donaghy   |   Coon   |   O'Brien   |   Merrifield   |   Allardt   |   Battelle, Loiselle   |   Gell Center Anthology   |   Ouzoonian   |   Myers   |   Courington   |   Betten   |   Hill-Kaucher   |   Contact FHP
Bruce Bennett
Grief and Love
Funny Signals
Hey, Diddle Diddle
Garretman
I Never Danced Wiih Mary Beth

Bruce Bennett is the author of six volumes of poetry and sixteen poetry chapbooks. His most recent FootHills books are Grief and Love (2004) and  Funny Signals (2003) a full length book which includes the long out of print and very popular FootHills Publishing chapbook,To Be A Heron (1989). His collection of new and selected poems, NAVIGATING THE DISTANCES (Orchises Press), was named by Booklist "one of the top ten poetry books of 1999." He is Professor of English and Director of Creative Writing at Wells College in Aurora, New York, where he also, unfortunately, sometimes listens to the news.

 Grief and Love  (2004)


GRIEF AND LOVE deals with irrevocable loss, but in a context of abiding love. Nor is all sorrow and suffering. There is courage, steadfastness, and humor; there is even, at times, a kind of tragic joy. Hope ultimately proves illusive, as we knew it must. We remain baffled. We may have tears in our eyes, but if we listen closely, we can hear the music that underlies everything, and we can still rejoice

This book is dedicated to Helen Landis Bennett
(1907-2003)

From the book:

AFTER YOUR FUNERAL
For my mother,
November 30th, 2003


I take from here today
more than I leave behind.
The man I am, the way
I see and feel, my mind,

My heart: what was to be
was formed before I knew.
You're more than part of me,
and what I am is you.


Hand-stitched chapbook, 36 pages - $7.00

ISBN 0-941053-51-2

TO ORDER  Grief and Love ON-LINE
    

To order through mail see bottom of page.
******************************************
 Funny Signals  (2003)


Preface

Not long ago, leafing through a collection of Herblock cartoons from the 1980's, I was struck by how little appears to have changed politically. Not only are many of the issues now what they were then; a number of the same people are saying - and doing - many of the same things.

FUNNY SIGNALS includes the complete text of the out-of-print 1989 FootHills Publishing chapbook, TO BE A HERON, which was dedicated to Ronald Reagan, "without whom many of these poems could not have been written." In the same spirit, FUNNY SIGNALS is dedicated to our current leader, George W. Bush.

Bruce Bennett
November, 2002

From the book:

THE ENEMY


    "The Enemy! Have you seen
the Enemy?"

    "I don't know. What's he
look like?"

    "He's huge. And he's
ferocious. And he'll stop
at nothing."

    "Hmmmm. But what's
he want?"

    "Want? Want? He wants
to control everything! He
wants to rule the world!"

    "I see. But what will
you do when you find him?"

    "I'll tear him to bits.
I'll root him out. I'll make
it as if he never existed....
Well, have you seen him?"

    "I'm afraid so."

***************

FUNNY SIGNALS


      "I'm getting some funny
signals from you," bleeped
a bat.

      "Not from me," another
bleeped back. "No funny
signals from me."

      The first swooped and soared.

      "Nope. There they are again.
Not from you."

      He dipped and veered to
his left.

      "Must be the new guy."

      He pivoted rapidly, glided
in close to the second bat, and
emitted a series of low beeps.

      "Best keep an ear on him
and tell everyone else. I'll alert
Central. I hear they're into some
pretty weird shit in that cave."

      Moral:  It doesn't take much
nowadays to be on the wrong
wavelength.


Funny Signals is a 72 page paperback, hand-sewn, with flat spine - $13.00

TO ORDER  Funny Signals ON-LINE
    
To order through mail see bottom of page.

******************************************
 Hey, Diddle Diddle  (2001)

Hey, Diddle Diddle is a selection from one section of my ongoing manuscript, Animal Rites. Animal Rites consists of prose and rhyming fables that reflect, and reflect on, the gamut of human behavior. Major influences have been Aesop, Thurber, and La Fontaine, but ultimately what has impelled and inspired me is the fable form itself, which is as various and adaptable as its subject-matter.

From the book:

PERFECT UNION

"I'm lonely," an amoeba said.
"There's no one in my life or bed.
This drop's as empty as can be!
I think I'll make another me,"

And split. Each half embraced the other
as soulmate, partner, friend, and brother,
twin selves to call each other clone
and neither anymore alone.

How fortunate those happy few
who find themselves both one and two!

Hand-stitched chapbook - $7.00

TO ORDER Hey, Diddle Diddle ON-LINE
    
To order through mail see bottom of page.
******************************************

 Garretman  (1999)


Hearthstone effects escape through Garretman. Garretman dreams of what never could be.
The two grapple and contend, except when one is absent; then, the other is inconsolable.  

"... there are such/entanglements!....
old enemy/old friend....
Exhausted/they lock arms."

From the book:

HEARTHSTONE LISTENS

Hearthstone listens.
There is activity below.
They will want him for something.
He must mend his daughter's kite.
Fix his son's watch.
Haul water to the garden.
He braces himself.
His wife's clear syllables
already on the rise
will reach him
in seconds.
His resolve is firm
but there's no time to lose.
He mutters the magic words.
He becomes
Garretman.


Hand-stitched 16 page chapbook - $5.00

TO ORDER Garretman ON-LINE
To order through mail see bottom of page.
******************************************

 I Never Danced With Mary Beth  (1991)


From the book:

ADOLESCENCE

I never danced
with Mary Beth
whose lightest touch
would cause my death,

Whose merest glance
would drive me mad.
But oh, alone,
the times we had!

40 Page Chapbook - $4.50

TO ORDER I Never Danced With Mary Beth ON-LINE
    
To order through mail see below.

To order any of the above listed books by mail send total price
plus $1.25 Shipping and Handling ($1.75 in Canada; $3.25 other countries)
for each address sent to.

Send orders to:

FootHills Publishing
PO Box 68
Kanona, NY 14856

Thank you for your support!