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LUBBOCK ELECTRIC · ANNE ELEZABETH PLUTO
$10.00
Anne Elezabeth Pluto’s Lubbock Electric is a gushing exploration of life in which she gives you, the reader her world to make your own. You can dive into poem after poem and swim with familiarity, frequently learning new strokes. Einstein maintained that the definition of genius is taking the complex and making it simple, and this is precisely what Pluto has achieved in this stimulating collection. The skeleton of this book is cast swiftly with the introduction of the resplendent Peregrine. A poem constructed using admirable craft that pulls you into the poet’s emotional, mental and physical world. Pluto’s verve and acute awareness delivering the reader to a wealth of love and compassion. Annie Pluto has an inbuilt ability to poetically emote a specific feeling, situation or scene with admirable craft. Between the lines of the poem, Love Letter to Lubbock, the poet has placed a seat for every reader. This heartfelt and warm, cleverly woven tapestry delivers wishes, regrets, celebrations, acknowledgments and love with extraordinary economy. The subtlety Pluto masters in delivering a history lesson in The Home Borough, rides in tandem with the poet’s utilitarian ability to ground the reader. The poems in Lubbock Elecctric ride on a conveyor of poetic pleasures that underlie the current of seriousness that will ground each reader.
Gene Barry, author of Stones in their Shoes.
| Weight | 5 oz |
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Read excerpts
LOVE LETTER TO LUBBOCK
My desire
moves me west
mind of my making
I dreamt you
for decades
the sturdy blonde boy
on his father’s panhandle
ranch – come what may
you lived another life
one I could not have
imagined – the road –
the music – the sensation
of consistent celebration
married young with
daughters – I wouldn’t
have known how to even
speak – much less sing
you into my heart
my heart of the matter
you write me love
letters from Lubbock
God and the Devil
Jesus should come
to rapture – to you
to me – knit our very bones
together – a lifetime worth
of smiles – of mercy
to forgiveness
of knowing the meaning
of life – the final
fragility of fleeting fame
what you had – what I
dreamt – but now we meet
rancher’s son
to blacksmith’s daughter.
we meet without
the foolishness
of youth – without
the trappings of famous
others surrounding
just us – a man
and a woman
called back by life
called forth by love.
Mother Tender (2)
For Gloria Mindock
The bread in the forest
Is all eaten by birds – the path
Back home will flow without
Words – the darkest silence
Will be the picture of her – how you
Choose without choosing to remember
Her best – the laugh you will never stop
To forget – the hopeful place where there
can never be regret – the smell of her books
The chances you took – the final look
Backwards – mother tender – what you will
Never fail to remember – remains.
LORDS OF THE WICHITA
For Teresa
High grass to winter wheat
eastern horizon ending in pinpoint
precision on the Great Plains
after Christmas
the Buffalo come to feed
in the morning stumbling
forward nostrils flared in
the weak winter sunlight.
We search for them in the Wichita
mountain preserve wild longhorn
cattle graze in dry pastures – subtle
noses find what tastes best – spotted
hides and painted markings – calves
stray close to their mommas – and
all is still – hawks on treetops
perched – a lonely life of watching
time – deer bed down to catch
the high noon overhead – prairie
dogs protected too in the Wichita
peeking out at passersby – in the trees
hidden a longhorn bull chews patiently
grown into his great beauty waiting as the cow
eats; he has all the time in this world
for her and they will make another
spotted calf next spring the Buffalo
leave a trail – wet patties to trace
the course of their long protected
walk – we find them – a phalanx of five
heads tilted west as the wind stirs
the great prairie – giant as boulders
easily mistaken for Gods.
About the Author
Anne Elezabeth Pluto is Professor of Literature and Theatre at Lesley University in Cambridge, MA where she is founder of Commonthought Magazine and the artistic director and one of the founders of the Oxford Street Players. She is an alumna of Shakespeare & Company, and has been a member of the Worcester Shakespeare Company since 2011. She was a member of the Boston small press scene in the late 1980s and is one of the founders and editors at Nixes Mate Review. Her chapbook, The Frog Princess, was published by White Pine Press (1985), and her chapbook Benign Protection by Cervena Barva Press (2016). Recent publications include: The Buffalo Evening News, Unlikely Stories: Episode IV, Mat Hat Lit, Pirene’s Fountain, The Enchanting Verses Literary Review, MockingHeart Review, Yellow Chair Review, Levure Litteraire – numero 12, The Naugatuck River Review, Tuesday, An Art Project, the Muddy River Review.
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Copyright © 2018 Anne Elezabeth Pluto
Cover photograph by Anne Elezabeth Pluto
ISBN 978-0-9993971-7-6
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.
