I've been reading & receiving a lot of chapbooks lately. I decided it might be fun to start featuring chapbooks that in addition to being written by amazing poets are also beautiful objects. The first chapbook that comes to mind is Julia Cohen's For the H in Ghost which is out on Brave Men Press. This book is beautifully constructed with a subtle yet evocative cover. It is both art & poetry. You should treat yourself to a copy! Here's a poem from it: (the spacing is going to be way wrong- sorry)
The Decoy Museum Is Still
The decoy museum is still a real museum
so distracting you can die inside & not
even know it
your whatness your childhood-bird looks
so young snow like gunpowder
cough syrup on the collar of a white shirt
something to hide under the bed for
I reach back into the body of your memory
& stick post-it notes on the edge
of every mirror
***
cold grass on the floor & covered in sugar
the slurred satellite of your swing set
I fashioned the raincoat to keep rain
on your inside: an apple tree sprouts in the blue
Oldsmobile's brown cushion
***
the decoy museum lit by bayonets fresh
from the oven
cut with colleagues & the weaker version of lies
returns to the situation of a leaf
brown paper & a misspent life
you walk into a stranger's dirty pocket of air
***
more than replica a lure
the birthdays range in anticipation they fell for glory
trouble distinguishing grids: a farm or a way
to fire a person
fake flowers burst forth from fake seeds
nothing ornamental in the decoy museum
in a guild-like fashion they lay it down
in a sound-like sound I take it away
those bandages dirty pompoms need changing
I let one emotion follow the other & believe
them both
***
wing clipping season ends when I cut
the swans from your ankles newspaper shin guards
are birthdays
between the gilded pages I whistle the grass
between my thumbs
I destroy the like-like decoy I've been meaning to
live
place all possible coverings away from your face's reach
what happens to your face
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