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NOAH'S DOVE. Poems by Lisa Cowley

REVIEW

Here's a handsome book, two times a first. It's the first of The New Scene Poets Series edited by Anthony Guilbert working with Writers Ink Press out of his Karma Dog Studios. Mr. Guilbert, himself a fine poet and tells the story of both his starting the series and of Ms. Cowley's worth poetry in the book's Introduction:

Back in May of 2000, poet Robert Dietz and I held a small series of poetry reading at the Hansom House, an eclectic little lounge tucked away on Elm Street in the Town of Southampton, NY. From those four readings, The New Scene took shape. The event, which featured both poets and musicians, took off quickly, becoming a meeting place for the Long Island indy-arts crowd.

Around the end of November of that first year, young poet and journalist Lisa Cowley, wandered onto the 'Scene.' Refreshingly grounded and honest, Lisa's poetry stood apart from the average college-age spoken word stylists feeding off HBO's Def Poetry Jam. As The New Scene continued, Lisa became a compelling presence at the mike, collecting fans with her honesty and innocence.

The Hansom House closed in April, 2002, and The New Scene became a poetic moveable feast, popping up somewhere different each year. It was inevitable that the project would publish some of the poets that held its stage. So, what you are holding in your hands, then, is not just a book of poems, but an organic object, a new bud springing to life from a four-year-long cultivation of art and friendship.

Lisa Cowley's poems were chosen for publication because she has cut her 'poetic teeth' on The New Scene. Her art has fed off the best of us and produced a young poet of distinction, a fine addition to the Long Island tradition.

Noah's Dove, Lisa's first collection of poetry, "awakens in a canopy bed" with "dusty sunbeams darting" through its pages. The poems here deserve attention. They cradle the author's Zen-like innocence, "befriending inchworms/ dangling on invisible threads" and "pajama'd ghosts."

What I find most amazing is the author's embrace of a transpersonal dialectic. The poems are sustained by a mode of speech that frees innocence from sentimentality. Lisa creates honest narratives that map both her joy and her suffering without the pop-culture buzz of her generation. The reader is invited to simply "join hands ... breathe in deep ... [and] drift out to sea" while the poet dances down her lover's back, carries on with her dog's ghost, and watches "silly boys sit/ feeding schools of fish/ ice cream cones from the garbage."

Behind these words is a very passionate young writer with a promising future. It is my privilege to offer her volume to you. Its honesty and natural voice will help sustain you in our sound-bit culture.

Anthony Guilbert, Series Editor & Co-founder of The New Scene.

More Praise for Noah's Dove

"Ms. Cowley is a bold spirit. She has toughness [as in 'Bulls' Eye] to match the brave bulls and matadors of Hemingway, without his alleged fear of sentimentality. ... the poem[s are] worth the price of admission into Ms. Cowley's world. It's a strong collection. Willard Gellis

"Here's imagery as succulent as fresh fruit, probing a range of subject and emotions from 'Kitten Love,' to 'How Blind Faith Almost Touched Isaac.' The best thing about the world of poetry is how wonderful new poets like Ms. Cowley suddenly appear to revitalize the language and the art." David B. Axelrod