PoetryDispatch No. 341 | January 28, 2011
A PACKET FROM HENRY DENANDER
KAMINI PRESS
by
Norbert Blei
This makes my day, something new in the mail from Henry’s extraordinary small press, Kamini Press. www.kaminipress.com
One notices immediately the care he takes in the tight packaging alone. The parcel (usually cardboard, sometimes paper) a minor work of art in itself, enhanced with beautiful Swedish stamps, his own unique rubber stamps (planes, jazz musicians, musical instruments, the KAMINI PRESS logo, etc.); the blue foreign label: PRIORITAIRE 1:a-klassbrev… All of it. Everything, a joy to behold. You’re almost afraid to open it, mess it up in any way. It’s so satisfying as it is.
Should I look to see what little beauty of a book he’s put together now? Wait till later…this afternoon? Maybe tonight…treat myself in the late hours? Save it for tomorrow…or the next time I need a particular lift, since I know whatever Kamini Press does will make my day, my night…make everything in my writing world worthwhile?
Like that time one night I opened a packet from Henry and held BIRD EFFORT by Ronald Baatz in my hand…read it once, twice…three times, four times, five times…God, how many times? Till I fell asleep with a warm feeling like good red wine in me, the poet’s words still murmuring in my mouth:
So much light
so much darkness—
the earth crying out
like a clarinet
left behindO lord
let me
stay drunk somehow
without all this drinking
now and forever amenDigging
the canary’s grave
she catches the reflection
of lovely orange feathers
in the spoonThe stars over the lake
so old and brittle looking—
I stop rowing, rest my back
and think of how soft
my ashes will be.
Henry Denander…a one-man band. A singular focus. A testament to just how good, conscientious, a little press publisher can be if he has the vision, passion, energy, direction to publish a book for someone that he, the publisher-writer, would want for himself. It all comes down to that. The secret to successful small press publishing not enough publishers grasp. Would I want my name on this book? Would I love the way it looks, feels? Would I be anxious to put it in the hands of friends and strangers with a bit of a glow on my face? Would it hold a reader’s attention cover to cover in design, content, form?
Instinct. Insight. Style. Aesthetics. Not to publish anybody or anything for whatever or no reason except to be considered a publisher…slap any old crappy art or photo on the cover that says nothing. Some books, poorly envisioned, you almost don’t want to touch, let alone open and try to read. Contrary to old beliefs, you can judge a book by its cover… especially a Kamini Press cover, usually graced by one of Henry’s throbbing little watercolors.
Once you finally invade the perfect packaging I described, once you find each book carefully wrapped and taped tightly in white paper, once you unfold the paper in your hands…and hold the little book (all of them about 4”x6”) it seems to come alive to one’s touch. And there you have it: from Henry in Sweden to wherever you are in the world…the book feels like a good handshake. Welcome. Thank you. How beautiful the cover. Now, what’s going on inside?
How to Make a Rainbow on a Rainy Day
Locate, in the overcast, some thread of
involvement with backlit sheets of crayoned
manila paper vacuum sealed to the yellow
eyes of an elementary school. Open up the
floodgates to the eccentricities of leaves; find
an alcove, an unused entrance, to lean in,
noting the widening concentric circles in
standing water on pavements commissioned
by raindrops. Take the coins out of your
pocket and throw them, one at a time,
into the fountains of Trevi made by the
intersecting arcs of traffic and rainfall; permit
silver spray to have its way with your face.
Wonder at the beaded pearlescence at the
sides of warm Styrofoam. Internalize
windshield wipers and the lift of umbrellas.
Without going overboard, initiate eye
contact, return the wave.
–Tom Kryss
[from SKETCH BOOK]
72nd Birthday
Sitting on
the hill at
sunrise with
my coffee &
cigarettes
thinking
fond thoughts
of all those who
hate my guts.
–John Bennett
[from BATTLE SCARS]
Two Torch Singers (excerpt)
In high school, when I was discovering
That music could be sexy,
There were two torch singers
(Besides Judy Garland, of course)
Whose albums I played until the vinyl wore thin
And the needles went blunt
I don’t know whether I was more riveted
By Julie London’s throaty rendition
Of “Cry Me a River”
Or by her incredible rocket-launcher, film-noir,
Tightly sweatered bust on the album cover,
Not to mention her wasp-cinctured waist.
But she was too much woman for me,
Even in my fantasies. Scary!
–Gerald Locklin
[from TWO TORCH SINGERS]
False Starts
The birds have
already begun
their morning song
and I haven’t
yet been to sleep
the night
a series of false
starts, like the
many journals
I’ve kept over
the years—
one after another
abandoned before
anything was
ever said.
–Glenn W. Cooper
[from SOME NATURAL THINGS]
Childhood
Something out of childhood –
orange streetcars on
Ellsworth Avenue,
and every fifteen minutes an
orange earthquake
rattling my unsteady bed.
–Samuel Charters
[from THE POET SEES HIS FAMILY SLEEPING]
last clarksville train
washing down aspirins
warm blue ribbon suds
damp gray first light
jerry lee’s cassettes silent
black terminal loneliness
yesterday wife saying
“things got to change’
squeeze the trigger
gain methodist salvation
promised better life
–t. kilgore splake
[from THE POET TREE]
Unwritten poems—
so many of them
hanging like bats
inside the darkness
of me
–Ronald Baatz
[from BIRD EFFORT]
Confession. I truly envy what Henry Denander is doing. This is the way I intended to go when I got into small press publishing back in 1995. Do the little book, the little work, and do it well. Make is beautiful to behold. Something to glow in the dark.
Then I reflected on all the new and old writers with bigger appetites seeking, needing pages and pages for larger works. Novelists, short story writers, poets with books of poems…essayists, experimental writers, artists, photographers. They needed to be honored as well. There was not enough attention paid them.
Lately, given all I’ve done so far, thirty-four books, given my present circumstances–age factor, health issues, financial circumstances, limited time to write my own stories and books–I see again the beauty and attraction of publishing the little gift, and may in time (“simplify, simplify…”) honor that first dream…find my way down that road of small, fluttering white pages, words enough to lift the spirit in short, deep breaths. —Norbert Blei
Finally
winter is losing its grip—
in my sleep
I hear the pond’s spine
cracking
–Ronald Baatz, BIRD EFFORT
poetry dispatch & other notes from the underground 
Receiving a package from Henry is always a joy. This New Year I was happy to find the annual New Year poem from Sheila Murphy and then a small package from Sweden. Tom Kryss’ book is a little gem. But then everything Henry produces is a gem.
Thanks for this, Norb.
You could sell ice cubes to Eskimos. I’m ordering Baatz’s book.
Gar
I’m new to Henry’s mailing list–ordered Battle Scars, then got his New Year’s gift of Tom Kryss. Right–the envelopes alone are precious gifts and, for me, confirm that I haven’t been nuts when I put great rubber stamps and real postal stamps on the packages that go out from Bareass Press and Dromnavarna Press, my own tongue-in-cheek “publishing houses.” I hope to delight the receivers; my own huge grin–and yours–when getting packages from Henry–tell me that the exercise is indeed worthwhile.
Beautiful…beautiful! Perfect little gems. I can understand what a treat it must be to get this exquisite packet in the mail.
Also http://www.interpotts.com.
Great to read this!
I got to know Henry in Stockholm, and love his poetry and art. He shares a love of Greek islands and jazz. A very cool guy!
Jim
This just reinforces my feeling that no electronic transfer will ever equal the packaged book that finds my mailbox for sheer pleasure and quiet joy.
Your comments are so beautiful, I can only say “the works deserve them.”
I too, am lucky enough to be on Denander’s international mailing list, to be a recipient of his incredible generosity. I too, treasure every shred, every shard.
Keep the presses rolling, Henry, and tack sa myket!
Hello Norbert,
Henry Denander has begun sending me these beautiful chapbooks and I adore them, he sent me a link to you and I enjoyed reading your review of the chapbooks he makes. Thanks for sharing a poem from each collection, I had just ordered two more and was thrilled to see a poem featured from each one.
Sincerely,
Paula
Whether you are a writer or a publisher, this is the kind of review we all aspire to receive. If Blei’s review isn’t enough to push you to write Kamini Press and say “I want everything,” well, you might want to check your pulse – because chances are all you really need at this point is a handful of dirt to cover you over.
This is enough to jumpstart the heart of a dead man! Excellent review Norbert! Congrats Henry!