Monday, December 10, 2012

the song less/on - "some of the best ever written"

the song less/on

A book of poetry by Alvaro Cardona-Hine

“Some of the best ever written . . .” 

--Tom McGrath in The National Guardian 

reviewing the haiku in The Gathering Wave.

“Cardona-Hine is far more tuned to silence than Eliot; there are no phases to his theology. He offers no disciplines, nor even Zen vacancies; he offers arrivals . . . This gentle poet has little to do with the hysterical attenuated surrealism which has in recent years dominated the better little magazines. Or with archetypes of the Great Mother or other theorizing . . . It is understandable that poets want to move out into the universe, to dream of being moles, to sink into mineral veins, to make wild dissociated images that dissolve the self. But Cardona-Hine preserves the sense of human self-hood, human wonder, adventure.”
–Benjamin Saltzman in Kayak 
reviewing Words On Paper.

Alvaro Cardona-Hine was born in Costa Rica in 1926 and was brought to the United States by his parents in 1939. By 1945 he was writing poetry then went on to translate Cesar Vallejo, write novels, make a living as a painter, and compose music which has been performed in various parts of the country. He is the recipient of an NEA grant, a Bush Foundation Fellowship and a Minnesota State Arts Board grant. He lives with his wife, the poet and painter Barbara McCauley, in the small village of Truchas, in New Mexico, where the two manage their own gallery.

Product Details
* Paperback: 170 pages
* Publisher: il piccolo editions; First edition (Jan 1, 2013)
* Language: English
* ISBN-13: 978-1926715889
* www.fisherkingpress.com

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including 
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry, 
and a growing list of alternative titles. 
Mel Mathews, is the author of several novels (Fisher King Press). His books are available from your local bookstore, a host of on-line booksellers, or you can order them directly from his website at: www.melmathews.com © 2012 Mel Mathews

Friday, July 27, 2012

Solitude, Creativity, Opus House

Opus House
A place for Solitude and Creative Work

Opus House is a comfortable adobe home near the old Spanish village of Truchas in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of Northern New Mexico. Sitting at 8300 feet elevation, 45 minutes from Santa Fe on the High Road to Taos, Opus House is offered to selected individuals of all callings and backgrounds as a place of solitude and creative work. It is seen as a place to be for a week or so to concentrate on a chosen creative process.

For those interested in exploring this offering, contact:
Opus House, 1671 State Road 76, P.O. Box 471, Truchas, NM 87578


A number of Fisher King Press authors have spent time at Opus House and Truchas Peaks Place. Patricia Damery and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky wrote the preface, the section introductions, and flowed together the essays that comprised Marked By Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way. Mel Mathews has completed a number of Fisher King Press titles while hiding away at this sacred place.

Saturday, July 07, 2012

The Timekeeper has come to Town

Timekeeper by John Atkinson

Within the first few pages, John Atkinson's Timekeeper had weaved its essence around my heart and refused to let me go. Written in the same spirit as Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees, Timekeeper is a magnificent tale of a young boy who can't read, or at least he hasn't found the means to do so up to this point in his life. Misunderstood by his teachers and elders, and physically beaten into the ground by his father, Johnnyboy runs away from home at the age of fourteen and sets off into the unknown to find himself. What he couldn't find in his own father, the universe provides for him in a multitude of miraculous ways. In spite of all his suffering and adversities, Johnnyboy's spirit remains in tact... better yet, like a boxer taking a relentless barrage of punches, he spits his beating into the ringside pail and comes out dancing like never before into the next rounds/chapters of this magnificent tale of redemption. Readers, Booksellers, Journalists, Reviewers, Critics, and even you Movie Makers, about all I can tell you is, 'Better get ready 'cause the Timekeeper is coming to town!' --Mel Mathews, USA Today

Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Freeing our Authentic Selves

Review by Mel Mathews

Filled with insight and wisdom, Free the Children is most unique and original in its own sense, yet equal in rank to the works of Carlos Castaneda and Don Miguel Ruiz. This beautifully written story is about a love shared between a father and son. Yet, it is not about a father ‘fathering’ a son. Quite the opposite – Boye, with an innocent wisdom that has not been distorted by the conventional impositions of social institutions, teaches, or better yet, ‘boys’ a Father. Bruce Scott reclaims and liberates his own lost innocent self as he and Boye travel the country, meeting up with bizarre people in the most uncanny places, and sharing profound experiences that bring about a shift in awareness and alters their way of seeing and being in the world.

Sunday, July 01, 2012

Who is Malcolm Clay, you ask?

"Malcolm Clay is the story of everyman."

"Malcolm Clay is the story of everyman. He is every man who ventures into life and love. The every man who experiences the vicissitudes of the ecstasy yet fear and pain that life and love may bring. Author, Mel Mathews, brings to light the engaging energies of his novels' protagonist, Malcolm Clay, both in his external happenings and also in the soul making substance of his inner on-going life. He allows us to hear the inner dialogue, to touch the feelings, to view life as if an X-ray vision of a man's soul. In an appealing manner, a crisp and crusty narrative, we, as reader, also envision life and soul."
– Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Jungian Analyst & Author of The Sacred Prostitute

Sweet Alabama Mountain Music

review by Mel Mathews

What a fabulous tale! The weekend was covered with a hefty to-do list, then I opened up Ramey Channell's Sweet Music on Moonlight Ridge and everything else fell away. The woods around Moonlight Ridge are filled with magical secrets and possibilities and eight-year-old Lily Claire Nash and her cousin Willie T (both born on the very same day and at the very same time) are full of adventure.