10 Days of Giveaways!

Yay!  10 days of giveaways for my followers :)  I love you guys.  These giveaways will run from September 5-15 with giveaways of ebooks and physical copies and swag. 
To enter leave your GFC name and an email.  Extra points for being an email subscriber and/or tweeting the giveaway.

First up:
Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remebered

byGeorgia Ann Banks-Martin

Georgia Banks-Martin walks us through an art gallery. We view art, which she has processed and questioned, through her lens: Lawrence, Monet, Van Gogh, Beardon, Sargent, Degas, to name a few of the artists. She challenges the reader to face slavery, grief, and joy, to feel the weight the South bears, to examine art across centuries for lessons. These poems revive what has been omitted in our history books—individual life stories. She uses sound, music and voice to make imagery pulse in these ekphrastic poems. In her poem “Railroad Station,” after a Jacob Lawrence: “Those leaving the towns where father and mother/labored in fields without being offered a yard of thread spun/from the cotton they pulled, have assembled./Packed: Hopes of work, three bedroom homes/water heated in water tanks, classrooms.” As memories populate her poems, so does the theme of hope permeate her book; in Death Dancing, after a Max Slevogt: “I wish memories could be buried as easily as bodies.” Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remembered is a book you will read again and remember as you stand face to face with art.

Julene Tripp Weaver, author of No Father Can Save Her

Goodreads Summary

Even if poetry is not your thing, this poetry is worth a second look.  The author will take the reader on a kaleidoscopic journey of slavery, pain, and happiness.  The author shows the reader pictures that she has processed and thought over.  The detail in the author's words is unmistakable, the reader will appreciate the care the author took in creating her poems.  The reader will enjoy seeing through anothers' eyes.  The author's love for the works of art are clear in the poems, that emotion really adds to them.  There is plenty of imagery in her words, the reader will not need to strain to understand the author's purpose.  This poetry may not be for everyone, but it is worth a second look.

excerpt: "Soon star-like buds will appear / on the fence born of a vine that during / the first week of fall had continued climbing / hoping the sun wouldn't turn its back, / the wind would only stroke still green leaves, / allowing them a few more hours, / before rain, twisting, tearing, / tumbling through unpaved alleys -- / the shedding of seeds." -- from "Remembering an Autumn Day".

4 Stars

Enter to win a paperback copy (US/CAN only)...don't worry International, there are quite a few giveaways coming for you.  Leave your GFC or Networked bloggers name and email.  Thank you!

Rhapsody for Lessons Learned or Remembered by Georgia Ann Banks-Martin, on tour from July 18th-September 15th, 2011 with NURTURE Virtual BOOK Tourz™ at: http://nurtureyourbooks.com/vbtblog/?p=1172