Poetry from A Sad Clown


Book Description

David LaLone is a native of Lansing Michigan, where he lives with wife and two daughters. David has a degree in theology, which he thought would be used in full time pastoral ministry. This however was not the path his life would take. He wrote many of these poems while struggling to understand his role in ministry. He identifies with the persona of the Sad Clown. This clown is a marionette waiting for God to pull the strings. He is sad, and yet he is meant to make people smile. His poetry often swings along such pendulum emotions. His faith is stitched into every line. David is a lamenting prophet using his god given gift of words to paint the images that rise up from within and without. These are poems written in his late twenties. He has felt the thrill of graduation and the fear of the real world. He has started a church and watched it fall. He has invested in ministry to watch him fail. He has seen death and prayed for life from his wife's womb. David shares his life. His poetry is a window into his soul.Everyone knows that clowns are supposed to make you happy. So when as clown looks sad we are perplexed on what to do. I think this is a good image of the poetry in this book. When I wrote them I felt like I was in a sad clown season of life. This is not poetry meant to be depressing but like a sad clown it may make you a bit uncomfortable. I hope that these poems are able to impact you in a powerful way.




City of Clowns


Book Description

A gorgeously rendered graphic novel of Daniel Alarcón’s story City of Clowns. From the author of The King Is Always Above the People, which was longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. Oscar “Chino” Uribe is a young Peruvian journalist for a local tabloid paper. After the recent death of his philandering father, he must confront the idea of his father’s other family, and how much of his own identity has been shaped by his father’s murky morals. At the same time, he begins to chronicle the life of street clowns, sad characters who populate the violent and corrupt city streets of Lima, and is drawn into their haunting, fantastical world. This remarkably affecting story by Daniel Alarcón was included in his acclaimed first book, War by Candlelight, and now, in collaboration with artist Sheila Alvarado, it takes on a new, thrilling form. This graphic novel, with its short punches of action and images, its stark contrasts between light and dark, truth and fiction, perfectly corresponds to the tone of Chino’s story. With the city of Lima as a character, and the bold visual language from the story, City of Clowns is moving, menacing, and brilliantly vivid.




Sad Clown Paradox


Book Description

Sad Clown Paradox is a collection of the funniest and unfunniest shower thoughts from a real life Pagliacci. This is the second book of poetry from Toronto comedian and improvisor Rosh Abdullah




Class Clown


Book Description

Philip Larkin meets Larry David: lyric poetry about love, death, and erectile dysfunction.




Fourth Person Singular


Book Description

Original and ambitious poetry that makes readers pay attention to the current conversation about the nature of lyric and human relationships in the 21st century.




Clowns


Book Description

Clowns: In Conversation with Modern Masters is a groundbreaking collection of conversations with 20 of the greatest clowns on earth. In discussion with clown aficionados Ezra LeBank and David Bridel, these legends of comedy reveal the origins, inspirations, techniques, and philosophies that underpin their remarkable odysseys. Featuring incomparable artists, including Slava Polunin, Bill Irwin, David Shiner, Oleg Popov, Dimitri, Nola Rae, and many more, Clowns is a unique and definitive study on the art of clowning. In Clowns, these 20 master artists speak candidly about their first encounters with clowning and circus, the crucial decisions that carved out the foundations of their style, and the role of teachers and mentors who shaped their development. Follow the twists and turns that changed the direction of their art and careers, explore the role of failure and originality in their lives and performances, and examine the development and evolution of the signature routines that became each clown’s trademark. The discussions culminate in meditations on the role of clowning in the modern world, as these great practitioners share their perspectives on the mysterious, elusive art of the clown.







You Hear Me?


Book Description

An anthology of stories, poems, and essays by adolescent boys on issues that concern them, including identity, girls, death, anger, appearance, and family.




Debussy's Paris


Book Description

Claude Debussy’s exquisite piano works have captivated generations with their dreamlike atmosphere and mysterious soundscapes. Written in Paris at the height of the Belle Époque, the music creates a soundtrack for Parisians’ enjoyment of such delights as clowns, mermaids, eccentric dances, and the dark tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque explores how key works reflect not only the most appealing and innocent aspects of Paris but also more disquieting attitudes of the time such as racism, colonial domination, and nationalistic hostility. Debussy left no avenue unexplored, and his piano works present a sweeping overview of the passions, vices, and obsessions of the era. Pianist Catherine Kautsky reveals little-known elements of Parisian culture and weaves the music, the man, the city, and the era into an indissoluble whole. Her portrait will delight anyone who has ever been entranced by Debussy’s music or the city that inspired it.




Ghost Letters


Book Description

In Ghost Letters, one emigrates to America again, and again, and again, though one also never leaves Senegal, the country of one’s birth; one grows up in America, and attends university in America, though one also never leaves Senegal, the country of one’s birth; one wrestles with one’s American blackness in ways not possible in Senegal, though one never leaves Senegal, the country of one’s birth; and one sees more deeply into Americanness than any native-born American could. Ghost Letters is a 21st century Notebook of a Return to the Native Land, though it is a notebook of arrival and being in America. It is a major achievement. —Shane McCrae