Here, There and Nowhere
Valery Oisteanu
with collages by Ruth Oisteanu
ISBN 978-1-959556-92-3 110 pages $25.00
Pre-order the book now and it will ship when published
Streaming straight out of the Surrealist matrix, Valery Oisteanu’s poetry takes us back to the movement’s origins and simultaneously propels us forward, giving us the energy and values of what Breton-Péret-Desnos et al. synthesized while “making it new” for our day. These poems are powerful, thrilling, wise, and politically right on target. Grab this book before somebody else does!
Bill Zavatsky
VALERY PULLS OUT, PULLS UP; THE REAL HISTORY, THE REAL LIFE, THE REAL IMAGES; FOR THESE BRAIN POLLUTED, ROBOTIC, UNREAL, TIMES! GET IT? GOT IT? GOOD!
Charles Plymell, Soothsayer, Cherry Valley Editions
How to bring in anything or anywhere that’s not already here: from Central Park to Woodstock to Oaxaca, war and erotics and the grounded celestial? All present in this poetry, surely.
Mary Ann Caws, author of Alice Paalen Rahon: Shapeshifter, Creative Gatherings, Mina Loy: Apology of Genius
Valery Oisteanu bears witness to the marvelous, the magical and the horrific. His poems narrate the ever-unfolding flower of human existence in a cascade of striking surreal observations. From the tattooed eyelids and crocodile-headed mannequins of Oaxaca, to the sunflowers blooming amongst the corpses of Ukraine, from the dirty washing machines littering a Manhattan lot like cemetery stones, to the hypnotic forests and walking mountains of Woodstock, Valery shows us how the poet can and must transform the world. “Rebirth is around the corner,” he says. Act, sing and speak, “before we become inhuman.” Here, There and Nowhere is a visionary, inspirational work.
Carl Watson
Valery Oisteanu is a New Yorker—by way of the Soviet Union and Romania—since 1973, Valery Oisteanu has spent the last half century actively working to help the worlds of art, poetry and performance assimilate to his wildly creative point of view. Along the way he has written more than a dozen books of poetry, created untold numbers of surreal collages and performed his “jazzoetry” in myriad clubs and halls around the world. Oisteanu is a living encyclopedia of the avant-garde, one of his missions being to enlighten others to the wholly original movements and creators of art that lit up the world in the early 20th century and beyond. He has counted as personal friends such visionaries as Julian Beck, Ira Cohen, Charles Henri Ford, Ray Johnson, Ted Joans, Judith Malina, Gellu Naum, May Wilson and many others. Among the prizes he has earned is the Kathy Acker Award for his contribution to the avant garde via poetry performance. He lives in New York City with his wife of 50 years, Ruth. For more info go to website: zen-dada.com
