Bear Crossing
by Kell Robertson

Born of the Kansas plains and now living in the desert of the Southwest, Kell Robertson has been described as a poet with a uniquely American voice. Beginning with Toward Communication (Grande Ronde Press, 1967), Robertson has authored thirteen poetry collections, including his selected poems, A Horse Called Desperation (Apsermont, 1995). Pathwise Press was pleased to release his well-received The Levelling Wind in 2004.
A singer/songwriter as well, Robertson’s recordings include Cool and Dark Inside, (A Desperado Production, 2002) and When You Come Down Off the Mountain (Lo-Fi Country, 2003).
His biography can be found within the lines of his poems and the notes of his songs.

Pathwise Press is pleased to reissue Kell's classic Bear Crossing collection, first published by Guerilla Poetics Books of Salt Lake City in 1989. This edition is published in a limited run of 200 copies and features a new introduction by Kell.


Available April 2007. Order your copy now, along with The Levelling Wind, to receive a 10% discount.


Excerpts...
from the Introduction
Song

Reviews...

Specifications
Pages: 44
Binding: Saddle-Stitch
Cover: 80lb. cardstock
Interior: 20 lb. white linen
ISBN: 978-1-932840-01-8
Price: $5.95 USD

PATHWISE PRESS CATALOG

Excerpts...

from the Introduction
...This little selection of poems was put together from the scraps of paper found in the bottom of my old tin suitcase. My ex-wife and I had been stranded by the carnival we worked for in Ocala, Florida. We found a room in a shabby old horse barn that had been chopped up into a rooming house. Our room was on the bottom floor and when folks upstairs took a shower it rained on us. I had to hock my old Gibson to pay for a week’s rent. There was a day work place called Labor Force and I went to work there.
It was genuine shit work. You worked ten or twelve hours days and you made three dollars and thirty-five cents an hour. There was, of course, a liquor store right next to the office where they’d cash your check with no ID, but they charged you a dollar to cash it even if you bought something. Most of the guys who worked there lived at the Salvation Army or under a bridge. Wandering bums. Guys who lived from day to day and didn’t give a damn about tomorrow or high school kids trying to make an extra buck... (Copyright, Kell Robertson)

Song
Up in the mountains, an afternoon
of good whiskey and country music
and John said we should just keep going
and ride on down into Mexico.
You called us a couple of old fools
but chorded alright on the turnaround
even if you did forget the words.
I suppose it’s a matter of genuine
folk art and wonder when the women
were asleep and we killed the whiskey
in the kitchen, staggering out into
the snow to piss hollering into the wind
warcries for dreams to be fought,
songs as impossible as the light
when the sun came up on all that snow.

(Copyright, Kell Robertson)

The Reviews of The Levelling Wind...

"Robertson writes rough, ragged poetry. His work is concerned with the everyday existence of people who live at the low end of the working class...the homeless, the farmers, the cowboys (not the movie version kind), and the waitresses...Robertson is able to take the ordinary and makes it memorable." (Mike James, Poesy #26)

"One has to get used to the style and delivery of these gritty literary morsels of homespun 'philosophy'. (Eric Ratcliffe, July 2004, New Hope International)

"Robertson's third major book, The Levelling Wind, is the work of a thoroughly authentic American poet...Wind forms the third part of a trilogy that he has been working on for years. This trilogy is partly a long poem, partly a kind of meandering saga of the way in which Robertson has rediscovered the Modern West and the Old West." (Todd Moore, June 2004)

"Kell Robertson is a gifted poet and The Levelling Wind is a highly recommended read." (Neal Wilgus, September 2004)

Last update: 21 January 2007
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