Richard Paul Haight's Books

The Love Songs of a Lonely Man

By: Richard Paul Haight

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The Love Songs of a Lonely Man

By: Richard Paul Haight

The Love Songs of a Lonely Man is a selection of poems wtitten over a twenty year span, but 80 ercent or more are recent. Some of the "love songs" are conventional, at least in the sence of wooing and heart palpitations, the blues, and evanescence. That the conventional themes are given unconventional treatment is suggested by the titles of some of the poems: "The Love Song of an Inadequate Man," "Advice to a Sophomore Co-ed Who's suffering From Acute Horniness," "Forgive Me, Wife." However, most of the poems are love songs in the broader sense of passionate engagement with the world and with life at this time, under these circumstances. The author has had varied experiences as a laborer, medical lab tech, radio-TV anouncer and sportscaster, university professor, principal in large-scale grant projects, officer in a funding agency, mountain route newspaper carrier, and many other ups and downs. The perspectives in his poems, accordingly, are many, ranging from those of a bag lady to those of the "Sibyl on the Rhine," from those of a student who has shot fellow students to those of a grumpy old man who can't sleep and is discussing sex in his imagination with "famous dead men" - Picasso, Goethe, Hesse. The poems themselves are in several styles and forms, but all are "accessible." Some are sololoquies in voices as varied as those of Hildegard von Bingen, oedipus, a Death Mother, a Latino bead artsist, and a Union (Civil War) soldier. the poems demonstrate a flair for psychological insight, storytelling, and powerful imagery. speaking in his own voice the author is always passionate, is often cranky, sometimes has a twinkle in his eye. One motif is american culture in such poems as "The Bellringers of Palm Springs," "Of Meadows and Parking Lots," "The 600 Block of Elm Between Pleasant and Arcadia," and several others. A second major motif is religion; the author's perspective is revealed in "Sin Is" and is elaborated in "Osiris and Medea," "Oedipus Instructs the Tribes of Isreal," "Hildegard Confesses to Febrile and Apasionata," and others. Still a third major motif is simplistic morality and moral evil, found in "How Am I Different," "Errors of Love," "Are Women the Cause of Men?" "Dearest Lucinda," and others. And a fourth motif is art and artists, in such poems as "You Can't See a Tabula Rasa Until It Disappears," "How a Poet May Self-Aggrandize," and "The poet of Beads." A feature of the collection is a group of poems culled from a once large group based on dreams women share with the author. Over time those inlcuded in Love Songs have become "more poem that dream." the poems are unambiguously feminine in detals, imagry, and themes. "Encounter With the Turban and His Beast" is unambiguously humorous and has an odd resonance with the events of 9/11. "I Hold Pain in My Arms" is based on a dream following an abortion. And "Dona Nobis Pacem" is a vivid women-on-the-verge-of-a-nervous-breakdown dream-poem. Though it is not an emphasis of this collection of poems, some autobiographical details leach out. The unpleasant details are fiction and the pleasant details are lies.

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Page Count

192

Publisher

Trafford Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1553952669

ISBN 13

9781553952664

The Bronzes of Grand Junction

By: Richard Paul Haight

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The Bronzes of Grand Junction

By: Richard Paul Haight

The Bronzes of Grand Junction is a verse drama in twelve scenes. It is suitable for full scale theatrical production, or minimal production, or readers' theater presentation (à la Under Milkwood, or "pageant" production (everyone in town plays a role). The players include a Narratorand six men and six women of any combintion of ages, race, ethnicity, and body build. These 12 players each play/read many characters. The Bronzes of Grand Junction are-were- ordinary people going about their ordinary lives on an ordinary day when suddenly, instantly bronzed, like baby shoes, "bestatued" right in from of reliable eyewitnesses. They are "a women with shopping bags," "a businessman, " "a homeless man," "a pretty gilr," and "a running child." The cause of this "miracle" is unknown and, as it turns out, unknowable. Could be the work of God, aliens, an artist, a magician, or a scientist putting an odd spin on genetics. The effect on the town of this phenomenon is far-reaching but not particularly profound. Local quarrel over whether the bronzes deserve "a decent burial" or should serve as a tourist attraction (of vast commercial benefit to the town, or someone). Visitors overrun the site where the bronzes sit and stand. Tourists arrive by the busload. Blue-collar folk, scientists, religious persons, cranks, poets, researchers, professors, and teenagers speculate about the cause of the phenomenon and weave fantasias about who th ebronzed ones were and why them. The bronzes give the world something to talk about and are the focus, therefore, of a wide range of speculation, personal projections, contentious opinions, and even a few thoughtful, compassionate responses. The responses are usually off-base as far as the actual lives of those bronzed, but would that not be expected? The effect of all these repsonses is an extended colloquy by (mostly) Americans (mostly) about themselves and their culture. That The Bronzes of Grand Junction is a "verse drama" should not alarm or put off those who have a negative attitude about "poetry." The play reads, and will strike the ear, as almost normal speech. The author uses rhyme to inspire better language than he can ordinarly muster, and he likes rhythm. Here are a couple of examples, first Abraham Falling Blue Father speaking about "the woman with shopping bags": Oh cruel white-man fate! She is searching in a Target sack of heartless plastic for the answer to her every prayer, but she can search in those wishbags forever, and not find the answer even to wrinkles or vaginal dryness, let alone flat affect or unhappiness or anything serious. THIRD WOMAN FROM CAMBRIDGE And the inexorable spin of this, our bicycle in space, makes us upright even when we're upside down, and for a few turns warms our faces with the light of dawn, and says, to me at least, lucky you, you get to try again.

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ISBN 10

1553952677

ISBN 13

9781553952671

Management

By: Richard L. Daft

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Management

By: Richard L. Daft

This edition aims to equip students with a solid foundation in the essentials of an introductory management class and introduces students to current trends, theories and issues in the dynamic field of management. Real-world examples are featured in the text.

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852

Published Date

ISBN 10

0030259673

ISBN 13

9780030259678

Book's by Richard Paul Haight

The Love Songs of a Lonely Man

The Love Songs of a Lonely Man

The Bronzes of Grand Junction

The Bronzes of Grand Junction

Management

Management

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