Fiery Messengers

By Geoff Peterson

It is said Dante wrote his Commedia as a means to reconcile himself with the death of his beloved Beatrice--years after the fact.

In Fiery Messengers the poet descends tothe demi monde in search of his soul in the person of Jacqueline, his mother. The texts that follow are encounters with the muse in various phases, some in memory, others in dream & fantasy, a few as apparitions.

The exchanges between mother & son form the crux of a journey from darkness to flashes of lightning.

In this latest work Peterson asserts the primacy of one poetic vision--that of Homer, Virgil, Dante, Pound & Olson. Let men stumble and go forth.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Nov 29, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452065830

Geoff Peterson

Born just after World War II, Peterson inherited his mother's nervous system and went on to memorize and perform poetry in a lyric vein for family and card parties. Raised Catholic, the boy learned the value of dreams, visions, and the soothing aspects of prayer in unison. He later earned degrees in Literature and Writing at Eastern Washington University, and served as poetry editor for Willow Springs Magazine. With the publication of his first novel in 1989, Peterson turned his back on mainstream publishing and has not looked back. Since 2007 he has published nearly thirty books of poetry and fiction. He lives in the Southwest and still gets around.

Book preview

Contents

Blurbs in route…

other Peterson titles—

Communique

Fiery Messengers

Late Check-In

Port of Entry

in the Sunset District

Visitors

Call Back

Raw, Rainy

Canto 1

[the gospel of the sacred heart says…]

Scapular

[to be worn over the heart at all times]

Canto turning on itself

Séance

Death March

Death March II

Back on Track

In Person

Canto 2

Kabuki: The Heron Maiden

[2]

[3]

Canto 3

[& postscript]

Canto 4

Barbary Coast

Gouged

Canto 5

to Sterling Hayden, author of Wanderer

(on the occasion of testifying before HUAC):

Poets only pretend to die…

Ocean Beach

Canto 6

Cathay

Poetry Kung-Fu

Death March III

Book Signing at Books, Inc.

Canto 7

Canto 8

Vigil: 1958

Canto 9

Call/Waiting

Canto 10

[l’extase langoureuse…]

Destination Tokyo

Nocturne

November

Canto 11

Theory

Canto 12

Canto 13

Report to Stanislav

at the Golden Eagle

Jonah

Canto 14

Ghost Boats

Canto 15

Tenderloin

Visitation

Treasure Island

Department Store

Bardo

Treasure Island, 1939

Treasure Island: the soundtrack

Staying Sober on Dante

Après le Deluge

Ghost Opera

Ghost Opera II

Canto 16

Treasure Island: Avenue of the Palms

Treasure Island: taking possession

Escape from Treasure Island

Canto 17

Double Indemnity

notes from Dante

Clipping

Cantos 18-19

Canto 20

Fog over ‘Frisco

[Fog over…2]

Shakti

Canto 21

Canto 22

Canto 23

Canto 24

Stieglitz

Ghost Nets

Les Messegers de la Nuit

Matinee

The Latest Figures

Dante, again

Canto 25

On the Radio

Entrances

Admit One

Hotel Potter

[Jan. 4, 1965—]

Portrait of Carlotta

Canto 26: semiotics

Upstairs at City Lights

Sleeping Late in Hotels

Canto 27

Lull

The Coast Starlight

Water, Sleep

Cold Call

Mother & Son

[for Ms Hughes]

Canto 28

Canto 29

Black Pearls

Canto 30: Testimony of Guido

Tales of the Great Depression

Canto 31

Canto 32

[A.D. 1958]

author’s bio

Canto 33

Postscript: XXX

Blurbs in route…

Peterson’s project concerns the ghost within—more real than not. His connection with the dearly departed is palpable and suggests that we’re all ghosts and don’t become ‘real’ until we check out.

—Redama, Island Girl

The man is inhabited by leading ladies on & off the silver screen, and these ‘residents’ have produced here a flaming poetic disease.

—D. D. Patch, ghost wrangler

…does it matter what I think about the man’s book? The fact is, writing is all that keeps him from re-enrolling at the state arboretum for the disconsolate. I for one am not prepared to accept responsibility for yet another rejection.

—B. Wright Fellows, career management

The kid could really lie. He once convinced his sister that his birth mark was a shark bite suffered while on our trip to LA. I suppose that’s not as bad as his fantasy about the girl on the Mickey Mouse Club. But still, lies inside of lies, like a kaleidoscope.

Until I forgot, oh I’m the mother and I’m supposed to say something.

—Jacqueline, the mother

I find the part about me on the road and money from the track the best of the litter. Someone make a movie. Take it from a veteran who spent years in the minors, the kid’s still got the heater.

—Jack Anderson, infielder

I am going to be straight with you: not a big fan of poetry. But— Fiery is damn important. A must-read for anyone in search of the fire that cleanses.

—Emmett Lombard, author

Pursuing Information Literacy

other Peterson titles—

Cordes Junction

Medicine Dog

hecho en mexico

Bad Trades

Cold Reading

Crazy Stairs

Drama & Desire

The Greyhound Bardo

Cine Bahia: the Suicide Codex

I dedicate this book to the memory of Anne Bancroft

who appeared on the Charley Rose show

near the end of her life

& illuminated my search

and to my father, Ward, who taught me

to love words & ships

It will be as it is in this life, the same room,

Yes, the same! and at daybreak, the bird of time in the leafage,

Pale as a dead woman’s face; and the servants

Moving; and the icy, hollow noise of the fountain-taps,

Terrible, terrible youth; and the heart empty….

—Ezra Pound

from Symphonie de Novembre

by Oscar Wenceslas de Lubicz-Milosz

(1877-1939)

How to have faith. How to assume the illusion of one’s self!

—Charles Olson

All those in Hell are there because of mad voyages.

—Harriet Rubin

Dante in Love

…un rameur sur le fleuve des morts.

—Jean Cocteau

Communique

Single adult male…spiritually, emotionally & sexually stalled

the poet arrives at ports to haunt the hallways

of ancient hotels…

and conjures the woman named Jacqueline

as written, that fall in San Francisco

in conversation with ghosts & in exile with Dante

reading old mail

and inquiring thus: how do you reconcile the dead

with the rooms lived in, repeat

how do you give up searching finally

after