"Harvest Moon Poems"

E. A. Hanninen - 2008

PRE-view: an editorial essay
  by Eve Anthony Hanninen

No Long Midsummer’s Night Dream,

though perhaps a jackass or two — and short, turbulent stretches of darkness, the counterbalance for the longest days of the year in the Northern hemisphere: that’s fairly descriptive of most of the poems in the current issue of The Centrifugal Eye. We’ve got your steamy, your restless, your gritty . . . many send intense messages and are focused on disturbance; yet not all — some of the poems and prose showcased this quarter wind gradually, like bedcovers slipping to the floor as an overheated sleeper fidgets.

        There are nights, especially breezeless, humid ones, when I wake fitfully and am plagued by random thoughts and images. If this happens to you, too, do you then spend a lot of time trying to fake yourself back to sleep, or do you advance on the night in some way? I’ll usually get up if I’ve stayed awake for longer than 20 minutes. I figure, why not get up and read or write for awhile? What do you do when you wake in the middle of the night and can’t get back to sleep?

        Oh, hey, I have a great solution for you! How about turn on your computer and head over to The Centrifugal Eye? I’m betting you’ll identify with and find inspiration in the 3 dozen heated perspectives in this sultry, summer collection of nighttime poems! And of course, while some subjects may be treated here more than once, every poem is stylistically different, as is typical of most offerings showcased by TCE. These middle-of-the-night-themed poems, when read together, tell a varying story of the commonplace sensuality, sexuality, violence, crime, fear, insomnia, and moongazing-sequences which often play out in the heated, human nightscape.

        Of course, TCE is not just a journal of poems with illustrations, as our regular readers know — this issue, especially, is also loaded with scintillating book reviews and essays all designed to seep into and heat up your summer dreams. And dog-lovers will get an extra-special kick out of my interview romp with poet Taylor Graham. Hmmm, I forgot to ask Taylor if her dogs sleep through the night . . .

        I’m all flushed just thinking of how much all of you are going to warm up to TCE nightlife!



Something new for our readers this summer —
Merrifield’s Tao of Reading Poetry

        Sea Stories editor Karla Linn Merrifield joins the staff of The Centrifugal Eye as a Quarterly Review Columnist. Karla launches her first star-worthy review on a poetry collection by Beau Cutts that rightfully meshes with our current theme. She further invites readers to tell her what books of poetry they are reading, and which they would recommend to her for a possible write-up.


        You’ll find the link to the Survey Invitation at the bottom of Karla’s first TCE review.





(And if you're looking for Tom Reninger's memorial dedication from the May 2008 issue, you can find the link on the Archives homepage, or head directly to the Centrifuge Special Projects site from right here.)




Eve Anthony Hanninen
Editor-in-Chief
The Centrifugal Eye

"Night Owl" - D.J. Bryant 2008

Eve Anthony Hanninen, unwilling to be a one-note song, is happy only when crooning to multi-media symphonies. This American poet, writer, editor, artist and composer resides in a pastoral valley ringed completely by mountains in B.C., Canada. Her observations of how environment impacts human experience results in a poetic style she dubs "psycho-atmospheric."

Besides fielding a barrage of freelance-editing jobs this quarter, Eve has published poems and other recent works in Sein und Werden (online), Moondance, Sein und Werden (print), Wicked Alice, Origami Condom, Shit Creek Review, The Barefoot Muse, and The HyperTexts.

Several poems will appear in a new anthology edited by Lynn Strongin: Crazed by the Sun (2008); another appeared in Trim: The Mannequin Envy Anthology (2007). Eve's latest bookjacket illustrations adorn Ellaraine Lockie's Blue Ribbons at the County Fair, and Patrick Carrington's Hard Blessings. Artwork was also contributed to Lana Ayers' Late Blooms Postcard Series.