David E. Matthews
Well-Known Member
another, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, cream pie droppedfrom the top of a stepladder . . . 8^/ . . .
silence is consent
Dear Fellow Poets,
I know that it’s been a while since most of you have heard from me. I wish I could have been more responsive as I was compiling the work of the 83 poets who submitted over the last few months, but I was in a rush to take advantage of the month of April, both as National Poetry Month and as the month when a number of protest marches have been planned. (Last weekend’s day of protest, “Hands Off,” had over 5.2 million people throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as a few in Canada.
A few poets who participated in last Saturday’s protest lamented that they wished that they had copies of the anthology. It would have been the perfect place to sell them as the people most sympathetic to the message of Silence Is Consent were all gathered together in about 1,300 cities.
The manuscript for the anthology, Silence Is Consent was submitted for publication yesterday; and, as of tonight, it is available on Amazon. I have not even seen a copy of it yet. And I was not aware that the process would be so quick.
The anthology has 83 poets, and well over 300 poems (and illustrations) in over 380 pages. With few exceptions, I have tried to accept as many poets (and poems) as I thought were relevant to the issue of the anthology itself: “American poets speaking to the American Conscience” about the effects now being felt by all Americans to the election of Donald J. Trump and his tour of vengeance, and destruction of the legal system, and in particular, his attacks on the US Constitution he swore to defend. Since my sole purpose in starting this project was to provide a venue for the increasing number of American poets who I have heard in zoom poetry readings since the election last November express their anger and fears in verse, I decided to take this project on. To provide a vehicle for all of us to speak up, and to be heard.
I am a retired English teacher, not a publisher, and so, for me, it was a monumental job. And, because I wanted this completed in a timely fashion, time was of the essence. To repeat what I said in the beginning of this email, I didn’t have time to keep in touch with each of you. Only to take what you submitted and put it into a decent publication that we could all be proud of. And I hope you will be. Because it represents all of us.
“Casablanca Press” is my own invention. This is it’s first publication. If you remember my last name, you will understand why I named it as I did. (BTW before you ask, yes, he was my grandfather’s first cousin.) I tried to take whatever you submitted to me and fit it into a 6”/9” format, however sometimes your lines were very long and so accommodations had to be made, but those accommodations were made according to publishing standards. Sometimes, some of the poems (not mentioning any names) were in formats that were almost impossible to reproduce, much less fit on the page. But I did what I could with each of them. Not a word was changed in any of the over 300 poems – not even the spellings that seemed inaccurate. I assumed that if you sent it to me, it must be what you wanted. And the statement after the front piece states that all rights to your work returns to you upon publication. I took unpublished and pre-published poems. As long as they were on topic(s) and did not advocate racism or violence.
Since this book was self-published, I cannot afford to send each of you a complimentary copy, as is sometimes done with publishers. Between the cost of the book and the mailing costs, it would cost me close to a grand to do so. And while we are on that topic, I have decided to donate the profits, after any expenses that I have incurred, from the sale of the book to the ACLU, as they seem most active now in protecting all those who need legal assistance (the thousands of fired workers, those who are being deported, and all the other victims of the illegal activities of Elon Musk’s DOGE and the Justice Department of this administration). In the back of the book, there is a list of four organizations (ACLU, SPLC, Democracy Docket, Americans of Conscience, and Indivisible, the sponsors of last Saturday’s “Hands Off” rallies). If you have any other ideas on that score, please let me know.
I have attached a copy of the table of Contents of Silence Is Consent so that you know who and what is included in the book. You’ll find that there were few exceptions, even though some of the poetry was a stretch, I did not exclude anyone.
One last thing. I would like to share with you the Dedication I included in the front of the book.
Chris Bogart
silence is consent
Dear Fellow Poets,
I know that it’s been a while since most of you have heard from me. I wish I could have been more responsive as I was compiling the work of the 83 poets who submitted over the last few months, but I was in a rush to take advantage of the month of April, both as National Poetry Month and as the month when a number of protest marches have been planned. (Last weekend’s day of protest, “Hands Off,” had over 5.2 million people throughout the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii, as well as a few in Canada.
A few poets who participated in last Saturday’s protest lamented that they wished that they had copies of the anthology. It would have been the perfect place to sell them as the people most sympathetic to the message of Silence Is Consent were all gathered together in about 1,300 cities.
The manuscript for the anthology, Silence Is Consent was submitted for publication yesterday; and, as of tonight, it is available on Amazon. I have not even seen a copy of it yet. And I was not aware that the process would be so quick.
The anthology has 83 poets, and well over 300 poems (and illustrations) in over 380 pages. With few exceptions, I have tried to accept as many poets (and poems) as I thought were relevant to the issue of the anthology itself: “American poets speaking to the American Conscience” about the effects now being felt by all Americans to the election of Donald J. Trump and his tour of vengeance, and destruction of the legal system, and in particular, his attacks on the US Constitution he swore to defend. Since my sole purpose in starting this project was to provide a venue for the increasing number of American poets who I have heard in zoom poetry readings since the election last November express their anger and fears in verse, I decided to take this project on. To provide a vehicle for all of us to speak up, and to be heard.
I am a retired English teacher, not a publisher, and so, for me, it was a monumental job. And, because I wanted this completed in a timely fashion, time was of the essence. To repeat what I said in the beginning of this email, I didn’t have time to keep in touch with each of you. Only to take what you submitted and put it into a decent publication that we could all be proud of. And I hope you will be. Because it represents all of us.
“Casablanca Press” is my own invention. This is it’s first publication. If you remember my last name, you will understand why I named it as I did. (BTW before you ask, yes, he was my grandfather’s first cousin.) I tried to take whatever you submitted to me and fit it into a 6”/9” format, however sometimes your lines were very long and so accommodations had to be made, but those accommodations were made according to publishing standards. Sometimes, some of the poems (not mentioning any names) were in formats that were almost impossible to reproduce, much less fit on the page. But I did what I could with each of them. Not a word was changed in any of the over 300 poems – not even the spellings that seemed inaccurate. I assumed that if you sent it to me, it must be what you wanted. And the statement after the front piece states that all rights to your work returns to you upon publication. I took unpublished and pre-published poems. As long as they were on topic(s) and did not advocate racism or violence.
Since this book was self-published, I cannot afford to send each of you a complimentary copy, as is sometimes done with publishers. Between the cost of the book and the mailing costs, it would cost me close to a grand to do so. And while we are on that topic, I have decided to donate the profits, after any expenses that I have incurred, from the sale of the book to the ACLU, as they seem most active now in protecting all those who need legal assistance (the thousands of fired workers, those who are being deported, and all the other victims of the illegal activities of Elon Musk’s DOGE and the Justice Department of this administration). In the back of the book, there is a list of four organizations (ACLU, SPLC, Democracy Docket, Americans of Conscience, and Indivisible, the sponsors of last Saturday’s “Hands Off” rallies). If you have any other ideas on that score, please let me know.
I have attached a copy of the table of Contents of Silence Is Consent so that you know who and what is included in the book. You’ll find that there were few exceptions, even though some of the poetry was a stretch, I did not exclude anyone.
One last thing. I would like to share with you the Dedication I included in the front of the book.
This book is dedicated
to the people of the United States of America,
and to their ancestors
who arrived at Ellis Island as well as Plymouth Rock,
who crossed the Atlantic as well as the Pacific,
and the Rio Grande
in search of a better life –
in a land dedicated to
Democracy.
I would like to thank you all for your support of this project. I hope my efforts, as well as your own, have made this project something all of us can be proud of.to the people of the United States of America,
and to their ancestors
who arrived at Ellis Island as well as Plymouth Rock,
who crossed the Atlantic as well as the Pacific,
and the Rio Grande
in search of a better life –
in a land dedicated to
Democracy.
Chris Bogart
