Odes to Tools is a collection of 25 poems inspired by common hand tools, from the socket wrench and shovel to scissors and forks. At the same time down-to-earth and philosophical, the author says that in these poems he was asking, "what if we actually were tools? Doesn't a favorite tool often become more than just an instrument of the worker's will? Doesn't every successful tool in fact acquire a bit of an aura, sometimes even a personality? How well do any of us know the tools we take for granted?"Dave Bonta, well-known to many readers as one of the co-editors of qarrtsiluni online literary magazine and author of the blog Via Negativa, was born in 1966, which makes him just three years older than the Internet. Though he lives on a remote mountainside in rural Pennsylvania, Dave says he's "not nearly as handy" as these poems might suggest, and that his favorite tool is actually the computer mouse.
About Phoenicia Publishing
Phoenicia Publishing, located in Montreal, publishes poetry, non-fiction, fiction, and photography, and is interested in "words and images that illuminate culture, spirit, and the human experience." The press's founder, Elizabeth Adams, says that a particular interest is on writing about travel between cultures — whether literally or more metaphorically — with the goal of enlarging our understanding of one another through experiences of change, displacement, disconnection, assimilation, sorrow, gratitude, longing and hope.
Dave Bonta: Odes to Tools
poetry chapbook,
32 pages with full color cover, $6.95
ISBN 978-0-9781749-9-6
Tools is a fascinating subject for a poetry book. My favorite tool is a wood handled rubber mallet with its rock-hard, beat-up, rounded white mallet head that my late father gave me years ago. It has helped me unstick windows, bang things without ruining surfaces, and I am quite fond of it. I feel my Dad in its handle helping me whenever I use it, and that brings a smile to my face
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