Snow in November

today we woke up to snow... several inches blanketing everything! fierce winds throughout the night had ushered it in...  a flock of migrant birds just swept in and battled over access to all the goodies in the bird feeder... now they're gone, leaving just a few seeds and husks overtop the snow on the round squirrel protector (which never seems to keep the squirrels from getting to the feeder)...

later we will walk the dog down a nearby country road, winter boots snug on our feet...

My Books

Poetry

Planting Bulbs in a Time of War, and Other Poems

"Patricia Roth Schwartz's compelling poems unflinchingly address family's history and history's family, and we are the better for it. Hers is a voice of empathy and grace, a voice that reminds us in all ways to be mindful of  'the other.'" 
                                                                --Thom Ward, Elektra's Daughters
$10.00

Down the Middle with a Nickel: a Memoir of a West Virginia Childhood in Poems

"With all the vividness and clarity of a Brownie home movie, these vignettes of a West Virginia girlhood are a mnemonic triumph. Young Patty confronts all the terrors that 1950s America could conjure: the Bomb, polio, Russian spies, the junior-high dance. We watch her growing awareness of rural poverty, marital disharmony, sexual repression and gender regimentation-the hidden casualties of an age of confident conformity. Alternately comical, nostalgic, and poignant, this poetic memoir is notable for its range, its skill, and its sensitivity, but especially for delightful surprises at every turn."

--John Roche, On Conesus (FootHills)
 $8.00 

Hungers

A gentle yet fierce first collection of lyric poems from the heart of the women's movement of the 70s yet deeply personal. These are the poems by a 30ish woman coming out in all possible ways: as a poet, as an urban dweller on her own, as a lover of women navigating the perilous waters of love and friendship betrayed, lost, renewed. This book was one of four titles funded by a community arts grant from Aetna Life in Hartford, CT, given to The Blue Spruce Poets Collective of which Schwartz was a part. These four women--Helen Lawson, Norma Blacke-Bragg, Joan Shapiro, and Schwartz--pioneered contemporary women's poetry in that area in the 1970s with numerous readings and appearances. 
limited copies still available  $20.00

The La Brea Tar Pit Blues: a Memoir of a Los
Angeles Adolescence in Poems and Lyric Short Prose

"Like the microfossils caught in La Brea, Patricia Roth Schwartz' language bubbles and ensnares readers into an adolescence blooming with emotion and color, and observations which reveal the heart of the girl, as well as place and time. Whether it is the gift of a snowball shared by a sister, melting as the family watches, the amazing Madame Scarlatina, a parade of Miss Americas on TV, elephants rising from streams of pink frosting, Tricia Nixon's slip, the gilded Chicanas in detention, or Leda's sweaters warmed in her mother's bright red oven, Schwartz preserves them all. This collection is rich; a poetic cache of the past, the gems and bones of an early life, intact and flickering on the page." 
                                                                                    --Sonya Livingston, Ghostbread (U of Georgia)
$10.00

The Loneliness of Squash, and Other Writings: Lyric Short Prose: creative non-fiction, prose poems, and poems

(Blue Heron Publishing: an Impint of The Literary Guild of the Finger

Lakes (www.literaryguildfingerlakes.com)

“To read The Loneliness of Squash, and Other Writings is to come away convinced that Patricia Roth Schwartz is a flat-out poet--one who meets life with intensity, living its truth completely and intimately, then distills her experiences into passionate, authentic fiction, non-fiction and prose poetry. Writing in this context is more than writing: It is a metaphor for a life.”

                                              --G. E. Schwartz, author of Lvng in Tongues
                                                        (Hank’s Original Loose Gravel Press)
$8.00

“In this subtly wrought, rhizomatic collection, Patricia Roth Schwartz demonstrates her mastery of a variety of short forms. The key here is great storytelling, which transcends genre. Whether dealing with eros (“I Fell in Love with Autumn”), childhood traumas (“Tongues”), social caricature (“Depression Glass”), black comedy (“Burying Ma”) or the ubiquitous “lopsidedly-lettered signs” of roadside stands (title poem), the author’s dead-on characterizations, eye for significant detail, and gentle laughter at the world’s absurdities keep us riveted. This collection also contains what may be the best 9/11 treatment I’ve ever read--and the piece never even mentions the events of that day (“Heels Above the Earth).”

                                                                                        --John Roche, Road Ghosts (theenk Books)

The Crows of Copper John: a History of Auburn Prison in Poems (Olive Trees Publishing)

“Journey with us deep into the dark heart of the history of Auburn Prison, the forbidding fortress that has dominated the landscape of this small city since 1821...Learn about how the first convicts were forced into solitary confinement and total silence...

Why have a murder of crows come to the trees surrounding the prison again and again generation after generation for almost two hundred years? In this volume of lyric narrative poems--which serve as dramatic monologues--the voices of Auburn Prison and its grisly yet sometimes inspiring past speak to us... All share their stories... Yet in the end it is still the cries of the crows bearing witness that echo through the night.”
$10.00

Short Fiction

The Names of the Moons of Mars

Winner of a Lambda Literary Award in 1989: a volume of short fiction from the 70s and 80s published by New Victoria, a woman-identified press: developed with a keen eye for detail and substantial attention to the craft of its genre, these pieces explore how we light--or fail to light--the candles that lie deep within each others' hearts.

"Pat Schwartz's characters are just like ourselves: spirited, sensual, funny, aching with the difficulty of being human in an unjust world. Enjoy this book, It's better than therapy."

--Jacqueline Lapidus, Starting Over and Ultimate Conspiracy
$10.00

Books Edited by Patricia Roth Schwartz:

Doing Time to Cleanse My Mind: an Anthology from the Inmates' Poetry Workshop of Auburn Correctional Facility, Auburn, New York, 2001-2009 (FootHills Publishing) 
$15.00

      Guerillas in the Mist, 
      and Other Poems,           
         by  Michael Rhynes

         a chapbook (Olive Trees Publishing)
$5.00

“I’m a Lyrical Brother, and I Can Feel It in My Bones:”

a chapbook anthology from Auburn Correctional’s Monday Night Poetry Workshop/Urban Monks, 
a chapbook (Olive Trees Publishing)   $5.00

Exiting the Prism—Fade to Black..., by Jalil Muntaqim
(www.freejalil.com) 

(Olive Trees Publishing, currently distributed by

The Jericho Project NYC)

To order books, email fireflypoet@sage-thyme.com. An amount for the postage will be given to you at the time of your order, plus an address at which to send a check.  On-line ordering payment will be available in the future.

Buy one book, get one half-price. Ask about discounts for larger orders. Thank you for your support! All profits go into the inmate poetry workshop's propejcts at Auburn Correctional Facility.