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small talk
by Bruce Dethlefsen
92 pages/70 poems
Editor: Ralph Murre
Artist: Ralph Murre
ISBN 978-0-9823419-9-5
Publisher: Little Eagle Press
P.O. Box 684
Baileys Harbor, WI 54202
Price:$15 per copy, plus $3. for shipping & handling.
(For shipping fees on orders of multiple copies, please
email: poetdethlefsen@gmail.com)


About the Book:


A fine, new book of the shorter poems of  Bruce Dethlefsen,
past  Poet Laureate  of  Wisconsin.    Here's your chance to
see what a  terrific writer can say in ten lines or less, and to
see why Little Eagle,  always very selective,  jumped at the
chance to publish this jewel of a manuscript.   There's a lot
of wry humor   in these   92 pages, as well as good doses of
poignancy and pathos. Add a liberal sprinkling of the draw‐
ings of Ralph Murre, and we feel you'll agree that this is a
winning text.


About the Author:


Bruce Dethlefsen was appointed as the Wisconsin Poet Laureate for
2011 and 2012. He has published two poetry chapbooks, A Decent
Reed
(Tamafyr Mountain Press, 1999) and Something Near the Dance
Floor
 (Marsh River Editions, 2003)   for which he won the  Posner
Book-length Poetry Award Honorable Mention from the Council for
Wisconsin Writers. Breather (Fireweed Press, 2009), his full-length
poetry book, received an Outstanding Achievement Award in Poetry
from the Wisconsin Library Association. He was nominated for the
Pushcart Prize in 2003 and 2009.

Dethlefsen grew up in Kansas City, Missouri and graduated from
Paseo High School in 1966. He completed his undergrad degree in
Secondary Education at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and
got his master's degree in Curriculum and Instruction from the
University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

Bruce credits two writers for his success in poetry, John Judson, an
an instructor at UW-La Crosse, and David Steingass, who was a visit-
ing artist in schools. Bruce has worked delivering telegrams, as a
night watchman in a cave, as a emergency medical technician, a high
school librarian, a curriculum coordinator, and retired after being
director of the Montello (WI.) public library. He has taught over a
thousand people to juggle.

More off than on, Bruce has been in several bands: The Organic Republic,
The Mason-Dixon Line, annaRANaway, and most recently Obvious Dog
(thename from Marilyn Taylor's term for a "poem beyond resuscitation", per-
forming original music with Bill Orth on Cathryn Cofell's spoken-word CD,
Lip. Bruce sings, plays bass and percussion.

Bruce served as secretary of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Poets for six
years, co-founded the WFOP Chapbook Prize and started Poet Camp. For
eight years he directed The Poet Tree, a monthly reading by Wisconsin
poets at the Montello Public Library.

Bruce has had many poems published in journals and anthologies. Two of
his poems were featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac on
public radio and several poems on Your Daily Poem website. He wrote and
performed original music with Bill Orth as Obvious Dog on Cathryn Cofell's
CD, Lip.

Retired, Bruce lives in Westfield, Wisconsin.


From the Book:


1950
by Bruce Dethlefsen

at night
my mother bathed me in a white tub
scrubbed me with white soap
rubbed me in a white towel
hugged and plugged me
into pajamas and the white sheets

an act so kind
so common
it barely even happened

 


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