Penelope Scambly Schott's Baiting
the Void Winner of the 2004 Orphic Prize
ISBN 0-9659307-9-3
$18.00
Frontispiece by Diane Ludwig
Praise for Baiting the Void
“Penelope
Scambly Schott’s Baiting the Void is a virtuoso performance of the lyric
self molting into myth, into politics, into a sustained sensuality, never choosing
the
facile perception when a more ample and authentic figuration is possible. In one of
the most striking poems in the collection, “April, Again,” fruit in a dish
is described
as “tender ripeness caving in/on itself: the collapse of is into was,” and
indeed the
poems here arise from experience but move elegantly from “the pupillary wells
that
draw us in” into the “sacrament of moonlessness.” Full of spirit, in
the original
etymological sense of spirare, or breath, Baiting the Void inhales the mysteries of
this world and exhales pure, effulgent song.”
—Ravi Shankar
“These poems are
a tour de force! They combine acute observation of the natural world
with a scupulous honesty about the human condition. Personal experience merges with
economical, yet richly surprising, language in the purest of lyric poems. Time and again,
I found myself breathing yes! as Penelope Schott exposed me to the familiar--an old dog,
a house wreathed in cloud, one’s own aging face—seen from a new angle and bathed
in
the light of lovely new words.”
— Judith Barrington
“Penelope Scambly
Schott’s book Baiting the Void makes us aware of the precarious nature
of our ordinary lives. In these lyrical, imaginative, painterly poems, the perceptive
voice of this
poet speaks of the ephemeral nature of objects in the world and of what really lasts.”
—Maria Mazziotti Gillan
“The poems of spiritual
questioning of Part I of Baiting the Void are eerie and resonant because the
imagery, drawn primarily from nature, is daring. Part II, with such stunning poems as
“The Nature
of Clouds” and “Welcome Home, Soldier,” is even more engaging. What a hot
book!”
—Peter Sears
Baiting the Void
For more information about Dream
Horse Press books, or for distribution, please contact
the publisher.
Dream Horse Press titles are available at Amazon.com / Barnes&Noble.com: JP Dancing
Bear, PO Box 4041,Felton, Ca 95018. (No submissions outside of the yearly awards, please.)
