e. smith sleigh, author and poet
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Welcome 
to 
e. smith sleigh's
poetry and images        
poetry trends

p o e t r y   b l o g       poetry books 
historical fiction            serialization       and a fictional memoir  
                              

including An American Still Life
 2016 Pulitzer Prize List for Poetry
​



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best-selling non-fiction book is a good source for quotes and understanding most things post-structural

Thank you, Japan, for such a wonderful response to  
Post-structuralism and Related Quotes 
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e. smith sleigh, author, poet and online advocate for the autonomy found in post-structural literary endeavor. she lead the way online in returning poetry to its current trending status.

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An American Still Life appeared on the 2016 Pulitzer Prize List in Poetry.

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​ ​It's not what one might think, it's about being in lockdown, the ordinary and the extraordinary, and the aftermath, it's
About the House

 
there’s a sound of rushing
and the clamor of all things
that occurred
 
my home and I
are exhausted

-- e. smith sleighink, it's about being in lockdown, the ordinary and the extraordinary, and the aftermath, it's About the House there’s a sound of rushing and the clamor of all things that occurred my home and I are exhausted
Home
 
“No matter who you are or where you are, instinct tells you to go home.” – Laura Marney
 
“No one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark.”― Warsan Shire
 
“No matter under what circumstances you leave it, home does not cease to be home. No matter how you lived there - well or poorly.” – Joseph Brodsky
 
“I want my home to be that kind of place–a place of sustenance, a place of invitation, a place of welcome.” – Mary DeMuth
 
“You can have more than one home. You can carry your roots with you and decide 
where they grow.” – Henning Mankell
 
“There is no place more delightful than one’s own fireside.” – Cicero
 
     
        My grandmother and great aunt and uncle provided a better atmosphere for me than my parents. I loved their home and longed for it when I was away. I thought of it as my refuge. When I left for college, I decided I would make a pleasant home like theirs for my own family.
 
       As in my childhood, I moved many times in my adult life. I tried to maintain homes that were organized and full of laughter. My goals were well intended. The truth, without platitudes and excuses, is that maintaining a good atmosphere in anyone’s house is difficult when the people who dwell there don’t agree with your goals or they become ill and pass away. Also, events outside of your home, the human world or your government, may transform the circumstances inside your home.  
  -- e.

​            “People and homes come and go in life. I’ve learned that the home you create must first be present within yourself. Build that wonderful home
             and never allow it to fall down or be torn down or taken away.”
             – e. smith sleigh
 
            “Under no circumstances do you allow your home to become, or be made into, a cage.”
             – e. smith sleigh

      TO PURCHASE    https://amzn.to/2L12sYE


 sequel to Catch a Lover Falling :
​

                https://amzn.to/2MQrJnu  ebook  
​                   
https://amzn.to/2Myc7W8 
paperback

   I wrote and edited all summer and now I have it -- a collection of words, to present to you, wrapped in love and pleasure and sorrow. These images flowed from my fingers as a second, a part two, to Catch a Lover Falling.

love’s conditions
  
the going and the coming of it
the longing for and the hating of it
the wrong   and the righting
has taken a long while
some toll
there is no easiness
there is no comfort
 
only the presence or the absence of it
 
only sometimes, will nurtured love
grow strong and not break
only sometimes does love
endure life’s falls 
 
-- e. smith sleigh
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        Catch a Lover Falling Part II is a portrait of a couple struggling against the din of everyday life. This story weaves together sensual and spiritual love. Theirs is a wish to achieve their dreams and to remain as one. 

        Within e. smith sleigh’s poetry, the lovers intertwine in a blend of traditional romance and the tentative existence of those living in the arts, in music. Their mutual support and adoration lends strength to their lives. 

         sleigh’s poetry explores the  relearning of  love after trauma and loss. Her love poems are descriptions, interrogations and celebrations of love. One of the most intense and important of human experiences is expressed within her striking poetic tone and storyline.

​       From the passion of sexual desire to the intense longing for your lover, Catch a Lover Falling by e. smith sleigh celebrates the spirit of love in all its forms. Romance. Passion. Sensuality. Her book of love poems will illuminate the phases and many moods of love.
 
      All you need to start a fire is to read these poems of desire to your lover or tuck the book under their pillow or yours. More than just love poems, this book tells a story of love lost and found.
 
     Romance will float off the pages and rap itself around you. Sleigh excites with her poems about forbidden love, lost love, everlasting love. Her sensual poetry collection is personal and inspirational.
 
     Every day, you will reach again for sensuality expressed by lovers when falling in love and traversing time together. You will be smitten, taken, and fall deeply in love over and over again.

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My lifestory opens with a child standing near the Chesapeake Bay, but is she really there. 

       She encamped at a Lake Como villa with her Swiss lover in the summers. René introduced her to an international set of players. He provided her with almost  anything she wanted. He was married, so, of course, René also gave Emma  freedom to explore her world.

       After she left Europe for the last time, everything in Emma's life devolved for a time. She reflected on the adventures she had as a young woman in her twenties and early thirties. She wrote about them in her journals.

       
One day, Luke came to them. Mitch attended summer camp and Luke took two weeks off.  He told Angela he was leaving for an archeology dig site to complete research for a paper he was writing. The site was located on a small Greek island and it was impossible to contact him.
 
        Emma stood at the front door waiting for Luke when he pulled up. He picked her up in his arms on the porch of the craftsman style cottage where she and the children lived. Luke covered Emma with kisses. Emma's children were standing near her, following his every move. He looked down at them and then back at Emma, "Not like the old days, huh.” They laughed.
 
        Luke scooped Isabel into his arms. He asked her, "How's my waskally wabbit?"
 
        "Fi-i-nne," Isabel reached up to touch his face. Her mouth was open.
 
        Emma picked-up Kathryn and away they went into the house. For those two weeks, Emma was happier than she imagined one person, just less a family, could be. When Luke left, the good-byes were difficult. It had been a glorious two weeks. Both children already called him Daddy Luke. The girls were aged four and six at the time.
 
          Luke drove to Mitch's summer camp with a heavy heart. He wanted to turn his car around and drive Mitch back to Emma, to his true family.

​--e. smith sleigh  

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A favorite quote:​

​I am here to seduce you into a love of life; to help you to become a little more poetic;
to help you die to the mundane and to the ordinary so that the extraordinary explodes in your life
​—Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh

Jack,
or In Those Days, Jack Henry Claire was Not that Rare

Within this book, Jack is only revealed. He is neither transformed or rescued.  Love doesn't do that for him. He can only do that for himself. 

He can be forgiven or forgotten by you. And, oh my --  he's really good at soliciting forgiveness. But, is that the thing you really wish to do?
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Latest addition to e. smith sleigh's book list.
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Available May 8, 2018 -- in eBook form
Paperback available May 11, 2018​

     e. smith sleigh's consistent use of nature as a point of entry into the larger picture of humanity's conjectures about life allows the reader to deeply identify with her words and her poetic images. Sleigh elegantly unifies her queries and accounts about life and love within the  seasons of nature and the rhythm of the day and night. In doing so, the poems within her collections evoke times of the day and seasons, parched or drenched landscapes, and remarkable emotions  in the reader.  Her poetry renders words into concentrated gems of private concepts and experiences which shine from each page of her marvelous, thought-provoking, and entertaining work."
 
                                     --Lyn Plihal  
                                       Writer, Critic
                                       Reviewer of Fiction and Poetry


Do not approach poetry on your tiptoes 
approach it with thundering steps
and take it for your own
​
--e. smith sleigh

p o s t   s t r u c t u r a l i s m

post structuralism sees literature as irreducibly plural, an endless play of signifiers 
which can never be reduced 
to a single center, essence, or meaning. 

images  blogs   free verse     poetry     images   books   poems 


Writers whose work define Post-structuralism include Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault,Gilles Deleuze, 
and Julia Kristeva. 


​

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"My book was written for those who are curious about Post-structuralism and its development." -e. smith sleigh

THE LAST BOOK      EL ULTIMO LIBRO

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e. smith sleigh was selected as a writer collaborator in Luis Camnitzer’s installation The Last Book, El Ultimo Libro, currently in the Carl von Ossietzky Staats und Universitäts Bibliothek, Hamburg, Germany as seen here. This is the  fourth installation of the project, and her work, after the Aguilar Branch of  the New York Public Library, and the Buenos Aires, Argentina and Zurich, Switzerland libraries. Her poem is entitled A Puckish Plague. 

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Luis Camitzer’s installation The Last Book, El Ultimo Libro containing e. smith sleigh's poetry.
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Lobby of the Carl von Ossietzky Staats und Universitäts Bibliothek, Hamburg, Germany
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Carl von Ossietzky Staats und Universitäts Bibliothek, Hamburg, Germany Interior

“Art for me is the area in which one can speculate about alternative orders.”
–Luis Camnitzer

     Luis Camnitzer (b. 1937) has been an influential force as an artist, theorist, teacher, and curator for nearly five decades. He was at the vanguard of 1960s Conceptualism, working in printmaking, sculpture installation, and other media. In 1964 he co-founded The New York Graphic Workshop along with fellow artists Argentine Liliana Porter and Venezuelan José Guillermo Castillo. Camnitzer’s work challenges our perception of reality and the status quo and is often characterized by its humorous, often politically charged use of language to underscore issues of power and commodification. It has been shown in exhibitions and institutions worldwide since the 1960s and featured in several international biennials. Camnitzer was the pedagogical advisor for the CPPC’s arts-in-education program from 2009 to 2013. A highly regarded critic and curator, Luis Camnitzer is a frequent contributor to contemporary art magazines such as ArtNexus, Bomb, and Art in America, among others.

​ -- e.smith sleigh


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turning

 
the things stood between
the arid and the arable
planting their feet, tending ground
laying a swath of green to brown

through the hemisphere
from west to east the landscape
forever changing assumes a new mantle
the things challenge life to survive
to adapt

the lazy disappear, the weak disintegrate
and return to the ever-changing ground

​--e. smith sleigh






The Eternal Nature series


sleigh composed two books within the series, so far.

 Her ebooks are for sale at Amazon's Kindle bookstore: 
Our Nature: External Landscapes© 
  and
This Nature: Internal Landscapes© 
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    "The free verse within the Eternal Nature series describes with candor, and sometimes wit, her visual encounters in the external and internal landscapes. Sleigh assigns her interpretations to objects and emotions in nature and life. The reader journeys with her on an adventure across the literal and psychic countryside. Through the dawns and dusks of the seasons of life and love, her poems move the reader toward the inevitable ending that envelopes the reader in surprise."

---------------------------------

night time

warm starry nights
summers’ erotica
 
there’s something electric
about a summer’s night
 
ten years ago
I would have said
it was
you

--e. smith sleigh



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Not available at this time

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film

sorrow moves through a cracked door    
a neglected seam    
and becomes a tenant in your mind   
takes up residence in the empty moments    
strikes in the happy instants  
kills the dancing thoughts   
splits words     spits tears ...


--e. smith sleigh
​from Musings from the Fault Line   

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An American Still Life by e. smith sleigh


AN AMERICAN STILL LIFE
 

"In a Post-structural era comes e. smith sleigh's unfettered, frank, unstructured poetry about life in contemporary America. The USA defined by a painter poet with words  concentrated into gems of private concepts and experiences which shine from each page of this marvelous, thought provoking poetry collection."


--Lyn Plihal



To purchase book: click on book cover 

Review

By 
​
Charles Bane Jr.

This review is from:  An American Still Life (Kindle Edition)

In An American Still Life, poet e. smith sleigh has taken Post Structuralism at its word and produced an important work that breaks the constraints that have been imposed too long by academics on contemporary poetry. An American Still Life bears witness to a new vision, and a freedom of license demanded by a new wave of feminist poets. smith rides its crest with skill and allows the reader to assign their own personal meaning to each poem.

The book is dedicated in part to Hart Crane, who, profoundly depressed, leapt to his death from a moving ship. smith stirs a sea of brilliant words, in hope of his return. Buy this seminal work.

Charles Bane, Jr. is the author of The Chapbook and Love Poems; creator of The Meaning Of Poetry series for The Gutenberg Project, and nominee as Poet Laureate of Florida.

Thursday Island, Queensland
 
deja vu delivered in total the Catch 222  you believed the purveyor of  words    the descriptor of duration   successive existence    the spender of energy    nowhere does this disruption of time resemble splendor   the  journey was neverlanded
 
it ended up all wrong    never hit the ground   the parachute didn’t open     the flag never unfurled    still the purveyors wished at the moon      upon the mound and on the ground     everyone could make of it  what they willed     thought was   imaginary material  things     pretended installation   subliminals
 
rain   pain   paintings   other media flipped into propaganda   females rolling around on car hoods seducing the already decapitated
 
deadhead    drive
 
it’s just another video   live in 5
 

​--e. smith sleigh
from These Things are a One Thing, the book




    After delving into a year of Creative Writing studies, I decided to add writing to my creative endeavors. I've written about art and philosophic theory as related to post structuralism and created poetry about art (ekphratic poetry) and subjects such as biocentrism and quantum theory. I've published several poetry books, a fictional memoir, and a non-fiction book entitled Post Structuralism and Related Quotes: from Jacques Derrida, Judith Kristeva, and Many Others. 
 
   In 2013, I was nominated for Kentucky Poet Laureate 2013-2014. My 5th poetry book, An American Still Life, appeared on the poetry list in the 2016 Pulitzer Prize Competition. Among many literary and academic publications, my writing was published in Eastern Kentucky University’s academic journal Nine Patch: A Creative Journal for Women and Gender Studies.
 
   When I speak, I encourage students in the arts. We talk about success. I want them to know that yes, you can be independent, participate in the arts, and earn money and recognition.

--e. smith sleigh

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e. smith sleigh, nominated for KY's 2013-2014 Poet Laureate

         I first wrote poetry when I was five years old. My words described the love I felt for life, my family, and later my childhood sweetheart. Eventually, my words moved outward, away from the shelter of home and into the world. I experienced and depicted a broader spectrum of life. I wrote through high school
and my academic studies, whenever I had a moment


        Yes, I sometimes call for reason and sometimes I ignore it. Other generations lived through similar eras. They continued to write. I allow this tumultuous time to inspire me.  I work past midnight to portray both the outer and inner worlds of our existence. 

       Sometimes lines are drawn within my work, sometimes they are not; but, I give myself the freedom to write from my head, from my heart, and to eschew structure as I often do in my poetry collections. I invite you to peruse my website, experience my work and purchase my books. 
           
 You can follow me on Twitter.         

 -- e. smith sleigh, author and poet

here's what I prefer: my name, lower case:
e. smith sleigh, poet, writer, and, no, I'm not Tom Sleigh or related to him although my second husband's family might be related to him.
 
 if pronoun choice is honored, then literary organizations should honor name choice and appearance.
 
about the e., call me e.
I have no interest in ever divulging what e. stands for.

​--e. smith sleigh

Censorship is the assassination of an idea.

-- quote I discovered on a Tee shirt over a decade ago in
    Bookman's,  book store, Tucson, AZ.


  cages
 
sometimes traditional literary notions
are not thrown into play
 
consider the body of her work   the original effort  
awkwardness or reserve in transformation  
 
the open manner of the bee hum  
as backyard bird wings pulsate   a rose
tonal difference    various reactions  some deference
 
unbelievable that this was all she knew
 
but not all she wanted to know
 
 -- e. smith sleigh          
 ​*all rights reserved*


Emily Elizabeth Dickinson
​Lived: Dec 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886 (age 55)
 
Nine Lines for Emily Dickinson written by e. smith sleigh represents our Emily as living in two worlds: one world is the 1800s and another world is the 2000s. What are the contrasts between the two eras? How would she react to a new life in this millennium? 


Nine Lines for Emily Dickinson -- an homage to Emily Dickinson's life and craft.
Imagine yourself held hostage in your father's house by your brother because of your sexuality.

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e. smith sleigh's books: poetry, fictional memoir and non-fiction




                 poetry    poetry       poststructural poetry      arts      free verse    dark      poetry       poetry collections     post structuralism    memoir
​about author and   
blog
                                                   
and now historical fiction,
see pages 5 & 6 of this website for Sibbe's Way


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Tweets by @AuthorandPoet

e. smith sleigh,
​author and poet
https://binged.it/2sUfqe7

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See e. smith sleigh's blog page for the latest info about the Institute.

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