What do you think?
Rate this book
DE:SIRE IS
Ed Baker
(19 April 1941 – 28 March 2016)
“what's a 'haiku', anyway? I do "shorties"...” (Ed Baker)
American haiku poet and artist Ed Baker was born in Washington, D.C. on 19 April 1941. He received his BA in English/History from the University of Maryland in 1967 and his MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1971. Ed described himself as being happily divorced, the father of two adult children, and as an "everyday writer," "everyday artist," and "everyword reader," having to his credit over 2500 watercolors, 75,000 poems, and 500 3-d pieces.
Ed lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, and his poetry and artwork, including haibun and haiga, appeared in many journals: Athanor, Frogpond, Odysseus, Hummingbird, South by Southeast, Modern Haiku, Lilliput, Bongos of the Lord, mojo risin, Iconoclast, Calvert Review, RawNervz, Liquid Ohio, Moonset Journal, Haigaonline, World Haiku Review, Origin, Longhouse, Simply Haiku, and Moonset, the Newspaper.
Ed Baker’s style of writing and painting is probably best described in a review to Ed’s book Stone Girl E-Pic, where John Mingay writes that the author maintained “an artistic integrity that's pure and traditional... an admirable integrity that's attributable directly to calligraphy, collage and minimalist writing. Though, how could it be otherwise? The electro-mechanical drone of a computer would be hard to reconcile with an artist for whom, 'Everything comes out of silence and goes back into silence'. ”
Ed Baker died after surgery on 28 March 2016.
Books Published:
Butcher of Oxen (Doxie Press, 1972);
The City (Red Ochre Press, 1972);
This Wood (Red Ochre Press, 1982);
Hexapoem I, II, & III (Red Ochre Press, 1994);
Nine Perfect Ensos (Red Ochre Press, 2000);
Shrike (Tel-Let, 2000);
Song of Chin (draft #12) (tel let, 2005);
Wild Orchid [w/sumi-e by Fay Chin] (tel let, 2002);
Things Just Come Through (Red Ochre Press, 2005);
Twenty-Four Ways of Seeing [w/sumi-e by Fay Chin] (tel let, 2002);
Okeanos Rhoos (Johns Hopkins, 1972);
RESTORATION LETTERS: correspondence 1972-1978 (Cid Corman-Ed Baker);
RESTORATION POEMS: 1972-2007 (Country Valley Press, 2008);
Stone Girl E-pic (Leafe Press [paper], 2011);
G OO DNIGHT (Moria Press [paper], 2009);
Points/Counterpoints (Fact-Simile Press [paper], 2010);
DE:SIRE IS [book 1 of trilogy] (The Knives Forks and Spoons Press [paper], 2010);
She Intrudes [book 2 of trilogy] (Modest Proposal Chapbook Series [paper], 2011);
ARS POETC HER [book 3 of trilogy] [forthcoming from The Knives Forks and Spoons Press [paper], 2013).
(19 April 1941 – 28 March 2016)
“what's a 'haiku', anyway? I do "shorties"...” (Ed Baker)
American haiku poet and artist Ed Baker was born in Washington, D.C. on 19 April 1941. He received his BA in English/History from the University of Maryland in 1967 and his MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1971. Ed described himself as being happily divorced, the father of two adult children, and as an "everyday writer," "everyday artist," and "everyword reader," having to his credit over 2500 watercolors, 75,000 poems, and 500 3-d pieces.
Ed lived in Takoma Park, Maryland, and his poetry and artwork, including haibun and haiga, appeared in many journals: Athanor, Frogpond, Odysseus, Hummingbird, South by Southeast, Modern Haiku, Lilliput, Bongos of the Lord, mojo risin, Iconoclast, Calvert Review, RawNervz, Liquid Ohio, Moonset Journal, Haigaonline, World Haiku Review, Origin, Longhouse, Simply Haiku, and Moonset, the Newspaper.
Ed Baker’s style of writing and painting is probably best described in a review to Ed’s book Stone Girl E-Pic, where John Mingay writes that the author maintained “an artistic integrity that's pure and traditional... an admirable integrity that's attributable directly to calligraphy, collage and minimalist writing. Though, how could it be otherwise? The electro-mechanical drone of a computer would be hard to reconcile with an artist for whom, 'Everything comes out of silence and goes back into silence'. ”
Ed Baker died after surgery on 28 March 2016.
Books Published:
Butcher of Oxen (Doxie Press, 1972);
The City (Red Ochre Press, 1972);
This Wood (Red Ochre Press, 1982);
Hexapoem I, II, & III (Red Ochre Press, 1994);
Nine Perfect Ensos (Red Ochre Press, 2000);
Shrike (Tel-Let, 2000);
Song of Chin (draft #12) (tel let, 2005);
Wild Orchid [w/sumi-e by Fay Chin] (tel let, 2002);
Things Just Come Through (Red Ochre Press, 2005);
Twenty-Four Ways of Seeing [w/sumi-e by Fay Chin] (tel let, 2002);
Okeanos Rhoos (Johns Hopkins, 1972);
RESTORATION LETTERS: correspondence 1972-1978 (Cid Corman-Ed Baker);
RESTORATION POEMS: 1972-2007 (Country Valley Press, 2008);
Stone Girl E-pic (Leafe Press [paper], 2011);
G OO DNIGHT (Moria Press [paper], 2009);
Points/Counterpoints (Fact-Simile Press [paper], 2010);
DE:SIRE IS [book 1 of trilogy] (The Knives Forks and Spoons Press [paper], 2010);
She Intrudes [book 2 of trilogy] (Modest Proposal Chapbook Series [paper], 2011);
ARS POETC HER [book 3 of trilogy] [forthcoming from The Knives Forks and Spoons Press [paper], 2013).
12 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2010
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 27, 2022
Happened upon this little gem whilst scouring Red Ceiling Press's immaculate gratis chapbook archive, and was immediately struck by the excellence of the author's cover artwork. Considering its style, upon doing a little digging I was not surprised to discover that he was a practitioner of haiku, which the writer described fondly as 'shorties'. And indeed this work demonstrates a similar proclivity for and propensity toward the concise, stacking in at a mere 12 pages but packing much of note into them. One gets the distinct sense, as he begins by dissecting and closely examines a brush’s discrete line, our very language and letters themselves, that this microscopic focus has been a lifelong interest and fixation, and readers can benefit from his scattered findings. The construction and formal lack thereof, utilizing white space deftly as he did with the ink over textured paper, is masterful if somewhat cryptic. It’s intriguing when he confides the writing has yet been accomplished artificially upon a typewriter, creating a curious contradiction and paradox which begs reflection. The sudden pivot into eroticism early on is jarring if could be predicted, and surreal stream of consciousness relating of action is executed deftly. The depth of emotions and meaningful experience next presented even more unbalances the reader, (as does the Poem’s stubborn centrality unmoored within various contexts) who is left with the dizzied sensation of satisfaction upon departing of weathering a wild ride at the county fair. Astonishing all got crammed in here. Ambiguous language of ‘gets w child’ near the middle makes one wonder about the ‘sire’ and ‘de sire’ of the title, and the final line ‘punctuate’ leaves one pondering. Baker’s adoption and usage of the colon is wonderful and original, to apply such a thing and assume ownership of it… I’ll have to track down some of his haiku in Frogpond, and try to locate the sequels (She Intrudes and Are POETC HER, at Modest Proposal Chapbook Series and Knives Forks and Spoons Press respectively) as this was apparently part of a trilogy!
Displaying 1 of 1 review