Overview

Paul Lieber's ""slow return"" refers to his slow return to his 20's and perhaps a slow return to sanity from political turmoil of the 1960's, drugs, and a romanticized notion of suicide, all prompted by photos he discovered in ""Anarchy, Protest and Rebellion."" His humor, flirtations with art, women, characters, (some famous, some infamous) protests and his pursuit of acting find images and events in his third collection of poetry. It's his point-of-view that's so arresting, his ability to go beyond the ekphrastic, to parse his past, glean details, and ultimately translate into poetry his interactivity with this book. He not only describes photos, but enters them. His keen eye for his surroundings along with the keen eye of the photographer, Fred McDarrah set up a tandem that moves, surprises, and welcomes the reader to the complexity and intimacy of a life and time.

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Reviews

""Paul Lieber's SLOW RETURN confirms everything that's previously been so captivating about his poetry...There's still his sly, wry humor, his honest, clear-eyed gaze, and his sensitive insights about the people who have passed through his life. In this collection, though, it's his point-of-view that's so arresting, his ability to go beyond the ekphrastic, to parse his past, glean details, and ultimately translate into poetry his interactivity with a book he encountered. This is poetic portraiture and personal narrative of the best kind...poems that promise to stay with you, move you, in the here and now. -Jim Natal ""I love this book, a brilliant collection of concise poetic riffs responding to photographs from the 1960s and the poet's connections to them. One of the most evocative, engaging, poignant, and precise memoirs of that era ever. It'll be a permanent addition to my selection of favorite books."" -Michael Lally ""The old joke that 'if you remember the 1960s, you weren't there' certainly gets its comeuppance in these lapidary recollections of a veteran actor who isn't afraid to intermingle the famous and obscure as equal interlocutors . . . Throughout these sometimes harrowing poems, Paul Lieber summons us to gaze steadfastly at the convoluted turmoil and chaos . . . These poems are a compelling script . . . by an insatiable poet-actor who is simultaneously capable of being a metaphysician in the dark."" -William Mohr ""Here is a very moving collection . . . a vivid invocation of an era, a tumultuous one, a city in its particulars-the streets and bridges, dance clubs, cafeterias and experimental theatres . . . These poems, sturdy in their details, recover a time and place for those who were there and for those who weren't."" -Suzanne Lummis ""This remarkable book, SLOW RETURN, Paul Lieber's third poetry volume, is a memoir, a history of relationships and their mesmerizing people, places, and unpredictable situations . . . He whisks us into intimacies of his youth and adulthood, of creativity, of how he develops over time. The clarity of language, of truth, of image-making shows the quotidian as well the underbelly of the city."" -Jan Wesley of the most evocative, engaging, poignant, and precise memoirs of that era ever. It'll be a permanent addition to my selection of favorite books."" -Michael Lally ""The old joke that 'if you remember the 1960s, you weren't there' certainly gets its comeuppance in these lapidary recollections of a veteran actor who isn't afraid to intermingle the famous and obscure as equal interlocutors . . . Throughout these sometimes harrowing poems, Paul Lieber summons us to gaze steadfastly at the convoluted turmoil and chaos . . . These poems are a compelling script . . . by an insatiable poet-actor who is simultaneously capable of being a metaphysician in the dark."" -William Mohr ""Here is a very moving collection . . . a vivid invocation of an era, a tumultuous one, a city in its particulars-the streets and bridges, dance clubs, cafeterias and experimental theatres . . . These poems, sturdy in their details, recover a time and place for those who were there and for those who weren't ."" -Suzanne Lummis ""This remarkable book, SLOW RETURN, Paul Lieber's third poetry volume, is a memoir, a history of relationships and their mesmerizing people, places, and unpredictable situations . . . He whisks us into intimacies of his youth and adulthood, of creativity, of how he develops over time. The clarity of language, of truth, of image-making shows the quotidian as well the underbelly of the city."" -Jan Wesley

Author Information

Paul Lieber is the author of two prior collections of poetry--""Interrupted by the Sea,"" also from What Books Press, and ""Chemical Tendencies,"" from Tebot Bach and a finalist in the MSR poetry contest. He also received an honorable mention in the Allen Ginsberg Contest. Three times nominated for a Pushcart Prize, Paul produced and hosted ""Why Poetry"" on Pacifica radio in L.A. Paul's poems have appeared in The Moth, N.Y. Quarterly, Patterson Review, Askew, Poemeleon, Alimentum, Parthelion, Ghost City Review and many other journals and anthologies. He taught Poetry at Loyola Marymount University and facilitated the poetry workshop at Beyond Baroque. Paul works as an actor, playing roles on Broadway, off- Broadway, films and T.V. He currently teaches acting at AMDA in Los Angeles.

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