Harold Bowes
Harold Bowes is both Executive Manager and an Editor at Ravenna Press. His poetry has appeared in several journals, both electronic and paper. He edits Alba, an ezine emphasizing short poetry. His collection "if nothing else" from Ravenna Press is available here. He recently contributed a chapbook, "Two Sections from Lash " to Ravenna’s Triple Series (Triple #2), available here.
About “if nothing else”
In “Our Car,” Bowes reveals himself at his very best. In eight lines and four sentences he manages to convey a whole landscape. Once again, the piece demonstrates how a final line can of itself add a whole new dimension to what is already a brilliant poem:
Our car paces a truck.
The truck is hauling
detached automobile bumpers,
secured to a flatbed.
The mountains are white with snow
in the distance.
The clouds are as big as Montana.
Even now I forgive you.
This is a remarkable book that deserves a wide audience. For those who love the craft of the short poem, it will not disappoint."
—Neil Leadbeater (see the rest of this review at Galatea Resurrest #18)
Harold Bowes has written a dignified little book...a sustained showcase of the mind of man in middle age. Its mode is casual observation: of trips by car and airplane, of coat hooks and sidewalk drawings in which faces look like headstones."
—Tony Telschow
I Ask the Clerk
—Harold Bowes
I ask the clerk
the name of the river.
"Clearwater," she says.
I don't ask about the small
blue birds with black crests.
(this piece, from "if nothing else," first appeared in failbetter.)