Magedah Shabo Reviews Vanished Roads by Thomas L. Vaultonburg

Buy Vanished Roads

I recently had the pleasure of reading a review copy of Vanished Roads, a newly released haiku collection by Thomas L. Vaultonburg from Zombie Logic Press.

Having already encountered many of the haiku individually, I was fascinated by the interpretive depth and thematic unity that could emerge from rereading them as a body of work.

In Vanished Roads, loss and grief are less like endings and more like thresholds to discovery. In the poems' world, boundaries between the ordinary and the numinous, the human and the more-than-human world are never cleanly drawn.

This porosity is evident in many of the author's most memorable haiku turns, which tend to shift the reader's perspective in ways that feel dreamlike, yet natural and inevitable.

after she paints 
even the brush water

holds a sky

Tré's cover art gently brings the collection's themes into focus, sharing the poems' delight in multiple ways of seeing.

Reading Vanished Roads has left me with the sense that there is still more to discover and say "yes" to, both in haiku and in the world around us.

-Magedah Shabo

Read Sean Wright's review of Vanished roads at Zombie Logic Review

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Rockford Poetry

I never knew being associated with the search term Rockford Poetry was important to me. Until yesterday when Jenny told me it was important to me to be associated with the search term Rockford Poetry. Because I am the most widely published poet in Rockford (even though I quit publishing in 1996) and because I have the only serious literary press in Rockford I assumed if I looked for Rockford Poetry I'd be right there.

Wrong.

Not only wasn't I right there, I wasn't anywhere 

Having  been born in Swedish American hospital, which I can all but see from the window of the building that serves as Zombie Logic Press headquarters, and having published poetry here since 1997, I feel awful that I haven't been able to make Google consider my efforts more noteworthy. I think that will change in the coming years, as I have plans to publish the first books of several up-and-coming poets from America's 3rd most dangerous city. Already I have published the first book of C.J. Campbell, and later this year we will be releasing an as-yet untitled poetry book by noir poet Dennis Gulling, a protege of Todd Moore, perhaps the most published and widely read poet the Rockford area has ever had.

After my heart surgery two years ago it became crystal clear to me I wanted to do my part to make Rockford more than just a punchline to people from other cities who only hear we have been named to another most fat, least educated, most violent or miserable list. 

I have written a piece about the history of Rockford poetry that will be published later this year. In my research for that story I found many times when poetry almost took a hold in Rockford, but eventually fizzled because of egos, in fighting, or lack of support from the community.

I'm not sure what time I have left to accomplish this, or make my contribution, but I hope to do all I can in these coming years to support the poetry scene in Rockford, which I know for a fact has numerous brave, unique, and powerful voices. 

I regret that because of Schizoid Personality Disorder and tremendous social anxiety I won't be able to do readings because it would be an honor to take the stage with some of these writers, but maybe I can use Zombie Logic Press and Zombie Logic Review to give a forum for their voices. 

Rockford Poetry

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