Printed Matter Vancouver co-founder Toni Partington’s Wind Wing, which is one of the bestselling books by a Vancouver, WA poet, is now available as an eBook on Lulu (http://www.lulu.com/shop/toni-partington/wind-wing/paperback/product-6186780.html) and Barnes and Noble (http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wind-wing-toni-partington/1105805665?ean=9781257542642). You can also order a copy of the book from Cover to Cover Books (http://covertocoverbooks.net) or St. Johns Booksellers (http://www.stjohnsbooks.com/).
Here is what some of Toni’s fellow poets had to say about the book:
Poetry Lovers Rejoice! Lyricism is reborn in Wind Wing. A true daughter of Sappho rises in our midst, and her name is Toni Partington. Whether in deeply confessional poems, such as the title poem, written for her mother, or sororal anthems such as “Mermaids,” or pungent observations on the general culture such as “Fat Straws,” Partington has created a women’s poetry for all people. I can think of no more apt acclaim than that which Edmund Wilson once rendered onto Edna St. Vincent Millay: “In giving supreme expression to profoundly felt personal experience, she was able to identify herself with more general experience and stand forth as a spokesman for the human spirit.” David Madgalene, Windsor, CA
“Have you ever considered trading your life for that of a crow’s? Toni Partington has in her poem, “It Matters To Notice These Things,”just one of many highly imaginative and often brutally honest looks into the lives of women who have stared into the face of mental illness and other traumas. Ms. Partington will take you on a ride in an Impala, telling you what it’s really like ricocheting between two worlds with the wind-wing open. Her poems refuse to hide behind shame, embarrassment, or judgments. You will know by the end of this book that “silence is the great intoxicant / seduces you while it burns / a gaping hole in your throat.” Her book is a lesson about “boxes within boxes,” and will leave you with the knowledge that “cardboard castles / can’t survive in the rain.” In valiantly opening the Wind Wing, she gives us all the courage to conquer our greatest fears.” M, Portland, Oregon
“Toni Partington’s Wind Wing is a deeply moving & compassionately observed collection of poems. Its lucid voice is deeply resonant & ultimately heartwarming.” David Meltzer, San Francisco, CA
“Toni Partington shows us the underbelly of women in the midst of challenges incomprehensible to some: mental illness, domestic violence, mothering broken children. Dignity, understanding and courage abound in this volume of tough yet lyrical poems.” Eileen Elliott, Vancouver, WA
At Frenchman’s Bar
by Toni Partington
Egrets assemble
levitate in slow motion
perfectly
above the Columbia’s glass top
framed by fifty-foot twigs
upright to the sky
in silhouette
parked barges resemble a life
stopped abruptly
await permission to dock
unload the steerage of this long journey
when will it be time for you
to sail toward unknown ports
where women gather in flocks
lean into each other and
beckon you to land
PRINTED MATTER VANCOUVER 