Product Description
Along the lines of Robert Bly in his Morning Poems or David Lehman in The Daily Mirror, Wanda Phipps embarked upon a poem-a-day project. Over the course of several months, Phipps composed a poem each morning after she awoke and felt ready to write.Wake-Up Calls: 66 Morning Poems collects the best of her poems from this daily experiment. In this series she investigates that weird and wonderful place between sleeping and waking that holds bits of dreams of the night before, recent and not so recent memories and subtle visions for the future. They are poems as genuine documents of dailiness with more than a few surprising twists. Like much of her work they deal with desire, sensation, female energy and the visceral nature of language. In many, she indeed wakes feeling fresh-faced and dreamy, but in others her voice rings raw and sexy, cranky or disappointed, confused or amused. Poetic influences including Ezra Pound, Emily Dickinson, Robert Creeley, and Mitch Highfill may be traced here, and are complimented by appearances of pop-culture figures such as Sigourney Weaver, Ann Margaret, and the Velvet Underground. The love poems are some of the most moving pieces in the collection. Phipps's work emanates a sincerity and directness that is all too rare in our current age of irony. The range of experience and emotion captured in Wake-Up Calls traverses the territory of Wanda's life and as the details accrue, readers will feel as much a part of hers as of their own, moving as naturally through the book as if they had written these poems themselves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

Dreaming goddess in a City of dreams
Wanda Phipp's poems are deliciously spare and delightful to read.She balances the acutal with the metaphysicaL in some acute and beautiful ways through the spaces she moves in and out of:
"a kiss not a kiss but a city operational I am with tea and mobility" #28Like a Wallace Stevens orange on a Sunday morning, but without the formalisms, these poems glow with a garden of City delights and sometimes, doubts.But underlying the collection is a journey, and a celebration of being an artist in New York, which can be both a city of constraints (survival work) and semi-or subconscious visions and serendipities...From many angles she portrays her own musings and the City's light.Read it!

A Strong, Original and Healing Voice
I was given this book by a friend. Since I have very strong opinions about poetry--having grown up reading Anne sexton, May Sarton, Auden, etc--I thought, "I'm not even going to look at this. Nice cover, though."
Imagine my surprise when I glanced through it, and was so caught up that i sat down, poured a glass of wine, and read all the way through. i called my mom and read her a poem. I read one to my husband. I read one to the cat. I was surprised: the poems are seemingly unassuming, but their power accumulates, and theyfinally offer a true and piercingly insightful look into a modern woman's real heart.
This book had become part of my life. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

inspirational
Wanda Phipps' 66 Morning Poems, teaches us to be more in-tune with our own morning thoughts as we read the ones she has captured here in this book. Succinct crystal clear observation is the fuel Wanda Phipps provides her reader so to feel and see for themselves. Wanda Phipps does and will continue to make the world a better place. SEE HER LIVE!

Wake Up Calls: Great Reading
Wanda Phipps' Wake-Up Calls 66 Morning Poems is a delightful read wherever and whenever you choose to pick up this book. This series of poems makes for the catalyst to a great day. I have enjoyed reading these poems in the early morning when I wake a prepare for my day. I love taking this book on the train and reading as I head to work. I feel a sense of being centered in Wanda's choice of words and feel like she's tapped into the early morning experiences we all go through in life. After finishing, I felt like I wanted more poems. I wanted each morning to continue reading through her colorful textures. Wanda evokes an energy that wakes this readers morning peak. At this point, I will explore searching for further reading material on Wanda Phipps.I truly enjoyed reading her poems not once, but several times since I've purchased this book.

Regards,

Thomas Paul

Dreamy, Lyrical-Sensual
The style is so appealing, lyrical-sensual.Wanda Phipps evokes a kind of dreamy Bohemian lifestyle one doesn't hear enough about in this high-pressure type-A world.Thanks to her for helping to bring that back.


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Product Description
This rare firsthand account, accompanied by 175 photographs of the setting, sacred tools, and costumes, follows each step of the shanar-a Siberian shaman dedication ritual. The Buryats are indigenous people of eastern Siberia, an area which gave rise to the languages from which the term "shaman" is derived. Shamanism is dependent upon intimate connections to specific places and cultures, and this account of a ceremony celebrates that relationship, while using the ritual as an entry point to explore the living culture of a people obscure to most Western readers. This accessible and authentic guide to true shaman practice reveals the personalities involved and respects the complexities of the Buryat community, thereby achieving greater depth than conventional anthropological studies. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Authentic and Traditional
The authors were offered the opportunity to attend the initiation of a traditional Buryat shaman to the third level (there are nine in their tradition). The book talks about the trials and difficulties Volodya had until his elder shamans lead by Bayir Rinchinov determined why the initiation was failing. Many photos that were permitted by the group are included. Just an excellent look into authentic and traditional Siberian shamanism.

Wonderful
In an era of neo-Shamanism and cold-hearted anthropology, it is very nice to see an increase in books where the authors are both practitioners and scientists.Shanar is quite impressive.The ritual appears authentic, the photographs are remarkable, and the text is quite intriguing.

If you're the type who wants to have Shamanism presented in a non-threatening, non-cultural, easy-to-digest-as-a-Westerner, fluffy New Age way ... this isn't the book for you.This is a ride through a very important ritual and thru the Buryat culture.The average Western reader isn't going to understand everything on the first pass - and it isn't about perfection.Its about Human beings trying to connect with their ancestors and the Spirits of their world.Its a serious business.

Because the authors are well versed in Shamanims themselves they tend to treat the ritual with honor and respect.

This is not a how-to book of Shamanism, it is a chance to see the real thing in action.Five stars seems too few.

Describes all of the various aspects of the ceremony
The collaborative effort of Virlana Tkacz, Sayan Zhambalov, and Wanda Phipps, and filled with a wealth of 175 gorgeous, full color photographs, Shanar: Dedication Ritual Of A Buryat Shaman In Siberia accurately depicts the dedication rituals, rites, and ceremony of a Buryat Shaman in Siberia. The informed and informative text describes all of the various aspects of the ceremony in wondrous, heartfelt, and painstaking detail, which combine to fully capture and present the this sacred rite with all respect and an appreciative humility. Shanar is a very highly recommended contribution to Comparative Religion and Anthropology reference collections and supplemental reading lists. ... Read more

Product Description
Poetry. African American Studies. "Wanda Phipps's poetry is so unexpected, it often startles me. In FIELD OF WANTING, she uses devices I've seen before, but never this way. Her voice is as unique as her approach to the poems. And, as always, her honesty is refreshing and uniquely personal. It is, simply, poetry you will find nowhere else. Give it a chance and it will seduce you with its clarity and originality. More a voice singing in the rain than crying in the wilderness, even if the rain is sometimes blood red"--Michael Lally. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Gorgeous
When I write a poem, I talk about "things" and try to get the meter right. When Wanda Phipps writes a poem, she creates a fifth dimension! These post-Beat, post-Berrigan poems are something entirely Phipps' own: loose, clear, conscious, gorgeous. Desire in its widest definition. I suspect this is what happens when a writer lives very close to her writing, and is rigorous about her observations: life lived becomes changed, life written is something much wider than expected.

Fields of Wanting
"Fields of Wanting" is dreamy and accessible -- Unlike so many contemporary
poets, Phipps really knows how to produce verse that sounds musical. The poems are true lyric poems -- they go to the marrow -- They are layered and sneak up on you. They reveal a poet's complex and learned mind, but Phippstreads lightly and never clobbers with intellect. Her long poems are amazingly well-sustained. The stories are about the speaker's interior -- love and heartbreak and so forth -- but the big story is the hopeful various curvaceous musical world and the anatomy of the mind of a poet who takes everything in and uses it and sings it.I'll keep re-reading this one. Buy the book for "This is Angry Poem" a magnificent anthem that should be required reading for all young poets.

The Power of Honesty
This book of poems is one of the most honest outpourings of emotion I have encountered, and it gripped me, shook me, and re-connected me with all the ups & downs of love & desire I had ever experienced in my life. What a stupendous ride!

open and honest
Everything about this woman is astounding. The variations in styles perfectly match each mood almost to the point where you can feel you were sometimes actually in the room with her, or been somewhere similar, if not in your head, or her head. I'm confounded once again by possibilities. "This is an angry poem" is truly a poem of our age.

powerful new poetry
I am a poetry lover anyway but Wanda Phipps new book is my new favorite.She weaves a beautiful tapestry of prose and poetry. This book is equally introspective and insightful, passionate and hauntingly sad. I highly recommend this to any reader who searching for a read that will tug at their heart strings or open their mind. ... Read more

Product Description
Poetry. CD ROM format. Texts, audio poems, blues songs & video from Wanda Phipps. Poetry and music in ZITHER MOOD are supplemented by skillful video collaborations between Phipps and filmmaker Joel Schlemowitz. Phipps layers her lyrics with imagery from live description, memory and dreams. Urbane and often sexy, ZITHER MOOD cuts sly and playful deals between love and ahard place, textured with honest miscommunications and deliberate mishearings. Sharon Mesmer writes of Phipps -- "No matter how much things are thrown up for grabs, they endup falling into place serendipitously." Phipps' strong card is "erotic" synchronicity: "She lines up parallel occurrences and writes between," according to Kimberly Lyons. "Uncompromising and relentless," as Michael Rothenberg puts it, Phipps composes "poetry you can dance to." ... Read more