Psaltery and Serpentines

Author's Note:

"Psaltery and Serpentines," takes the reader on a journey to distant shores and places that are familiar to the soul and very close to the heart. Readers are invited to imagine through their senses and to find themselves in the experience. In this collection of poems is something akin to human nature. It is associated with the primal and the divine. Readers should keep "Psaltery and Serpentines" handy and read from it from time to time to elicit and elate magical places within their own beings.

"In these sensual poems, language itself is 'a blue garland of desire,' infusing the world with beauty, magic, and sadness. Poetry is 'a temple where prayers become songs.' 'On this stage,' Martínez-Gil writes, 'the ongoing monologue/of a woman's life/has the irresistible hope/born out of her own resilience.' This is a luscious and lustrous collection of poems, a delightful first book from a poet who demonstrates convincingly here both the gravity and the joy of her calling."
—Gail Wronsky, author of Dying for Beauty

"Opening this book to any of its poems will sweep the imagination into the poet's creation, and its reviewer's lips will burn for hundreds of kisses."
—Rich Murphy, author of Voyeur and judge for the 2009 Gival Press Poetry Award

"Reading Cecilia Martínez-Gil's collection of psaltery serpentines, one feels the supremacy of metaphor and music over meaning and sense. "
—Prof. Mario René Padilla, Santa Monica College

Reviews, Articles, Blogs and Photos

March 27, 2013. The 18th Street Coffee House. Santa Monica, California. Guest Reader& Speaker in support for the recently released anthology: The Better Bombshell, with Editor and Writer Charlotte Austin and Editor and Artist Siolo Thompson, who will be presenting readings and fabulous artwork from contributors like Dave Barry, Rick Bass, and Roxane Gay.

February 27, 2013. Video Music Poetry
The Better Bombshell Guest Collaboration: Caricia Húmeda

February 16, 2013 @ Noon. The Red Hen. Seattle. Readings with contributors and collaborators writers and artists featured in The Better Bombshell.

February 15, 2013 @ 7:00pm: The Ghost Gallery, Seattle. Meet the Press, for the release of The Better Bombshell, with writers Charlotte Austin, Heather Fowler, Tim Lash, Nicholas Dighiera, Craig Childs and Verless Doran, and artists Siolo Thomson, Levi Hastings, Kate Protage and Chris Sheridan.

February 13, 2013: The Better Bombshell: Writers and Artists Redefine the Female Role Model featuring Part I: Guest Collaboration: The Fourth Gender by Cecilia Martinez-Gil

November 30, 2012 @7:30pm: English Department Village, LMU. Los Angeles. Poetry of Night, celebrating undergrad and grad creative writers.

January 5, 2012 @7:00pm: Elliott Bay Book Co. Seattle. Readings with Music from Psaltery and Serpentines and with Cliff Bernier, author of  The Silent Art.

May 2011, Judge for the Gival Press National Poetry Competition 2011.

May 18, 2011
Café LA DIARIA, Montevideo, Uruguay Readings with writer and poet Verónica Pamoukaghlián. 19:00 horas

April 22, 2011 @11:00am:
UCLA, VIII Annual Graduate Student Conference Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Panel: Mutations and Mobilities: Translation as Poetry, Poetry as Translation Presentation: "A Bilingual Poet's Sensory Sense of Words" University of California, Los Angeles

March 8, 2011:
Santa Monica College, Literary Series @Noon. Santa Monica, California

February 5, 2011 @12:00pm: AWP The Association of Writers and Writing Programs' Conference. Gival Press, Table C35. Washington D.C.

February 4, 2011 @8:00pm: Dupont Hotel Bar at Dupont Circle. Washington D.C.

January 19, 2011 @7:00pm: The Elliott Bay Book  Co., Seattle

November 20, 2010 @ 6:00pm: "An Evening of Music, Poetry and Wine and Delectable Treats by Toscana" Presentation of Psaltery and Serpentines and Publication Celebration hosted by Nancy Cotton&John Given, Los Angeles, CA. Featuring Scarlet Rivera, Federico Ramos and Eduardo M. Del Signore.

earnest acknowledgment and genuine gratitude to these amazing gifted artists who, ceaselessly collaborate with my poetry projects, endowing my words with the breath and light of their artisanship and creative coalescence.

• Federico Ramos-Music, Audio Engineering (Guitars) and much more!

• Jan Edward Vogels -Music Photos Video Audio and film and video editing of Caricia Húmeda (Spanish Version).
  

• Eduardo M. del Signore -Music (Bass) Live Presentations and Pan's Prayer to Pandora

• Scarlet Rivera-Music (Violin) -Live Readings and After the Ashes

• Levi Hastings - Illustrations of Plenty of Ink and Entonces tu Boca featured @
  

  The Better Bombshell: Writers and Artists Redefine the Female Role Model

  Guest Collaboration: The Fourth Gender by Cecilia Martinez-Gil

• Monica Luz - voice Sunrays and Dust (Spanish and English versions) (coming soon)
  

• Carlos Daniel Lastra- saxophone A Shadow Pinned to His Winter Coat

• Mariana Ingold and Kit Walker – Music Score for Video Art Poetry Caricia Húmeda (Version in Spanish), and its audio-music version in English originally released on Feb 26, 2013 at
  

  The Better Bombshell: Writers and Artists Redefine the Female Role Model 

• farm.co Santi&Izzy Web and Press Design

And ongoing/working projects/creative lattices in progress with musicians Alphonso Johnson, Terry Plumeri, Charles Moore and Bob Bernstein...stay tuned