Joseph Noble's New Poetry Chapbook: Mirror Song / Winding Grace (HDMP No. 20)

Joseph Noble's artwork graces the front and back covers of his new poetry chapbook: Mirror Song / Winding Grace (HDMP No. 20)

Half Day Moon Press is pleased to announce the release of Joseph Noble's new poetry chapbook: Mirror Song / Winding Grace (HDMP No. 20) in its digital edition format. A print edition is forthcoming...

That Noble is a dedicated and accomplished musician is evident in his work, especially when read aloud. Mirror Song / Winding Grace shimmers and flickers throughout as portions come to the foyer of consciousness while others slip back into a sprawling tapestry, calling to mind what Aldous Huxley wrote concerning Gesualdo's madrigals:

"The totality is present even in the broken pieces. More clearly present, perhaps, than in a completely coherent work. At least you aren't lulled into a sense of false security by some merely human, fabricated order."

Or as Wallace Stevens penned in his poem, "Man Carrying Thing": Of the obvious whole, uncertain particles / Of the certain solid . . .

Here is a sample from the new collection:

he was all thumbs

and he opposed his thumbs

here and there became

if and when

blink as a favor

loosening a screw each step

cactus sun

loaded with harmonicas

drum tap     single space

brittle star growing back an arm

light its own operator

fumbling in the dark for a dilation

Noble has been working on a sequel to Mirror Song / Winding Grace, which takes the series into new directions while also circling back over familiar ground . . .

Work from Noble is also showcased in issues Nos. 1 and 2 of Half Day Moon Journal and includes the Orson Welles-inspired series poem "Word to Mouth" (in N. 2).

For further points of departure, see also:

Noble's official website for "poetry, essays, music, and artwork, as well as events."

Two delightful and more recent book collections: Listening Voices (Wet Cement Press, 2025) and Within Hearing (lyric& Press, 2018).

This wonderful musical performance: Echo's Bones at Mosswood Chapel (2023) (File under "western classical", "experimental / avant-garde / noise".)

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Sources:

Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. Vintage, 2004, p. 30.

Stevens, Wallace. "Man Carrying Thing." Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose,

edited by Frank Kermode and Joan Richardson, Library of America, 1994, p. 306.