Uvi’s Comments (group member since Apr 09, 2012)

Uvi’s comments from the The Creative Spark with Uvi Poznansky group.

I plucked a wildflower
Written by my father, translated by me

I plucked a wildflower from my resting place
And it was blue, as if it wore my name, my face
But I was startled suddenly by a snake
Who slinked across the path with one tail shake...

Listen to the poem (read for the audiobook edition by Kathy Bell Denton) HERE:

Just finished reading Five stars.The Lollipop: Adventure Two. Here is my review:

The Lollipop by Julia Gousseva begins where her previous story, The Firebird, left off. The two kids, Alex and Katie, just back from their previous adventure to retrieve the magic feather, awaken to their Russian heritage and wish to unearth more of its charm and meaning.

Right off the start, "Here is the real ending of the firebird story," says Alex, as he opens the old book of fairytales. To his surprise he finds that the ending has been rewritten: "Alex and Katie left the magical meadow and went back to Aunt Katrina's house. They healed her leg, and they all lived happily ever after." This revelation has a subtle meaning for the entire story, suggesting that history can be altered by your actions, and so you possess the magic to alter the world.

This time, Aunt Katrina introduces the two kids to a new fairytale, about Emelya, the youngest of three brothers who captures a talking fish. In turn for being let off the hook, the fish grants him three wishes. Emelya's third wish, to mary a fair maiden, ends up backfiring, as the tsar is enraged that his daughter falls in love with a commoner.

The words have faded on the page, and Aunt Katrina explains, "This story has an end, but the end is yours to create." With this, the kids set off on a new journey, to help their fairytale hero, Emelya. At first they are guided by ball of golden thread, meant to lead them to their target and then bring them back home. But unlike the mythological Ariadne's thread, this one must be used sparingly. Dropped accidental too early in the journey, it forces the kids to resort to their own devices along the way. They meat the great Leshi, a creature who likes to confuse people, and princess Maria, the tsar's daughter who appreciates their willingness to help her.

Will Alex and Katie find a way to release Emelya? More importantly, how would they go about their mission? In the end, the solution lies not in outsmarting the enemy but in allowing him to open up to new possibilities, see things a different way. A little sweetness--symbolized by the rooster shaped lollipop--goes a long way...

Rui wrote: "Interesting :) you may also find my new poems (some of them) at http://talesforlove.blogs.sapo.pt

BTW I'm thinking about creating some new poems in English. Do you know any literary review interes..."

Lovely poetry Rui! And written with a feather touch... You are welcome to post your poems right here. I liked Our Chaos and Forbidden Fruits.

I feel so lucky to be invited for a second opportunity, this time for 'a proper chat' with Christoph Fischer is the talented author and highly ranked book reviewer. He also wished to display some of my art, so in addition to my book covers, I gave him a paper sculpture I made, upon which I painted the creation of the world. His first question was:

What fascinates me most about you is that you write, make art and promote yourself. How do you find the time and how do you balance the three?

Want to know my answer? Read it here:
A Proper Chat with Christoph

Just finished listening to Dream Student. Here is my review:

In a story reminiscent of Dorothy in the land of Oz and Alice in wonderland, here is a new heroine exploring the strange realm of her dreams, in a journey to find her inner power to solve them and finally, turn a corner. But this is no children story, or as she puts it, "Not in Kansas anymore": Sara is the chatty and slightly naive college student, living in the dorms. She refuses to talk about her nightmares, hoping they may eventually go away.

Finding herself all of a sudden in a cheerleader's outfit, Sara realizes one thing, which is crazy and impossible--but all the same, true: "this is not her dream anymore." Somehow she has slipped into someone else's head, and she doesn't know how to get out of there. Unlike her own dreams, his persist, somehow, in her waking memory. Trapped in terror, she is utterly passive, the way we find ourselves helpless to escape while we dream. Luckily, at first he is oblivious to the fact that Sara is watching his sick fantasies.

When she reads a newspaper report about the murder of the victim she saw in her sleep last night, Sara comes to realize that what she sees are premonitions of the next murder. Her visions are puzzling, and they compel her to put together the pieces of the puzzle in order to try and avert what she knows is about to happen. Will she succeed doing it in time? Will she put herself on the line, risking her own life? "He saw me. He knew I was there. He knew I was watching."

The book alternates between two points of view: Sara's voice (in first person) and the description of her dream sequences (in third person.) Why are these sequences in third person, and italicized, to mark the difference in an even more pronounced way? Because, I think, these are out-of-body experiences, and we get to witness them not through Sara's voice but through the author's all-seeing eyes. James DiBenedetto presents us with a mental exersize, a riddle for us to solve, if only we suspend disbelief.

I loved the narrator's voice in the audiobook edition. Heather Jane Hogan brings the story to life, she lifts every strand in the yarn, clarifies every subtle shade of meaning in every word, and she does it so charmingly, with the fresh, naive voice of a college girl.

Five stars.

Here is a great new review of Apart From Love:

★★★★★ A Philosophical View of Love, Life and Family, August 27, 2013
By Warrior Princess (Karmoy, Norway) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Apart From Love (Kindle Edition)

A famous poet, translator, and philosopher Samuil Marshak once said that frequent use of highly emotional words robs them of their meaning, making them dull and lackluster, like an old coin losing its shine. And that's exactly what Anita, the young wife of Ben's aging father, says to her husband in the story:

"Just say something to me. Anything." And I thought, Any other word apart from Love, `cause that word is diluted, and no one knows what it really means, anyway.

Coming from uneducated Anita, who is a far cry from being a poet or a philosopher, this thought acquires an even more poignant and raw meaning. She is not trying to impress anyone, she is speaking her heart and her mind, trying to cope with the turmoil of her aging husband's fast decline and her growing attraction for his adult son Ben.

Emotions run high in this story by Uvi Poznansky, made even more prominent by her use of alternating points of view throughout different chapters. All the main characters get a voice and an opportunity to share their thoughts, desires, internal struggles, and guilt, just like Ben eloquently expresses in this passage as he is falling for Anita:

"...I should have been more careful...I am surrounded - and at the same time, isolated. I am alone. I am apart from Love."

As part of the launch event Home, I am announcing a Writing Contest for all who take part in the celebration. Check out the details here:

Writing Contest

Good news occur in clusters... So one day after another, five star reviews keep coming in for Twisted.

The first of the two reviews is by Lynelle Clark has one of the most endearing sentences in her Goodreads author page. She says, "I am an Aspiring Writer and is still learning the art." But in addition to her book, A Pirate's Wife, she has garnered several top rankings: #4 top users, #4 top readers, #31 top librarians, #44 most followed, and #23 best reviewers. So I am deeply honored that she posted this review on Goodreads and Amazon.

★★★★★ Unique, August 22, 2013
By Lynelle "Aspiring Writer" (South Africa) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Twisted (Kindle Edition)
I received this book from the author for an honest review.

Reflections of women seeking their own identity and validation in a world that ignores, misjudge and scoff at them. Written from different view points, each poem has a unique setting, where each is confronted with their own self worth. To be validated. Poetic and honest each poem gives you a deeper look into the physic of her thoughts as she reach out. Sinister in its approach it comes to particular conclusions as their worlds are explored and revealed.
Twisted an interesting name that reveals more than you expected.

★★★★★ Superb!, August 23, 2013
By T. Stockton - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Twisted (Kindle Edition)
These are four exquisite stories in one volume that dare pull a reader outside of conventional boxes. A unique amalgamation of imagination, perspective, art, and discovery, Twisted leads a curious mind and seeking soul into the deep. Superb!

Round and round, all over town
So it goes, up and down...
You are my twisters; so wherever you are
spread my message, near and far
Let it spin north and south
'Cause all I can hope for is your word-of-mouth

To listen to the closing credits go HERE

Wow! So happy! Just got this messsage, about the fourth one of my books to go audio:

Congratulations, Home is now on sale at audible.com. And we plan to make it available on iTunes and Amazon.com within the next few days.

Check out the list of audiobooks, and don't forget to play the voice clip for each one! Take a listen, here:

In my oil painting, which I used for the cover of the print edition of Home, I depicted a vision of the interior of where I grew up. The early sketches for the composition were done on a small note of paper on the first day of the Shiv-aa, the mourning period following my father's passing. By the time I came back home the note was lost, so I re-sketched it from memory. I prepared the canvas with a layer of textured bronze color, then worked the scene into it.

It was extremely difficult to photograph this piece, because the layer of gold--which is exposed in places--reflected light in unpredictable ways. So I snapped a photograph of the painting in one room, then another, with diffused daylight coming from the side, the front, the top, with and without flash, then took it outside and snapped it in sunlight, in the shadow, here, there and everywhere... Yes, you get the picture.

At last I found one version that looked fine to me. First I had to fit the image to a prescribed size (according the book size I have in mind.) Then I created the shadows of the lettering. You may notice that the shadow's color is not black, but rather it is the darkest purple of the painting (which can be seen in the lower left corner.) Also, I blurred these shadows, so they do not have hard edges, but fuzzy ones. Then I selected a soft yellow, with which I typed the title, Home; and a less bright version of this yellow, with which I typed my name and my father's. Being brighter, the title 'comes forward' in relationship to the author names.

Normally I would make sure that all text fields are of the same width, or that they are arranged in a way that the one on top has the shortest width, and the one at the bottom has the longest width, which creates a sense of stability. Not so here, because I view my childhood home through the shaky lens of memory...

For the audiobook cover I brightened the font color, so it stands out more over the painting. Also, because of the square dimensions I had to 'extend' the image of the painting to the right and to the left. And in addition to the authors' names, I added the name of the voice actress for the audiobook, Kathy Bell Denton.



Audiobook coming soon
Treat yourself to a gift--ebook FREE today!
Get Home
★ Audiobook ★ Ebook ★ Print ★

"She is looking out the window.
Perhaps she is immersing herself in the grays and purples quivering there, on the other side of the glass, reaching a blur in the cold October sunlight. Perhaps, with great patience she is waiting there, waiting for the night, for the darkest hour, which is when her image may finally appear. It will come to the surface in front of her as if it were a sunken spirit, rising from the deep. Out of nowhere.
For now she seems lost, searching for something—perhaps her reflection—in vain.
I worry about mom, about the little things, which to someone else—someone who does not know her as I do—may seem trivial, insignificant. I worry she is missing her pearl earrings. I must find them for her. The little hole in her earlobe has shrunk away, turning somehow to flesh.
In a whisper I say, “Mommy?” and wonder how the air vibrates over the tender membrane of her eardrum, how it changes into noise, how she gets it when pitch rises, when it falls.
Can she sense the change?
At what point does it translate, somehow, into meaning? By what path does it penetrate, going deeper? Does it excite the nerves, fire signals up there, between regions of her brain? Does it make some sense, at least at times? Is there any point in talking to her? Is she listening? Can she detect the thin sound—scratched like an old, overused vinyl record—which is coming faintly from behind, from the far end of this space? Can she understand the words? Is there sorrow in her? Is there hope?"

Ben in Apart From Love



★★★★★ bookreview:
"A feast for the armchair psychologist.
Reveals insights that can touch and frighten each of us"
Listen to voices of Anita and Ben:
★ Audiobook ★ Ebook ★ Print ★

Dolores wrote: "THANK YOU UVI FOR THE WONDERFUL REVIEW!"

Totally my pleasure Dolores. Well deserved!

Lynelle Clark has one of the most endearing sentences in her Goodreads author page. She says, "." But in addition to her book, A Pirate's Wife, she has garnered several top rankings: #4 top users, #4 top readers, #31 top librarians, #44 most followed, and #23 best reviewers. So I am deeply honored that she posted this review on Goodreads for my book, Twisted:

Lynelle Clark's review Aug 22, 13
★★★★★
bookshelves: own-it, review-for-author, relationship, poetry
Read from August 13 to 21, 2013

I received this book from the author for an honest review.

Reflections of women seeking their own identity and validation in a world that ignores, misjudge and scoff at them. Written from different view points, each poem has a unique setting, where each is confronted with their own self worth. To be validated. Poetic and honest each poem gives you a deeper look into the physic of her thoughts as she reach out. Sinister in its approach it comes to particular conclusions as their worlds are explored and revealed.
Twisted an interesting name that reveals more than you expected.

Come Home with me! My ★★★★★ poetry book ♥ Home ♥ is coming out in an amazing audiobook edition! Join the Writing Contest, listen to my narrator's voice, be here for the cover reveal... And whatever you do, don't miss out!

Come HOME and JOIN!

The Twisted Twist

Round and round and up and down
The finest story all over town...
Show me love, love deep and real
For Heaven's sake, don't make me kneel
You'll learn to do this:
Get it now, the Twisted Twist!

To hear the twist go here:
The finest story all over town



My ceramic sculpture, Dance With Me, Darling...

Just finished reading Present Tense: Poems. Here is my review:


What should be simply a grammatical tense meant to locate events in the here and now, has been transformed by Neil Silberblatt into something quite thought provoking, powerfully moving, and rare.

This poetry is a rich melding of mythological and Jewish motifs, mementos from the past, wrestling with issues of faith, and sharp-minded social commentary about the absurdities of life. As such it becomes a stylized expression, a scream. Sometime, it is the posing of an unanswered question that has a haunting effect on me:

What did Isaac say to his father,
as he beheld the axe and kindling
and no goat
as they approached the altar
hidden by the tall trees,
against the low sky?

Here, for example, is a verse from a poem about the TV newsperson who reports the news of a massacre with the same even-handed tone as the weather forecast:

He shares this information
with the same
flat measured speech
with which
he shares the long-term weather forecast
49 children slaughtered
and chance of
thunderstorms.

He gives thought to the black blocks of text over the whiteness of the paper. In the poem After the Tempest, he shifts the lines this way and that, to express the force of strong currents.

Inspired by the city of his birth, childhood, adolescence and a good chunk of his adulthood, the poems in 'New York Suite' offer a trip down memory lane. The book includes moody, atmospheric paintings by Susan Grisell, and they complement the poetry and allow for a fuller experience.

In Central Park, he imagines being a child again, and riding the Carousel mare into adventures in faraway, ancient times, perhaps across the Alps with Hannibal, slaying Huns. He confesses the intimacy with the wooden animal: "She knew my touch, no matter how many others rode her." But then, in the end:

Now, she and I
are both closed for needed repairs
and hope to reopen soon

He is much more than a story-teller in verse, because he crafts the rhythm of breathing out the utterances, and the overlay of meanings. By doing so he gives his words such tense, strong presence, such a present tense.

Five Stars.

☻♥ ☻ (●̮̮̃•̃)●̮̮̮̮̃̃•̃̃) ♥☻ ◠‿◠)
/♥\./♥\ /█\ /█\ /♥\
✰¸.•*¨`*•.. .||. .||. ||_ ||_.||. ¸.•*¨`*•..

Hi, everyone! The Get Twisted event is fast coming to its high point (Wed 08/21 at 12:00 pm PST.)

Don't miss the Grand Finale:
Dance, coffee, desserts, all with a twist
Announcing the 3 front-runners of the contest, plus--surprise!--a wildcard winner, picked by me out of a hat!

So show me some love: invite your friends, the more the merrier! Invite them to Get Twisted



★★★★★ review:
"So immaculately constructed that each work becomes a little treasure to visit repeatedly"
Get Twisted
★ Audiobook ★ Ebook ★ Print ★

There's still time... Come into my twisted universe, just like these brave souls: Linda Miller Thurmond, Vincent Moore, Cindy J. Smith, Jim Watts, Deborah Davidson, and Bonnie Bernard Author... Celebrate my book launch with me! Here's how:

Come Into My Twisted Universe

Koyel wrote: "Hi everyone,
Welcome to my new blog. Here you will find all my books. Hope yopu will love it.http://solarcoreproductions.com/Koyel...
Koyel"

Hey Koyel, you may want to edit the blog address given here, because it does not seem to work, at least for me.