Phil Woods

Salt
for the Olives, Lemon
for the Fish

Poems

40 pages

5 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches

ISBN: 1-888809-21-3

$10.00

In 1998, Phil Woods went on a pilgrimage to Granada and wrote these poems as homage to Federico García Lorca and the spirit of modern Spanish poetry. Full of admiration and simpático, these poems vibrate like a flourished guitar chord and the sharp clap of hands under moonlight. Included is an essay entitled “Moistening the Soul” and a valuable bibliography.

Phil Woods has absorbed the great Spanish poetry of our century, and traveled to engage the ghost of Lorca on his home ground. His poems are a kind of verbal Flamenco in which that dark quality called ‘duende’ reminds us, “Death is chasing you / Don’t miss your chance to be truly alive!” This book plunges the reader into physical and spiritual intensities of the Spanish earth, and allows us the privilege of listening in on the thoughts
of a heart that is truly alive.

— Thomas R. Smith