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| Floyd Salas has done it again! |
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| Of course, Floyd loves his felines, too, so they are also celebrated in this verse. He writes to his cat: "...You Mum/ get to be adored/ and I Floyd/ get to enjoy you..." The poet also points out, "...Mum the cat cannot speak/ but his chin whiskers/ the antennae of his being/ vibrate/ in the electric air..." Of yet another cat, Rousseau, he writes, "Her eyes are searchlights/ Pale Green globes of phosphorous..." Obviously, this is a man who pays attention to his animal pals, and learns from them what he can. His poems can draw our attention to how precious interspecies relationships can be, and to how much we can gain if we give of ourselves. Those of us who have lived with pets, nursed them trhough their old age to whatever awaits them, will empathize with the man who writes of his aging dog Miki: |
| Of course Miki, like all of us, was headed for his own Golden Gate, but he was not going there unloved or unremembered. Few accomplished prose writers have also written poetry this powerful, and few writers have so well captured the essence of our relationship with those creates we call pets. If you're not a verse reader or a pet lover, if you doubt a volume such as this can capture your attention, read "Chasing Shadows," If that wonderful poem doesn't move you, then you're probably correct: this isn't the book for you. I'll bet it moves you, though. Gerald Haslam, Penngrove, CA |
| I can't go out there back to Point Isabel where I first went with him and he could barely walk out to the bench to look over the waves at the Golden Gate and the glow of white and light that spread out... |
| Love Bites Summary |
| Poems celebrating the joy of existence as exemplified in our furry companion animals. The book is divided into seven sections: "Furry Scruffy Little Friend," a range of poems about dogs and cats, their joys and preoccupations, and their influence upon humans; "Name Band With Nothing On It," elegiac poems of beloved pets and animal friends who have died, leaving their human companoins to ache with sorry even as we remember the joy they brought us; "Dog Park U.S.A.," detailing the canine love affairs, mock wars, the moving stories of rescue dogs, and the sometimes comic antics of the owners; "Two Doves and A Cat," about feline pets and acquaintances; "All Creatures She Could Call Child," showing how maternal love disregards the boundaries of species; "Grandma Moses At Good-Night," poems describing how pets bring humans together into a village of shared love and compassion; and "Such Is the Sustenance of Loving," in which the author explores how the essence of live -- what is most important -- is revealed in the preoccupations and interactions of companion animals and their owners. |
| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: |
| Contact: Claire Ortalda (510) 524-2040 c.ortalda@comcast.net |
| Berkeley publisher releases: LOVE BITES: Poetry in Celebration of Dogs and Cats It's the Year of the Dog, a fitting occasion for the publication by award-winning author Floyd Salas of a collection of witty, joyful, elegiac, philosophical, fun and moving poems about our furry companions. Entitled Love Bites: Poetry in Celebration of Dogs and Cats, the 214-page volume, illustrated with whimsical line drawings by the author, was published October 2nd by Berkeley's Mad Dog Publishing. "His poems . . . draw attention to how precious interspecies relationships can be, and to how much we can gain if we give of ourselves," writes author Gerald Haslam in the Forward. "Few accomplished prose writers have also written poetry this powerful, and few writers have so well captured the essence of our relationship with these creates we call pets." The poems, largely written at Berkeley Dog Park and the off-leash Point Isabel in Richmond, are divided into seven sections, such as "Dog Park U.S.A.," which treats the joy and mock warfare of the largely rescue-dog patrons of these two areas, and "Two Doves and an Orange Cat," about the joys of feline companionship. Salas, a recent Regents Lecturer at University of California Berkeley, is the author of four award-winning novels, a previous volume of poetry and the memoir, Buffalo Nick. Both Buffalo Nickel and his first novel, Tattoo the Wicket Cross, are listed in HarperCollins' compilation, entitled Masterpieces of Hispanic Literature, of the best 200 Hispanic works of literature int he past 400 years. The book is available at amazon.com. Click here to order the book now! |
| The first time I met Floyd Salas--nearly three decades ago--he was accompanying a dog, a large, beautiful pooch named Sergie. The two had much in common: they were friendly, smart and tough if riled. As a pet-lover myself, I immediately felt a kinship with the writer of Tattoo the Wicked Cross, one of my favorite novels. A few years later, I read in one of Floyd's poems, |
| Love Bites: Poetry in Celebration of Dogs and Cats Forward |
| This is the reality now Sergie this mound of earth under the Camellia bush with a bouquet of orange poppies alive at its foot the shade that sprinkles it even in the sunshine There will always be sprinkles on this gravesite summer or winter raining or shining I sprinkle it now with my tears |
| Having just buried my own old mongrel, Cloudy, under an oak tree in Petaluma, I immediately recognized that Floyd got it, he understood how helpless and bereft we feel when a pal who has offered unconditional love dies. As I grew to know Salas better and better, I learned that he feels incomplete without a dog or cat in his life. Since I also share that impulse with him, I understood when he wrote of his old buddy Bootsy, now dead all these years, "...I know one thing/ I wish/ you were alive." These sentiments, whether understated or overt, are absolutely sincere, the cries of a large-hearted man who has deeply loved his pets and been loved by them. These works are by no means all sad. Look, for instance at the matched pair, "Hay!" and "Grace In The Air" and realize how much the behavior of Rock resembles and clarifies human conduct. "Graffiti" is another good example. It opens this way. |
| I see the dog pissing on the shore on that grassy knoll he found by following the wind with his nose to the source of the scent he uncovered with his And now I know the meaning of gang graffiti |
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| Rock the Dog in Floyd's class -- 1999, with his pal Megan |
| Floyd Salas' "Love Bites" reminds all of us of our beloved pets, those still with us and those no longer with us. It's a tribute to all of our furry "friends." |
| In Memorium... Shishu the brave warrior cat was with us for several years until she disappeared on or around June 11th earlier this year. She's our "Love Bite" |
| Me in the early 70's with our dog Nicky who was like a member of our family -- I'm not sure I would have gotten through my teenage years without him! He was my best buddy when I was growing up. We found him in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco when I was around 10... he was with us for over 14 years...thank you Floyd for reminding me of Nicky! |
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