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California Dreaming Paperback – June 27, 2023

by Lily Iona MacKenzie (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings
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Lily Iona MacKenzie's unbounded zest for life sings through the poems in this collection. A writer in her bones and a dreamer in her heart, she discovers the poetry in everything-travel, art, music, nature, past and present-her words and rhythms touch the soul and leave their treasures behind. "Listen closely to these poems' quiet but insistent murmur." (Kathleen McClung)

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  1. Print length
    112 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Shanti Arts LLC
  4. Publication date
    June 27, 2023
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.23 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1956056858
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1956056853
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Listen closely to these poems' quiet but insistent murmur. Lily Iona Mackenzie meditates on the textures of her California neighborhood as well as distant lands-Italy, Spain, Russia, Mali. Her poems lovingly embrace jazz, classical music, four paintings by Matisse, a grandfather's voice, a 3-year-old niece. With concision and lucidity, she writes of birdnests destroyed by cutting nearby trees and how 'Age cuts into us, ' and she 'leans on form and shape/ to arrive at an understanding of' desire, anxiety, time, the mysteries beneath the sea and, really, everywhere. Each poem offers surprising images and perceptions, and collectively they answer 'The Artist's Call'-to 'capture these/ fleeting days/ on earth.' What a gorgeous book!"

-Kathleen McClung, author of Temporary Kin and A Juror Must Fold in on Herself


"What is art, and what happens to us when we see or make it? These questions animate Lily Iona MacKenzie's California Dreaming. From ancient Egyptian artefacts to Richard Serra's sculpture, from martial music on Red Square to Dvorak and Copeland via a scenic route that takes us on a multi-part journey through Matisse, MacKenzie shows us what she numbers among poetry's true aesthetes. Even travel and family come to her first as forms of beauty. Beauty, though, never fully shelters us from a world of moral urgencies-injustice and violence hover just on the edges of these poems, reminding us that our sense of the beautiful is both fragile and essential."

-Robert Archambeau, author of Alice B. Toklas is Missing, Laureates and Heretics, Poetry and Uselessness, The Poet Resigns, and Inventions of a Barbarous Age


About the Author

In her youth, Lily Iona MacKenzie, a poet and novelist who also writes nonfiction, frolicked on a Canadian farm in an area almost too small to be on the map. She didn't practice writing then, but she did learn to pay attention to her surroundings. The clouds in the sky offered images that stirred her imagination and stimulated her dreaming self. Cows, calves, sheep, pigs, chickens, turkeys, dogs, cats, and horses were her early teachers and her main playmates. Those years instilled in her the need to honor those in her care and the realization that being successful involves hard work. As a writer, it includes her dedication to the writing craft and her belief that commitment and perseverance form the machinery that writers depend upon.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Shanti Arts LLC (June 27, 2023)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1956056858
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1956056853
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.23 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 3 ratings

About the author

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Lily Iona MacKenzie

Lily Iona MacKenzie

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I'm devoted to following the intricacies of language and where it takes me. I'm ardent about words and what they evoke in our minds and imaginations, the worlds they create. And I'm constantly learning, a student of the writer's craft, eager to open myself each day to the endless possibilities this calling presents. No wonder I love to write!

Writing requires exertion, the ability not to give in when we've received yet another rejection. Some people call this perseverance. But is that what it takes to keep writing in the face of adversity, rejection, and lack of recognition? The word sounds so duty bound, so driven. To me, a better word is discipline because at the root is disciple, though there are many lovely variations on this word that I actually prefer: student, follower, learner, devotee.

About me? A Canadian by birth, a high school dropout, and a mother at 17, in my early years, I supported myself as a stock girl in the Hudson’s Bay Company, as a long distance operator for the former Alberta Government Telephones, and as a secretary (Bechtel Corp sponsored me into the States). I also was a cocktail waitress at the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, briefly broke into the male-dominated world of the docks as a longshoreman (I was the first woman to work on the SF docks and almost got my legs broken), founded and managed a homeless shelter in Marin County, and eventually earned two Master’s degrees (one in Creative writing and one in the Humanities).

I have published reviews, interviews, short fiction, poetry, travel pieces, essays, and memoir in over 170 American and Canadian venues. Pen-L Publishing released my novels Fling! (2015) and Freefall: A Divine Comedy (2019). Curva Peligrosa, another novel, was published in September 2017 by Regal House Publishing. My poetry collection All This was published in 2011 and another, California Dreaming, was released on June 27, 2023, and my poetry chapbook No More Kings came out in 2020. Shanti Arts Press is publishing my hybrid memoir Dreaming Myself into Old Age: One Woman's Search for Meaning on September 19, 2023. I currently teach creative writing at the University of San Franciso's Fromm Institute for Lifelong Learning. I also blog at https://lilyionamackenzie.com.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
3 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Terry Tierney
5.0 out of 5 stars Poems Exploring Art and Resilience
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2023
California Dreaming by Lily Iona MacKenzie is an insightful and rewarding collection of poems artfully designed by Shanti Arts Publishing, known for their beautiful poetry books. These poems span both the greater world and the claustrophobia of COVID, focusing on painting, sculpture, music, and poetics with a sensitivity tethered to the California landscape. The title poem, for example, describes the resilience of a plastic Santa in a blustery California yard “determined to keep going / in the face of all odds.” I am reminded of the ubiquitous Mamas and Papas ballad, “California Dreaming,” which explores much different subject matter but embodies a similar theme of resonant spirituality in common things. Similarly, in the initial poem, “Poetry as a Tool of Inquiry,” the poet writes, “Even oranges / have…a reverence we save / for nature and her creatures.” Throughout the collection there are many memorable images, such as Matisse’s Blue Nude described as “bruised blue.” The poet also displays the courage to reverse her lens and examine artifacts of aging: “I don’t recognize this woman / whose skin sags and has lost / its purpose.” But the poet as creator and observer has not lost her muse in any way. Given the rich clarity of her vision, readers will find much in this book to ponder and treasure.

--Terry Tierney, author of The Poet’s Garage, Lucky Ride, and The Bridge on Beer River.
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GVWM
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars for California Dreaming!
Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2023
Five Stars! for Lily Iona MacKenzie’s fine new book of poetry, California Dreaming.
Interrupted in my first reading, I opened this little book, clothed in California poppies, to the very middle page, to a poem that hit me right between the eyes: “Paradox.” This deep dive into the mystery of a painting, any painting, left me breathless, yet running to the next page, and the next.

Playful, sexy humor; coming-of-age insights; thoughts on being an artist; and the many dimensions of a woman passed. Reading California Dreaming felt as though I was walking through a field of beautiful flowers, each one a door to the intricacy of Human Nature.

Unlike the historical paintings sometimes reflected in MacKenzie’s poems, this little book can be owned by readers and returned to in the evening for a meditative close to a busy day, the words bringing a chuckle, a nod or a murmured, “Aha!” Enjoy!
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Happy Soul
5.0 out of 5 stars Quirky, fun, musical
Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2023
The writer celebrates life and art in these exquisite poems. I love to revisit her book to read some of the poems again because I find something new in them every time I return to this collection. There is something for everyone here. With her imagination and creative skills, the author opens her heart and mind, sharing her personal experiences, reflections, and the evocative nature of artworks and memories.
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