
AUTO-BIO + S&H
A collection of poetry as described below. 80 pages. For a limited time, free shipping on all orders. I will be more than happy to send a signed copy, just request it in the message when ordering. Thank you!
AUTO - BIO music tracks now available!
In a collaboration with my brother, David Stein, we put together some music along with the readings of my poetry. Some of the poems are from the book and a few are new ones. Available for listen and download.
http://peterwilliamstein.bandcamp.com/album/auto-bio
AUTO - BIO is not an autobiography, rather an exploration of self; the external, understanding the surroundings around the self, as well as internal, how the self perceives and reacts to the world. How we view the surrounding landscape reflects the landscape of the mind and how we construct ourselves. And much like the unexamined life is not worth living, the unexamined death is not worth dying.
*Cover photo by Keith Zimmerman.
www.kzarts.com
AUTO
From the Greek word autos, meaning 'self'
By ones self, without external assistance or influence
Starting or functioning indepedently
BIO
From the Greek word bios, meaning 'life'
Prefix referring to a system of organisms
A living thing with biological processes capable of growth, reproduction and death
Peter Stein’s new collection moves deftly across the American landscape, traveling from hard-edged urban scenes through countryside where the “dry grass rolled/into defensive posture possum balls.” In a passionate search for meaning in the cosmos, often at highway speed, Stein’s poems are filled with the imagery of burning, where “hot with unrest, the people bubble/out of their pots onto the street/to see if life has anything better to offer/ than dreams”. Lovely alliteration (“the cellular silk sheath concealing the Self”) and peaceful, reflective moments, contrast with an intense quest for answers that too often prove as elusive and disorienting as “windshields reflecting windshields reflecting windshields…”
Kirsten Dierking, author Northern Oracle
excerpt from On the Highway
the white lines draw me in,
hidden morse code messages
spelling out S.O.S. or some other
psychosomatic scheme.
the road tells no story,
but my mind turns over
with each click of the odometer
as it needs something to feed on,
eating up the lines as if
they were Dostoyevsky.
each pale stripe on the asphalt a guru
guiding me through the gap in the forest,
preventing me from veering off
into animalistic tendencies,
every blink brings me closer to
indulging in dreams
excerpt from To All
I fall in love with you all
as the moon continuously falls from the sky,
in distant admiration, always following along
and seeing each of the many faces,
reaching out with gentle light
touching the cheek as it sleeps
to transmit beauty-dreams
as I turn towards the sun
I fall with no regret or concern for the exposed corpse,
it will not be bruised by egos or malevolence.
Touch me how you chose, it will not hurt
for I find solace in the angry eyes,
they will soften with a smile.
Sliced up, served any which way,
I am honored to be a dinner guest,
chewed and consumed and filtered
into the bloodstream
to become the thick skin
that protects you
Introspective Revolution
The gun clicks,
eyeballs glazed over stay open
with intentive stare at a painting on the wall
as they tilt towards the floor
They notice,
on the canvass background,
a curious smiling child
attempting to play
with a mopey beagle
less than interested
lying on the ground,
staring out of the picture
with sympathetic solitude
Though communication to the brain severed,
“Brilliant,”
thought the eyeballs to themselves