Shadow Archer Press

The Moulding of Seers

by Petra Whiteley, illustrated by Steve Viner

Artist Steve Viner 

 (Dorset, UK)  Steve lives withh his wife, Donna,and daughter, Athene. He is  predominately a digital artist, using various found and made objects to create dark gothic images. He is currently working on illustrating a children's book with Petra,  He has had a successful exhibition, which surprisingly due to the artistic content, went well with a broad cross-section of attendees. His cover art has been published in the first issue of Deep Tissue Magazine, and on the covers of  chapbooks, Tinted Steam and Holy Hermphrodite. His art has been published in  Ffissure #5 and is  upcoming  in Osprey, The Glasgow Review, Unlikely 2.0.

http://www.myspace.com/visionpig

 e-mail: visualpig@yahoo.co.uk

 Includes the poems: Surrender, Strain, Sisterly, Windless (Electra), Witch burning, Deducting quicksand, The Spectacle, The Flow, The Mimicry, Zoo paradox, Momentum

Art

Including cover and six amazing illustrations by Steve Viner: Gestation of seers, Strain, Witch burning, Deducting quicksand, Zoo paradox

44 pages on grey marble cardstock cover with grey interior papers.  Six full color interior illustrations.  

$6.95 US shipping only

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$9.95 International shipping 

   

Praise for The Moulding of Seers

“The dark intensity of Petra Whiteley’s work cuts with such depth and fervency that it almost leaves a metallic taste in the mouth. She rips apart the cycle of existence with original, devastating imagery and a power over language so skilled that she is one of the most outstanding and exciting poets anywhere. Not only do these poems deserve to be read they are essential reading for anyone wishing acquaintance with the current benchmark of contemporary poetry.

- Gillian Prew is responsible for two books of poetry, "Moving on the Madness" and "Standing Still in Motion". Her work can be read at such places as The Glasgow Review, Eleutheria and The Recusant

   The Moulding of Seers’ is a work of dazzling art with every part of it a treasure for a reader to discover and behold in awe. There is no other chapbook of such immersing, consuming, complex beauty. The tale unfolds in brilliant poetic ‘passages’ that assault every sense. There is no greater master in this genre than Whiteley, one of the most brilliant writers extant. What others might term ‘Gothic’ is fierce, wild, turbulent beauty creating a tale that will spellbind the reader at every page.  To miss this book is to miss poetry in its rawest, most refined, seething and seizing form. In these pages, a ‘terrible beauty’ is born.

Constance Stadler, author of 'Tinted Steam' (Shadow Archer Press) and 'Sublunary Curse (Erb acce Press), Featured Poet, Guild of Outsider Writers.

  “The profound music found in the writings of Petra Whiteley is a poetic rarity.  Those familiar with her work understand the spectacular interpretations of beauty which solidify and imbue her wonderful brand of mastery over this, vernacular, this inviting vernacular.  Her use of white space only further proclaims that structure can have a profound effect vis-à-vis assault or dance, and this dichotomy indeed exists within her new collection The Moulding of Seers.  There are many questions in this book, questions of intellect, of philosophical investigation into revealing answers only visible to the discerning but to-be-praised searching individual.  With painful, but beautifully unique posits such as “He saw me as the black eye of waters”, “His eyes burnt me like wood and her hands / were nails”, “Words that I eat or spit - / vampirised language / of thunderous / (un)separated, / unborn-yet-undead being - / translated is-ness in the other / to be annihilated in screams.” and many other conceptual degrees of human form, —translate into a collection of poems that require a wide spectrum of emotion, for this wonderful poet will persuade and collect the reader into asking of themselves, emotion, and this investigation will profit oneself in myriad of fashions.

Felino Soriano, author of four books, including Feeling Through Mirages (Shadow Archer Press) and Exhibits Require Understanding Open Eyes  (Trainwreck Press).

'Petra Whiteley utilises the form of the chapbook and explores it fully in terms of the concepts and thematic 'wholes' it can encompass, offering the reader a full, cyclical experience that resounds with lasting impact and value.
 
The content and structure of the poetry itself is consistently stunning. Rich with quality and fertile with genuine meaning it grips the jugular and takes the reader on a breathtaking journey.
 
It would be easy to call this poetry 'dark' or 'gothic', but I much prefer brilliant and essential.'

 
- Antony Hitchin, Author of 'The Holy Hermaphrodite' (Shadow Archer Press), 'Outsider Writers' and 'Poetry Warrior' Feature Poet, published in numerous independent e-zines and journals.

"Petra Whiteley is a poet who galvanises the sprawling chaos of pain and sorrow. She does it in such a way as to make it beautiful, to make it poetic and to make it mean something in a world where we are all oblivious to the suffering of others and too preoccupied with the shallow indulgence of material wealth and aspirations, that we forget our spirit. Petra in her new collection "Moulding of Seers" show us this spirit in language both dark and powerful. Yet at times she expresses with great poignancy the gentle love within us all. This is a must read for any poetry fan!"

  — Graham Hardie, Editor of The Osprey Journal, The Glasgow Review and Eleutheria: The Scottish Poetry Review
 

Petra Whiteley writes with confidence from a rich imagination and deep well of life experience.  Her poetry peels away the surface of the readers’ emotions and enters directly with stark intensity.  Whiteley has the remarkable ability to capture the everyday and explode it into oracular visions.  She interrogates the world and delivers her findings with taut analysis.  “The Moulding of Seers” takes the reader on a journey through the absolute and the ephemeral, fusing ancient and modern.  It is a haunting collection from a unique poet writing at the peak of her powers.

Dale Winslow is a published poet, editor for NeoPoiesis Press and co-editor of the Poetry Ring feature for ETC: A Review of General Semantics.  She has a B.Sc. from the University of Guelph and a B.Ed. from the University of Victoria.   She lives in British Columbia, Canada.