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Overview
In 2004 an American businessman was invited to Moscow to explain a new technical development to the Government there. Little did he know that this would the beginning of life altering process leading to the love he had always sought but never found as well as a way back to a career as an artist that had escaped him. Between 2004 and 2013 he discovered not only the perils of life in Moscow but also something of the beauty and humanity of its people. Despite many personal struggles he, along with the woman who would later become his wife, overcame many of the issues inherent in an intergenerational and cross-cultural relationship and made it, literally, and sometimes nearly at the cost of their lives, to the other side. Many tragic events in Russia framed his time there but the most profound personal impact was felt by the murder, in October 2006, of his neighbor at Lesnaya 8, the journalist Anna Politkovskaya. The clearly political Politkovskaya killing sounded the death knell for a free press in Russia and the ever-tightening grip of Putin’s regime on all aspects of life there. Though most Russians support Putin both the author and his wife were deeply moved by the few who struggle against him and were proud to know some of the artists and intellectuals emblematic of what little true resistance remains there. A love for these few is expressed in many of the poems in the book. Be it on the sidewalk on Tverskaya Street, in the Metro, Restaurants or Clubs, ‘The Moscow Poetry File’ gives the reader, in poetic form, a true insight into life there and the danger as well as the excitement inherent in virtually every aspect of daily life. The book is also a great love story and depicts the struggle of two people finding their way to each other despite enormous odds. This struggle, and the triumph of love and mutual respect over adversity is an underlying theme in the book that is depicted with telling effect. ‘The Moscow Poetry File’, which has been anthologized in the ‘Temptation’ anthology published by Lost Tower in London, is a compelling view of a dynamic place at a tragic and pivotal time. With “all things Russian” much in the news since the advent of Trump this detailed American perspective, from the ground level, is a unique study, in verse, of a society and culture still mysterious and perplexing to the Western eye.
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781635343359 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Finishing Line Press |
| Publication date: | 11/17/2017 |
| Pages: | 168 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.39(d) |
About the Author
After many years of involvement in an ongoing international business career that involved travel to over 90 different countries (including an intense, sometimes perilous, engagement with Russia between 2004-2013) he returned to writing poetry in 2011.
Recently he has had poems presented in two issues of Poetry Quarterly and in the Temptation anthology published in London by Lost Tower Publications. Work has also appeared in Leannan Magazine, Sein und Werden, at In Between Hangovers, Red Wolf Journal, The Lost River Review and Perfume River Poetry Review. A poem regarding the Trump inauguration will appear shortly in an anthology to be published by Poets for Sanctuary (formerly known as Poets Against Trump). The Moscow Poetry File is his first full length publication.
His second full length book of poems, The Far Visible, was completed in 2016 and is now under review for publication.
In 2017 Huey is in the final stages of a yet to be titled, 70 longer form poem book, involving the years 1966-1972. He was a 'charter member' of that generation and has not been satisfied with much of what he has seen in print and on film about that often trivialized and misunderstood era. This new work is an attempt to take another look at those years and to hopefully contribute to the ongoing study of those times.
In 2018, he is planning to start work in earnest on his first novel, The Lost Andy's, and he is looking forward to that adventure.
Further information is available on the web at www.john-huey.com.
Table of Contents
Early Days: The Girls At The Center Of The City
The Moment Being What You Make It 1
Which Highway? 2
Short Coats and High Heels 3
Snowy Evening 4
Night Train 5
Road Stop 6
Third Ring Road 2:45 AM 7
Great Novgorod Summer 2005 8
Libertines of the Golden Ring 10
Strippers 11
Miramistin 13
Sex 15
Altered States 16
Lust 18
Dark Underground 19
Truck Driver Girls 21
Looks, Stares, Time 22
Equivalence 23
Progression: Her, Herself, Alone
A Fire in Winter 27
A Walk in the Snow 28
Beauty 29
Arrival 30
The Bread of the Gorbushka Bazaar 31
Night Watch 32
At the Hall of the Pioneers 33
When Deadly Night is At Your Door 35
The Girl in the Tunnel 37
Vipers in the Hallway 39
The Streets Rise Up At Dawn 41
Moscow River Drive 5:00 AM 42
Landscapes
East of Moscow – The Woods 45
A Place With No Top 46
Moscow River Zen 47
The Towers That Rise From the River 49
A Pulse in the Skyline 51
Horizon to Horizon 52
Boulevard Ring – Twilight 2007 53
New Years Day – The Boys in the Square 54
Crossing the Garden Ring 56
A Journey, a Bridge, a Town 57
Volga Crossing 58
Spend It All 59
Voices in a Foreign Room 61
Run of the Town 62
This Is Still a Moscow Story 63
Politics, History, Art
Anna 67
Motorcade 68
And You Thought You Found Your Place With God? 70
The Siloviki 72
Lubyanka 73
Leon 74
Red Factory 76
The Thread 78
Painter 80
“Leosha” 81
Maximalism 82
Mayakovski 83
Yesenin in the Lobby Bar of the Angleterre Hotel 85
The Broken City: Disorder in the New Town
Moscow Minus 21 89
Jealousy 90
Sleep 91
Trans-Siberian Blue 92
Twilight of the Patriarch 93
Adventurers 94
When You Know Just What You Are 95
Nights in Calm Reflection 96
Traces 97
May the River of Life Flow Through You 98
Nighttime and the Idealist 99
The Light in the Eye 100
On the Nature and Occasion of Sin 101
Night Lounge Delhi 102
Lives of Magic 103
Outlaws 104
Cost 105
Images in Another Night 106
Fate 107
My Lost Poem 108
Open City 109
Job One 110
Home At Last
Will You Walk This Way With Me Again? 113
The Window (Moscow Slight Return) 114
The Streets near Tverskaya 115
When You Are Young and Filled With Wonder 116
Fidelity and the Greedy Eye 117
The Picture 118
Coda: Last Visit To A Dark Town
Into the Grey, Moscow, February 2013 121
The Order of the Line/Embassy Dawn 9:00AM 123
Noontime Dom Knigi 125
Gulag 127
The Door of the Ukrainian Cafe/ 129
Driving Naked 130
Borders 132
The Old Traveler 133
Three Years Out – Moscow – Day and Night 134
Glossary 137