Where Grasses Bend: Poems from Portland to Steens mountain in the time of plagues

March 2020. America began to shut down due to the Sars-COVID pandemic. Travel was halted. Workers were required to stay home. Medical facilities became flooded with sick and dying patients. Senior living homes locked their doors to family members. But what of the lovers? Part l of this book is dedicated to all the lovers who were separated by the pandemic, who could no longer access love, human contact, and intimacy, for what is a world without love? The poems in Part II were written about our country's declining state, the growing rate of poverty due to the pandemic, and the deconstruction of humanity that has taken place during the past 3 years of Covid. As the years of the pandemic suffered on and hatred festered in the United States, my partner and I decided to move away from the insanity of the city for the open wilderness of Oregon where we could once again breathe deeply, living our lives regenerating love while becoming stewards of this beautiful land upon which we live. The poems in Part lll are an homage to desert life in the wilderness.

About the Author :
Mimi German is a poet and subversive artist dividing her time between life in the wilderness of Oregon's Steens Mt. and the urban strife of Portland, OR. Her first book of poetry, Beneath the Gravel Weight of Stars, was released in 2022 weaving her experiences as an advocate for unhoused Portlanders through poetry. Born a wanderer, Mimi left Philadelphia for NY in '82 for college. It was in NYC during the Reagan Administration that her first of a few non-violent disobedient arrests occurred. After college she joined the peace movement, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now), in Israel arriving just before the first Palestinian uprising. After returning to the US, Mimi split time between Cambridge, MA, and Halifax, Nova Scotia eking together money through nude modeling and as a musician busking on the streets of Halifax and Cambridge. In 1995, Mimi hit the road to head west to Oregon where she still resides. In 1997, Mimi was arrested again, this time on Shoshone land in Nevada with the late Chief Corbin Harney protesting against a proposed uranium dumpsite. In 2011 after the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Mimi started an international group called RadCast which documented citizen radiation readings post-Fukushima, from around the globe. She was often asked to speak about the reality of radioactive toxicity around the globe on national and international talk shows. She was a frequent guest on Michael J. Ruppert's show, The Lifeboat Hour, and had a special weekly spot for radiation readings on Thom Hartman's show. After many years after it was clear that we as a society would never be rid of nuclear power, Mimi chose to act locally instead by doing direct support for unhoused people in Portland, OR. She is still doing that work today. Mimi is co-teaching an ongoing poetry workshop with unhoused poets at the offices of Street Roots, a newspaper written by the Portland unhoused community. Where Grasses Bend is Mimi's second book of poetry that was written from the start of the pandemic through today. The poems are about loss, longing, humanity, and the regeneration of Love as it presents itself in the wilderness of Oregon. Mimi's poetry has been published in the New Generation Beats Anthology 2022 and in the National Beat Poetry Foundation's, Remembering Jack Kerouac On His 100th Birthday. Her poems have also been published in the UK in International Times (IT), Steel JackDaw Magazine, and in the US, Sublunary Review, The Hopper Magazine, The Mantle, Three Line Poetry (Vols. 51/52), New Verse News, and was a finalist in The Poetry Box and The Hopper for best chapbook manuscript. Her poems can also be found in the testimony files of Portland City Council sessions between 2017-2020. Beat Poet Laureate for the State of Oregon

Review :
"A paean to love in the time of plagues, a poignant precise elucidation of the desolation row death of the American Dream, and a rapturous ode to the mysterium tremendum the awe inspiring terrible beauty of the high desert. With raven eyed razor sharp lyricism Mimi German's WHERE GRASSES BEND is a masterpiece of poetry." --Ron Whitehead, Lifetime Beat Poet Laureate "Mimi's verses elevate and embrace the voices of the vulnerable, forgotten, and disenfranchised. These words are weapons sheathed in love." --Peggy & Brian Manning, Owner's of Revolutions Bookshop Portland, OR "German is a grit queen of the outlaw rebel poet tradition, of the oral tradition of the Beats, Howling in anger and truth." ---Karlostheunhappy, International Beat Poet Laureate (England) 2022-2023 I love these new poems by poet/Beatmaster, Mimi German. I recommend you get a copy of Where Grasses Bend, but instead of reading the poems alone--at least--on the first time through--read them with a friend... --Dennis Bernstein, Poet and Award Winning Investigative Journalist, Host of Flashpoints on Pacifica's KPFA station. They come to me like Sapho's poems, which I like very much. ---Dr. Ignacio Gotz, Professor Emeritus (Philosophy and Religion) Hofstra University Words like waves of memories longing... ----Michael Orr, Intermedia Artist of Visual Poetry