BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - s4story -- From the back cover

The writing in Toni Ortner's Daybook 1 is lyrical but rooted in present tense, observations deeply felt.
  It consists of spiritual musings, political musings, musings about Life. The writing is unselfconscious, but finely hewn.
  At times it's difficult to tell if a scenario is imagined or "real" which for me enhanced my engagement and enjoyment. After all, the imagined can seem to the imaginer more real than "reality;" dreams can take on a life of their own and impact our relationship with the embodied world. Ortner seems to find expansion, reflection in the dream world. It adds a rich texture to the passages here.

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  There can be deadpan humor when imagination mixes with the banal as in recollecting the figure of Death from a dream: He stood there with a raincoat slung over his shoulder. He was chewing gum. It smelled like Dentine.
  That it is all together in "Daybook"––dream, thought, memory, event creates a fluid landscape that captures well the interstices between a rich inner life and its sometimes difficult-to-navigate outer manifestations.
  —Arlene Distler

In Daybook 1 Toni Ortner gives us apocalyptical visions, truths from the kind of life our society has lead, leads now and could lead. In Daybook all of us become immigrants in the journeys of our own lives, where we may be cast in a Noah's ark upon a sea of deep despair. These prose and free verse poems grieve the larger world.
  —Tim Mayo

This would be Steinbeck if he hadn't fooled around in other people's kitchens. This is a full-score Cohen with two more notes, not reaching anywhere, but ever taking in.

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  There are hiding demons in the text waiting to pierce you, and there are non-resident angels flirting with sin.
  —Phil Innes, Vermont Views Magazine

About the author

Toni Ortner is a poet and author who lives in Brattleboro, Vermont. She has 16 books that have been published by fine small presses, 14 of which are poetry books. She is Vice President of the Write Action Board that supports writers in New England through readings and other events. Her work has appeared frequently at vermontviews.org.

Daybook 1 is available now from Deerbrook Editions https://www.deerbrookeditions.com/daybook-i/

Coming out in August
7 x 10 inch deluxe paperback
64 pages $17.50
ISBN: 978-0-9600293-2-7