Perturbance is a collection of poems composed using a special short form; that form is called a Sevenling. The poems are brief, but thought provoking. This is poetry that remains close to the earth but travels well in this tech driven 21st century. With Perturbance we have a whole flock of Sevenlings + a bonus essay. A Sevenling is a little bird, ahem, poem, consisting of seven lines; it's very quick, terse. It enters and creates this immediate and impressive burst in the psyche. It leaves an air of mystery, which is part of its captivating charm. It can come on like a mini-fireworks display, or it can surprise you like sudden downpour. The experience of reading Sevenlings is similar to connecting with haiku or tanka, but with a more agitated feel. The Sevenling originated with Russian poet Anna Akhmatova, who is recognized as a premier writer in the early 20th century. The form has been taken up, tweaked, and modified by poet Roddy Lumsden, and others. The poems ordinarily don't have titles, but use instead the first line as the title; that tradition has been kept in this work. Perturbance basically means disturbance, but perturbance, the word, widens the connotative field to take in deeper interactive, affective processes. In other words, it's all perturbance; it's all in the moving with, passing through, interacting with what is all around us--that outside we feel separated from to whatever degree. . . . Where and what is Perturbance? Perturbance is in the mind, perturbance is in the sky, perturbance is in the earth, the soil, the rivers, the oceans, perturbance is in the body, perturbance is in the spirit, perturbance is both a shady presence and a catalyst toward some action, if only the leap at utterance. (From the Introduction to Perturbance) Culled from the writer's journal, these little poems are the result of working within certain constraints in the belief that it makes the writing better in the long run. These flash entries show sensitivity to environmental concerns, the nature of form, light, time, the power of change, and the awesomeness of consciousness, awareness, aliveness, the phenomenal interface with the world and with the universe. Go on, then, set this flock of Sevenlings free, open the book, read, and watch them fly and soar; look, up in the sky, it's a murmuration of Sevenlings.
About the Author: Bill Bowling is a teacher turned writer. Well, in actuality he has always been a writer who has been a teacher as well as the wearer of many other hats in the grassroots pursuit of means to put food on the table--he has worn a factory worker hat, an orderly hat, a landscaper hat, a camp counselor hat, a roofer hat, a mover hat, a restaurant worker hat, and many, many other hats that made him rich in experience but threadbare in appearance. He does, however, hold a master's degree in education, and through it all the passion for writing remains. When he isn't pecking around on the keyboard till his eyes go googly-goo, he makes jewelry, pursues an interest in art, likes geocaching, loves being out in nature, hiking, and oh, yes he plays guitar, and a mean didgeridoo.