“In her 26th book, Blue Lyrics, Toni Ortner---- through free-verse lyrics as well as tightly crafted prose poems in which she addresses and acknowledges Picasso, Van Gogh, Brueghel, Virginia Woolf, Hemingway, Adrienne Rich, and Diane Wakoski—hits all the big themes: family, love, loss, grief, the natural world, and the worlds of art, music, and literature, A sympathetic but never sentimental collection, Blue Lyrics is the ideal introduction to the universe of this accomplished poet.” —J.D.Solonche, author most recently of Selected Poems 2002-2021


“Toni Ortner’s blue surrealistic lyrics drenched in sorrow pierce our imagination with wonder. Her metaphysical questions behind the mask of death fracture expectation. “Is it one woman divided into five parts or five women?” Like Picasso’s LES DEMOISELLES d’AVIGNON, Ortner’s Cubism carries us home to enchantment.”—Terry Hauptman’s sixth book of poetry Rubies in the Mud will be followed by Fallen Angels which will accompany her upcoming exhibit of Mixed- Media scrolls.



Toni Ortner has had 25 books published by small presses in the United States. The most recent ones are Daybooks I and II by Deerbrook Editions and Daybook III Morning Is Long Since Gone by Ardent Writer Press. In 2022 Shadows and Silhouettes will be published by Kelsay Books, Flying Home Daybook IV by Deerbrook Editions, and Change of Season Daybook V by Ardent Writer Press. Toni hosts the Putney Library Writers’ Salon on Zoom the first Thursday of each month from 7-8 p.m. which features writers of fiction and poetry from Vermont and other states. This winter series is streamed live on Facebook. Go to putneylibrary.org Toni is Vice President of Write Action which is a nonprofit group that supports writers in Southern Vermont and the area of Brattleboro through a variety of events, readings, and contests. She lives in Putney, Vermont. Her website is toniortner.com where you can find her recent work, reviews of her books, and links to purchase them.



Title: Blue Lyrics: Poems

Author: C. Toni Ortner

Publisher: Adelaide Books

Publisher Website: https://adelaidebooks.org/

Publisher Email: [email protected]

ISBN: 978-1956635775

Price: $19.60

Page Count: 68 pages

Format: Paperback

Description of the company: ADELAIDE BOOKS LLC is a New York based independent company dedicated to publishing literary fiction and creative nonfiction. It was founded in July 2017 as an imprint of the Adelaide Literary Magazine, with the aim to facilitate publishing of novels, memoirs, and collections of short stories, poems, and essays by contributing authors of our magazine and other qualified writers.We believe that in doing so, we best fulfill the mission outlined in Adelaide Magazine – “to promote writers we publish, helping both new and emerging, and established authors reaching a wider literary audience.”

Our motto is: We don’t publish classics, we make classics.