Books and Recordings

SHOP >

Falling onto the Ground - A Collection of Autumn Leaf Prints with Seasonal Poems

This beautifully designed collection of Haiku, Tanka, and Lanterne poems paired with Autumn Leaf Prints honors the fleeting glory of autumn and its transition into the contemplative grace of the bare winter landscape. These poems are precise flashes of presence, unrehearsed, deciduous, and transient, like leaves. The 41 full-color leaf prints also offer an educational insight into the varietals of trees that inhabit the northeastern part of the United States. It is art inspired by the sacredness of creation.  

*This book was published by the Stony Point Center, a multi-faith retreat center in the Lower Hudson River Valley, where Jake served as the artist-in-residence from September 2017 - May 2018.  It was printed in the U.S.A. on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with plant-based inks.

Nomadic Devotion - A Contemporary Inquiry into the Poetics of Place

First and Second Printings Sold Out; Third Printing Available

The prose poems, or vignettes, within this book, which are divided into six locational groupings,  reveal that deep inquiry into the poetics of place can have a profound effect on our art, psyches, souls, interpersonal relationships, communities, and ultimately our cosmologies.  When read together, these writings take the reader on a journey throughout various seasonal locales in North America, awakening us to the shamanic powers of place, and our entire environment’s trans-formative effects upon us.  

In addition, the author includes two contemplative essays on the poetics of place.  One utilizes religious, philosophical, and sociological nuances to holistically explore the topic.  The second self-reflects on the various locational groupings and their evolutionary lessons.  Nomadic Devotion takes the deep study of locality, and through its contemplative poetic lens, renders it approachable to anyone with an interest in the poetics of place. 

*This book was published by Nomadic Devotion Books and printed in the U.S.A. on recycled paper with plant-based inks.

Blue Collar Nomad - The Literary Reflections of a Grassroots Pilgrim

This deeply engaging collection of travel essays explores the environmental, cultural, and spiritual topography of North America through the rhythmic lens of a nomadic soul.  These atmospheric narratives blend genuine working class ethics with jazzy intuitive prose in order to transport readers deep into various localities and communities in the United States and Canada.  Each essay presents a meaningful dialogue between the author and a cast of alternative and/or marginalized characters which explore what it means to be in-place, to feel out-of-place, and the idea/reality of home in a postmodern, materialistic world.

Reviews

"Blue Collar Nomad is a serene collection of meditations on self, time, and place in the 21st century American landscape. Evoking the spiritual quests of Jon Krakauer, Jack Kerouac, and Henry David Thoreau, this collection of poems, narratives, and essays affirms one’s faith in the power of language to root and restore a world of one. For anyone searching for the Church of the Blue Sky, reading Jake Kaida is a must.” 

~Nancy M. Grace, author, Breaking the Rule of Cool

"Jake Kaida found spiritual discipline in the nomadic lifestyle and sustained it with the gift of intuitive grace. Above all, Kaida learned about showing up and being present. His personal journey is beautifully told in Blue Collar Nomad in both prose and poem."

~Christine Cote, editor, Stone Voices Journal

*This book was published by Nomadic Devotion Books and printed in the U.S.A. on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with plant-based inks.

Miami Session - A Spontaneous Jazz and Poetry Recording

Sold Out

Miami Session is the product of an unrehearsed, one-take, jazz and poetry collaboration between renowned pianist Eddie Higgins and poet Paul Jacob (Jake), It was released in a limited edition as a homage to that moment in time when two artists, Eddie, a world famous jazz musician, and Jake, a young writer coming into his own, collaborated together in the midst of palm trees and enduring pastel sunsets in the autumn of 1999 in a recording studio in South Florida. 

*This album was published by Nomadic Devotion Books and printed in the U.S.A. utilizing recycled materials and plant-based inks.

Click to listen to a sample of the Miami Session album on Youtube.