Apperceptions of Reinterpretations (Calliope Nerve Media), poetry by Felino Soriano, Reviewed by Lynn Alexander.
Felino Soriano has this amazing ability to weave a multi-dimensional scene replete with hidden histories and surmised contexts from works of art. I first became familiar with these poems from the work published in Full of Crow Poetry, then set out to find and read more of his work. I soon made my way to his website and then to this “e-chapbook” at Calliope Nerve. Continue reading
Ceilings, by Jeffrey S. Callico. Poetry. Reviewed By Lynn Alexander.
Ceilings is not at all what I expected from Jeff Callico, but there it is: simple language, clear, cool, basic. They sit there, these short lines on these open white pages. You are alone with the poems.
I am familiar with a lot of Jeff Callico’s short fiction at this point, he has a certain way of presenting language, and he is not one to embellish. He has a style that is recognizable to me now, made up of linking certain lines, his repetition, this strange deconstruction of his observations of behaviors, reducing things down.To what? To their basic elements. Continue reading
I admit that I’m biased. I have been a fan of Christopher Luna’s poetry for years and I have high expectations, particularly since I know how dedicated he is- not only to the craft but to the communities that can be formed and nurtured around creative work.
Ghost Town, USA refers to the poet’s town of Vancouver, Washington, a town in the shadow of the infamous Portland. The name comes from his first impressions of the town- a place without people, even in the middle of the afternoon. For a transplanted New Yorker, this can be unsettling, and for a poet like Christopher Luna who writes from a place so rooted in observations of the tangible, one can imagine how difficult it must have been in the beginning as he struggled to get used to the silence. Continue reading
“A White Girl Lynching” by Elizabeth P. Glixman is an offering from Pudding House, an independent publisher of poetry with a reputation for selecting manuscripts from poets who “do right” by their art, meaning poets who give dutiful consideration to the process in terms of poetry as craft. Glixman’s commitment is apparent in this chapbook, as she accomplishes what she set out to do: explore “our ‘feeling’ natures as symbolized by poetry”.
In particular, Glixman looks at human dignity, and how the affirmation of dignity relates to her hopes for a more just and united world where people are better able to coexist peacefully mindful of the validity and benefit of our differences. When Glixman speaks of “lynching” she is no doubt aware of the historical context of the word and it’s connection to violence, persecution, violation. She seems to have chosen the word to suggest in a very powerful and forthright way that lynching is both a physical act and a social act, whereby people are stripped of an “important element of individual dignity”.(Preface,Glixman) Continue reading
Amor de Lonh by Gabriel Olearnik, Guest Reviewed by Grace Andreacchi
Andromache Books, London, 2009
The composer Robert Schumann once described the music of the man who is still arguably the Pole par excellence to the non-Polish world, Frédéric Chopin, as ‘a cannon buried in flowers’, and this isn’t a bad description of what the Polish-British poet Gabriel Olearnik is up to either. To carry the analogy a bit further, as Chopin built upon the old classical style with new, exciting harmonies, so Olearnik makes use of the rich traditions of the medieval troubadours as well as those found in such deeply reflective and intellectual poets as T.S. Eliot and Zbigniew Herbert to create a burning bright new poetry of the mind.
There is of course an earlier poetical work known as Amor de Lonh, that of the twelfth century prince, Jaufré Rudel. His enigmatic verses on the theme of distant love serve as a template for this new Amor de Lonh, in which every kind of obstacle, both internal and external, must be vanquished before the soul is free to fly upwards towards its goal. Olearnik’s book opens with a translation from the French troubadour. Continue reading
As with all the chaps to be born at Blackheath Books, Geraint Hughes hand-crafted collection “this is it….,” has a warmth both inside and out. This 20 poem collection speaks to personal journeys in times of change that can really only be traversed alone. It recounts touching moments prior to and after the death of Geraint’s father.
The work ranges from introspective questioning in poems like “poem on the night I heard my father will die” and “the journey” to the subconscious tensions that surround a person in grief in poems like “hammering the nails in” and “I know what men are like”. Interspersed in between are hints of joy and shadows of anger. He finds comfort in the paper and pen at a time when nothing one can say will ease the projected burden of death.
Geraint is at his best in “as Thoreau said” and in the very touching poem “the old wardrobe”:
“I thanked you for everything
Not just for what you’d done
Mostly what you hadn’t
Just for being there
I kept checking, as you cooled
And when they came for you
Mum asked for your wedding ring
And I got it for her”
Geraint Hughes’ collection “this is it….” Speaks to the rollercoaster ride that is loss, how in it there are moments of quiet contemplation, sadness, joy, anger, and hope, even if it feels backhanded. This is a fine chap to place on your nightstand to just remind you of what you have and to be thankful.
I received in the mail a package from Roger Aplon, who is a participant in this year’s OW Chap Swap, and was pleasantly surprised.
He is a well educated writer from many places around the world, but makes his home now in San Diego, CA. I was drawn to the brilliantly red cover of Escapades which was designed by Jane Darroch Riley. For the life of me, I could not find a publisher on this little chap so one must assume he has produced this himself. It is a beautiful book for being self published with richly textured cardstock and crisp white pages laced with delicate typeface. Continue reading
“Poet Laureate Of A Dirty Garage” by Wayne Mason, erbacce-press, 2009.
Wayne Mason has been lauded as a working man’s poet and that is clearly defined in this collection of poems published by erbacce-press. Poet Laureate Of A Dirty Garage is equal parts blue collar factory man, lone writer, and side-car Buddhist.
He is at his best in the poems “Defeated On Monday Morning”, “Poet Laureate of My Garage”, “Martyrs”, and “Swing Your Pen Like A Hammer And Sickle”. Wayne understands the essence of the common man and how hard it is to find glimmers of hope amongst the day to day plodding movements of punching the clock. He explores the idea that his words can chip away at this monotony, but that they might not save any lives from the factory….except his own.
Wayne grazes over images of Buddha in this collection, but does not dig very deep though his fascination is noted. The recurrent mention of Buddha speaks to “what if” there is something more than this continuous factory life that maybe something exists beyond the things that might make life so hard.
My favorite poem in this 18 poem collection is “Dreaming of Han Shan”.
“I was only 16
when I read the
cold mountain
poems of
Han Shan and
the simplicity
like Chinese
brush strokes
on rice paper
kicked me
in the gut
and more
than ever I
saw the truth”
This collection speaks for the factory worker and begins to stretch its arms out to new age ideas. This chap by Wayne Mason can be purchased from erbacce-press by going to: www.erbacce-press.com for more details.
Christopher Luna: Collage, in Full of Crow Galleries. “Revved -Up Revisionists”
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Revved-Up Revisionists
Christopher Luna is one of the featured artists for 2009 in the Full of Crow Galleries, a virtual showcase for artists of diverse backgrounds working with mixed media and formats: mail art, collage, digital art, photography, vispo, graphic art.
Luna’s art shares elements with his poetry: pop culture icons, the juxtaposition of text and celebrities and symbols and at times- some pretty unlikely combinations that intrigue and perplex.
A follower of his art and poetry would recognize immediately that he returns in these pieces, as always, to the role of observer and recorder, witness and messenger through positioning and context. Consider Spacious Interior: Two figures are facing the couple, observing them. Two faces, perhaps perceiving the couple in different ways. They are different faces, in scale and presentation. They both face the couple- what are they saying about space, about relationships, about intimacy and the ways people can be close, yet maintain boundaries in their spaces? The larger face looks down, looming with glasses, almost to evoke the silent observer of The Great Gatsby in the Wasteland scenery, who serves as an omniscient-type critic.(Continued) Continue reading
“Acres” by Bill Shute, Kendra Steiner Editions, #131, 2009.
What have we become? If observing the industrial minicosm of Bill Shute’s Acres can tell us anything, it’s that we are increasingly a society as he concludes: without ideas, only things.
And so he takes us through a setting of things: buildings with their smoky windows, paradoxical images, elements of nature and industry where natural stones have been unnaturally chiseled into angular structures of utility. Three old oaks are contained in this development, as though their natural context could be chiseled and contrived as well, in a median surrounded by pavement.
Steel poles with their boxy light fixtures (again, angular) challenge the claims of the old oaks, rivals in the vertical spaces. They are as towers contrived not by the needs of nature and biology, but rising from the plans of civilization.
In these acres, the landscape is reconfigured, and ironically the speaker is observing a space where what is natural is out of place: walking instead of driving? Only if there’s a compelling reason. Nature itself is reduced to a design element. Is he such an element? Where does he fit in?
This book is a short read, it aims to present a series of observations but trusts the reader’s ability to draw conclusions without overtly preaching or doling out judgment with a heavy pen. We can infer certain things, particularly about social stratification and this idea of “other” that is explored in both the natural versus industrial comparison, and in the physical barriers. Shute’s acres are stratified: gated communities, neighborhoods and buildings that are off limits, pedestrians versus drivers, participants and observers. Perhaps the message hits home here: where food is “eaten by those family members able to make it”.
What is he saying about progress, and the table that is our collective largess, our bounty? The speaker is of the space, but apart from the space, aligned with the outsider, the pedestrian. The speaker is aligned with the oaks in the median, the carved hills, the absent.
“Acres”, Bill Shute. Kendra Steiner Editions, # 131. 2009
