Jan 18, 2009

Bird Scarer by Glenn Sheldon

Glenn Sheldon's debut collection of poetry, Bird Scarer, is joyous in its imagery, like love letters to lives lived on vacation. These poems showcase the poet's sense of humor–uneasy yet comfortable in that unease at the same time. Sheldon creates and recreates his own reality in these poems, and whether it’s a failed anarchists’ picnic, a troubled past he’s praising, or a home he’s forfeiting, he stakes his claim:


I can't go home (I'm a bird scarer). Better to

hit a dance club, that loud denial of reality.

Carol's Speakeasy or the club down

the street that changes its name weekly?

Yes, that one. This week it is Pegasus

and not The Bat Cave. The bouncer nods

as if a Pope-in-training, and I enter a world

without clocks or bill collectors (but for

the bartender). I'm here, wherever that is,

where everyone dresses in black like vampires. (from "Bird Scarer")


Sheldon's images are witty and unusual; they add a rhythm to the poems that makes Bird Scarer a fast but stimulating read. Every poem is anchored firmly in geography, be it a specific geography of cities or nations or a personal geography of relationships:


Streets are full of humans wearing

Carnival's glitter; their beer cologne

make paths toward sleep almost sticky.


The past can pass for the future, but for

the final wink. Forward to the next city.

You show up as a hint in a used bookstore. (from "Whose City is This?")


I am excited to see the next set of maps Sheldon draws for us: what geography will they hold? Where will the borders be? What will the countries of future lovers be named? In Bird Scarer, every image is sacred and every poem a sign post for a life you might want to live for a day. One can think in Michael Ondaatje's terms, that "Poetry is what is left unsaid," but from postcards and borrowed horoscopes to love letters and class wars, Sheldon's poetry has lots to say and will not be ignored.



Bird Scarer was published in 2008 by Červená Barva Press. You can buy Bird Scarer here: http://www.cervenabarvapress.com/

Jan 11, 2009

Our Parenthetical Ontology by Deborah Poe


Deborah Poe’s Our Parenthetical Ontology is like an rock-opera bound into a book. The poems in Poe’s book are pleasing tonally and visually. She uses the page as her stage and white space as an (in)visible prop to pull the reader through her lyrics. While confronting the slippery idea of what language can be, Poe keeps playing with the reader’s ear, keeps filling a reader’s mouth with sounds that tumble off their tongue:

She slipped and understood nothing; /

she did not discover genius, created no masterpiece /

leaving wine for language. /

She slipped. (from “There Was Language Inside Her, and She Slipped”)

Using the white space and playing with margins, the poems dance in conversation with the poet, the reader, and the poems themselves. Sometimes the poems have multiple voices, sometimes the poems are stage directions, and sometimes the poems are difficult answers for their own questions. An example of this comes in Poe’s long series “(W(e)a(St) Solo,”

how many sparrows scattering above?


do not expect

a number


for the such and such


beating


between

The white space is an important element in Poe’s poems; it is within that space where the reader is able to breathe and digest the poem. Poe’s work creates a rhythm that entrances the reader into a cycle of devouring and digesting. By the end of Our Parenthetical Ontology, this trance is pulling the reader through the pages, letting the reader get lost and (re)discovered in Poe’s language, which is sometimes gleeful, sometimes regretful, though always controlled. I await with baited breath this poet’s next collection.

Our Parenthetical Ontology was published in 2008 by CustomWords, an imprint of WordTech Communitcations L.L.C. Purchase it here: http://www.custom-words.com/poe.html or here: http://www.amazon.com/Our-Parenthetical-Ontology-Deborah-Poe/dp/1934999342/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231703025&sr=8-1

Jan 3, 2009

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