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mepresley's review
dark
funny
lighthearted
3.5
The blurb for this collection describes it as "speculative" and "fabulist," and it's certainly different from any other poetry collection I've encountered. I enjoyed it, though it doesn't evoke emotions or hit its stride with lyrical beauty so much as provoke imagination, surprise, and entertain. It's got some poems that are fairly light-hearted and funny, some that are darkly humorous, and some that are just dark, but all of them are extremely weird.
A few of the poems speak directly to each other via small details and there's one particular character, Felsenfeld, who appears in quite a few of them, including in one where he changes his name to No One and then to the "less formal Nobody" ("No One").
My favorite poems were "The Poker-Playing Dog Poetry Workshop," "The Expert," and "Nightstand."
"The Poker-Playing Dog Poetry Workshop"
I was leading the poetry
workshop that was famous for
being like the French Revolution
happening in reverse. My wit
flowed like a child riding a tricycle
in the calm eye of a hurricane. But
the students stared at me, as if I
were a slow-motion film of a
murder-suicide. ....
"The Expert"
I am an expert at dying in slow
motion. ...
....
...There are three
things you need for dying in slow
motion. The first is, you have to be
able to find thing in the dark.
....
...The third thing you
need for dying in slow motion is
unknown. Some say it is the
ability to appear to fall slowly and
to land softly.
Others say you have to long for
someplace or someone that never
existed. But I think if you knew
what the third thing was, you
would not be able to die in slow
motion. You would not be able to
die so slowly that those who have
paid to observe you die in slow
motion will be dead before your
limp body touches the ground.
"Nightstand" *
... A watch was in love with a
thief, but the thief had many
watches. He wore several on each
arm. Like most watches,
eventually it got sick of dreaming
....
...What to say about the
water bottle? It hardly exists,
having already failed as a river.
And the rain, tapping its fingers,
so impatient, hasn't it already
failed as a cloud?
Some other favorite lines:
"The iPod of Pithy"
...Your future
resembles the ancient past, when
withering gods strolled the earth.
"Gotta Have"
...There's got to be
crunching of hardtack in his
closed mouth to remind us of all
Daddy brought home from the
war. ....
"Tripod"
...A nearby
forest held the evening star
hostage. ...
...There were uninvited angels descending
rickety ladders in their overalls. It
was clear they had been drinking
again. Just then, sunset crumbled
into ice. ...
"Just Like Two People"
...I was also a panel on
Keeping the Faith. I was the
audience too--sometimes bored
and skeptical of my answers,
sometimes amused, but cautiously
so, like a lion tamer with
narcolepsy.
"Subservient Chicken"
...Now it's time to become a
famous painter you admire, for you have
stepped into a painting of the backyard;
each blade of grass stiff with intention,
each blade of grass awaiting further
instructions. ...
A few of the poems speak directly to each other via small details and there's one particular character, Felsenfeld, who appears in quite a few of them, including in one where he changes his name to No One and then to the "less formal Nobody" ("No One").
My favorite poems were "The Poker-Playing Dog Poetry Workshop," "The Expert," and "Nightstand."
"The Poker-Playing Dog Poetry Workshop"
I was leading the poetry
workshop that was famous for
being like the French Revolution
happening in reverse. My wit
flowed like a child riding a tricycle
in the calm eye of a hurricane. But
the students stared at me, as if I
were a slow-motion film of a
murder-suicide. ....
"The Expert"
I am an expert at dying in slow
motion. ...
....
...There are three
things you need for dying in slow
motion. The first is, you have to be
able to find thing in the dark.
....
...The third thing you
need for dying in slow motion is
unknown. Some say it is the
ability to appear to fall slowly and
to land softly.
Others say you have to long for
someplace or someone that never
existed. But I think if you knew
what the third thing was, you
would not be able to die in slow
motion. You would not be able to
die so slowly that those who have
paid to observe you die in slow
motion will be dead before your
limp body touches the ground.
"Nightstand" *
... A watch was in love with a
thief, but the thief had many
watches. He wore several on each
arm. Like most watches,
eventually it got sick of dreaming
....
...What to say about the
water bottle? It hardly exists,
having already failed as a river.
And the rain, tapping its fingers,
so impatient, hasn't it already
failed as a cloud?
Some other favorite lines:
"The iPod of Pithy"
...Your future
resembles the ancient past, when
withering gods strolled the earth.
"Gotta Have"
...There's got to be
crunching of hardtack in his
closed mouth to remind us of all
Daddy brought home from the
war. ....
"Tripod"
...A nearby
forest held the evening star
hostage. ...
...There were uninvited angels descending
rickety ladders in their overalls. It
was clear they had been drinking
again. Just then, sunset crumbled
into ice. ...
"Just Like Two People"
...I was also a panel on
Keeping the Faith. I was the
audience too--sometimes bored
and skeptical of my answers,
sometimes amused, but cautiously
so, like a lion tamer with
narcolepsy.
"Subservient Chicken"
...Now it's time to become a
famous painter you admire, for you have
stepped into a painting of the backyard;
each blade of grass stiff with intention,
each blade of grass awaiting further
instructions. ...
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