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angelsmomreads's review
5.0
On New Years Eve 2008 I hosted my first poetry open mic on Blogtalkradio, and the five years that followed I interviewed , and posted reviews weekly for hundreds of poets world wide. I posted on MySpace, Facebook, and had reviews published with numerous online zines. My greatest love was taking books into classrooms, and seeing children’s eyes light up hearing the authors read their work via phone. That is when poetry and writing was most alive with me, you could see the words flowing around the room, and excitement in the eyes of children: that through their eyes writing truly is an art that expands the senses and the heart, with poetry anything was possible.
But somehow I missed Howie Good. Shame on me…
This was a small tragedy, an incomplete agenda, a cake without frosting.
I had not read : the winner of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry which the cover art seemed to be inspired by Gary Snyder.
or the winner of the 2017 Lorien Prize.
My head spun from the number of times he had been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart prize. I spent several days reading interviews including one with the Boston Globe., and was saddened that there was not one review of his books on Amazon. There are 97 cited works on Good Reads including the book sent to me by independent press editor of Alien Buddha Press.
I was completely in awe.
The Titanic Sails at Dawn
The Titanic Sails at Dawn is Howie Good’s 98th recorded published work. Woody Allen once said, 99% of poetry is showing up, and Howard Good has been showing the world the meaning of life one poem at a time. At best estimate in his reality we are all a step right or left of being in a demilitarized zone of the Walking Dead. Reading his poetry you are surrounded by Edgar Allen Poe having a conversation with William S. Burroughs while Salvador Dali is painting the magical occurrence, and cinematography rights are being argued by Stanley Kubric and David Lynch. Metaphors are his best weapon, and structure is thrown at the wall with bloody hands; darts thrown to claim their target.
” We’re constantly searching for our reflections in the abyss of popular culture, We’re looking at every option we can to understand what is happening”.
I think I stared at this poem; ” Credo Inscribed on the Head of a Pin” for an hour. This poem made me want to apply to go back to school just to take his class to hear him think out loud. Good has nuggets of wisdom interspersed with stark reality of homelessness, murder, rage against the machine that makes the reader wonder is it real or just the reality reported on tv for ratings? Good states in several interviews that poetry is life being recorded; it is historic journalism in prose if we would just stop texting long enough to pay attention .Well Dr. Good I have not abandoned the semi-colon, and maybe if we enter the right elevator then we will be transported away from this alternate reality. We are not going “Head First Into the Abyss” with a start up compromised by meth cooks, glamorized by Breaking Bad; not yet. John Cusak is still in the street with a boombox waiting for the serendipitous glove to fall from the sky and then he will open his eyes in Paris, and not a moment too soon. The shadows have taken form , started walking towards us with archangel’s wings.As we pass in the Railroad named desire, the conductor comes out to check the passenger list; Kafka, Thoreau, Van Gogh, unnamed German philosophers and undocumented Holocaust survivors. Emerson grabs his arm and asks “Is this even real?” “Yes” Charlie Chan answers and deeply bows, “yes this is real Rabbit.”
Titanic Sails at Dawn is 54 pages of stark introspection flash fiction poetry. It is a surreal existential view of life with all of the ugly details spilling in pools on the floor while the reaper waits tapping his staff in the corner, among his other accolades I have added it to the Best Poetry of 2019 on Good Reads. While you log in to vote, I am opening my Kindle to read it again.
But somehow I missed Howie Good. Shame on me…
This was a small tragedy, an incomplete agenda, a cake without frosting.
I had not read : the winner of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry which the cover art seemed to be inspired by Gary Snyder.
or the winner of the 2017 Lorien Prize.
My head spun from the number of times he had been nominated for Best of the Net and the Pushcart prize. I spent several days reading interviews including one with the Boston Globe., and was saddened that there was not one review of his books on Amazon. There are 97 cited works on Good Reads including the book sent to me by independent press editor of Alien Buddha Press.
I was completely in awe.
The Titanic Sails at Dawn
The Titanic Sails at Dawn is Howie Good’s 98th recorded published work. Woody Allen once said, 99% of poetry is showing up, and Howard Good has been showing the world the meaning of life one poem at a time. At best estimate in his reality we are all a step right or left of being in a demilitarized zone of the Walking Dead. Reading his poetry you are surrounded by Edgar Allen Poe having a conversation with William S. Burroughs while Salvador Dali is painting the magical occurrence, and cinematography rights are being argued by Stanley Kubric and David Lynch. Metaphors are his best weapon, and structure is thrown at the wall with bloody hands; darts thrown to claim their target.
” We’re constantly searching for our reflections in the abyss of popular culture, We’re looking at every option we can to understand what is happening”.
I think I stared at this poem; ” Credo Inscribed on the Head of a Pin” for an hour. This poem made me want to apply to go back to school just to take his class to hear him think out loud. Good has nuggets of wisdom interspersed with stark reality of homelessness, murder, rage against the machine that makes the reader wonder is it real or just the reality reported on tv for ratings? Good states in several interviews that poetry is life being recorded; it is historic journalism in prose if we would just stop texting long enough to pay attention .Well Dr. Good I have not abandoned the semi-colon, and maybe if we enter the right elevator then we will be transported away from this alternate reality. We are not going “Head First Into the Abyss” with a start up compromised by meth cooks, glamorized by Breaking Bad; not yet. John Cusak is still in the street with a boombox waiting for the serendipitous glove to fall from the sky and then he will open his eyes in Paris, and not a moment too soon. The shadows have taken form , started walking towards us with archangel’s wings.As we pass in the Railroad named desire, the conductor comes out to check the passenger list; Kafka, Thoreau, Van Gogh, unnamed German philosophers and undocumented Holocaust survivors. Emerson grabs his arm and asks “Is this even real?” “Yes” Charlie Chan answers and deeply bows, “yes this is real Rabbit.”
Titanic Sails at Dawn is 54 pages of stark introspection flash fiction poetry. It is a surreal existential view of life with all of the ugly details spilling in pools on the floor while the reaper waits tapping his staff in the corner, among his other accolades I have added it to the Best Poetry of 2019 on Good Reads. While you log in to vote, I am opening my Kindle to read it again.
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