Friday, April 20, 2007
Books (so happily!) Received :
(and it only took ten days from Los Angeles *)
A MOST WELCOME SURPRISE IN MY MAIL YESTERDAY . . .
**harry k stammer's new book**
TENTS !!
(from Otoliths Press, expertly edited by poet Mark Young, 2007: with all design work done by author/artist, harry k stammer--and allow me to say the design work is something special indeed, Y'all)
To celebrate the arrival here in Bahrain of harry k stammer's exquiste Tents, I offer a sampling of the work, and I urge you readers to look into acquiring Tents of your own to read and view, given that, in addition to the poems-as-traditional-print-mode, the book contains many of the vizpo works that harry is also well known for combining/creating (not least of which is the book cover but pleeez do also check out the opening image: "acutescalene"--an apocalypse of (to be a little) (mimetic) lettering [home][less], all-guised as something 'everyday' norm[ed]), all the text so [yeah, say it:] sexily intertwined together at the very atomic levels of creation, reasserting the bases of life, and at the same time the problems of our social and linguistic denials of them -- for instance, the voices of homeless folk of the US street, who with no protections, daily hazard the worst of our flotsam . . . alas.
In part, this ability of harry's to capture the ongoingness of everyday street (and other) voices en medias ras is what drew me in 2003 as a reader to his work. You go, harrykstammer, for going forth, bringing out perspectives in and out of the texts that highlight the personalized yet no less the civitas of urgent questions in particular spaces, places and moments today.
& for my lovely Texfiles readers, then: Y'all, do check out this sample:
* * *
"wall came down"
coming imagine it's prose [all] goes [verse] propose shadow assemblies "sure, you're too smart," laugh suffer whistle it chaotic (it's) mean ing(less) works up to the knees over the wall (: wait sure history ) what smacking lips two tooth to smile
"sure, cold & stings"
numb thighs dots (across eyes) lines kerned out letters floating "on fire" formed 3 inch curved edge over into (gutter) water trash fingers playing dipped catch/caught filtered (ing) paper floss muscles seize (butts) newspaper in a plastic bag high wall "formless chaos
any meaning as," burn trash fire
(13)
* * *
loss breath
gets ready "that it is for sleep, none that is not" expense tired (e) resembles it red functioning tired soon raised drained low pressure blood for [sustentation that calcining] that it drains little force that force (point) "adhesive ribbon above, now hey" forced below drain expense it assaulted breath loss ransack't intercourse dollar unit
fatigued (breathing slow) forced (assault) ear heart pump (ing) bowl shape "into measure, oblivious, unresolved" intercourse ransack run abrupt treated (stale precise less) pains chest (opens out) three weeks out "the drizzle is thicker, now as" water draining (or what) ankle block (age) dragging left right ache
(23)
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