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12th out of 100 books
—
8 voters
The First Risk
by
Charles Jensen (Goodreads Author)
In four extended sequences, The First Risk confronts the murder of Matthew Shepard and the myth of Venus and Adonis through the eyes of Italian Renaissance painter Luca Cambiaso; the eccentric women of Pedro Almodovar's All About My Mother and their search for authenticity; the nature of love and obsession in Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and the pain and confusion of loss; a...more
Paperback, 88 pages
Published
September 1st 2009
by Lethe Press
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Jan 09, 2010
Sean
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommended to Sean by:
Charles
Shelves:
glbtq2-interest,
poetry
I don't remember finding out about Matthew Shepard's slaying. I was seventeen when it happened, a self-hating closeted gay Mormon, halfway through my first semester at Brigham Young University. Did I think he deserved it, the way I thought gays deserved to die of AIDS for their sins? I hope not, but I'm afraid to remember too well.
The first section—"Safe"—interw...more
I am the failure of the body to remain a boy,
I am the remains of a boy, the body of his failure. ("I Am the Boy Who Is Tied Down", p. 7)
The first section—"Safe"—interw...more
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I absolutely loved this collection.
That said, the early section dealing with the death of Matthew Shepard did throw me a little bit. Having lived in Laramie at the time and being close to the situation, there were a couple of factual mis-steps, I felt. I had to come to the realization that (this section - as well as a lot of) poetry is more concerned with the statement over the truth. Once I let things go, it was easier to meet the poet on their own ground and really appreciate what they have ac...more
That said, the early section dealing with the death of Matthew Shepard did throw me a little bit. Having lived in Laramie at the time and being close to the situation, there were a couple of factual mis-steps, I felt. I had to come to the realization that (this section - as well as a lot of) poetry is more concerned with the statement over the truth. Once I let things go, it was easier to meet the poet on their own ground and really appreciate what they have ac...more
Beautiful poems; beautifully arranged and constructed collection--divided into 4 sections with different subject matter, so to speak, but all share the same concerns (self (re)construction). It's no accident that the cover image is a partial person.
If I had to choose a favorite poem, I'd say "I am the boy who is tied down." Eerily calm, incantatory statements shoved inside an unspeakably heartbreaking catastrophe:
"I am the boy who is tied down.
I am the moon. A boy is tied down to a fence by h...more
If I had to choose a favorite poem, I'd say "I am the boy who is tied down." Eerily calm, incantatory statements shoved inside an unspeakably heartbreaking catastrophe:
"I am the boy who is tied down.
I am the moon. A boy is tied down to a fence by h...more
Oh, What A Wondrous Ride!
Charles Jensen is a poet/writer/seer/film fiend/mythology aficionado who somehow marries all of these seemingly disparate aspects of his mind into some of the most exciting work being written today. To this point his creativity has been available by chapbook (it feels as though he is concerned about the transience of this form, so dependent on returning to a printed page is his writing as this first printed/published collection suggests). His commitment to his art is acc...more
Charles Jensen is a poet/writer/seer/film fiend/mythology aficionado who somehow marries all of these seemingly disparate aspects of his mind into some of the most exciting work being written today. To this point his creativity has been available by chapbook (it feels as though he is concerned about the transience of this form, so dependent on returning to a printed page is his writing as this first printed/published collection suggests). His commitment to his art is acc...more
My review: http://matthewhittinger.com/m/2009/09...
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Charles Jensen is the author of The Nanopedia Quick-Reference Pocket Lexicon of Contemporary American Culture (2012 MiPOESIAS Chapbook Series) and The First Risk, which was published in 2009 by Lethe Press and was a finalist for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award. His previous chapbooks include Living Things, which won the 2006 Frank O’Hara Chapbook Award, and The Strange Case of Maribel Dixon (New Mi...more
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