false 19 155 142 true 5656488 read 8 true 3160612 currently-reading 5 true 3160611 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/6926.Black_Oceanographers Zach joined the Black Oceanographers group. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50971051 to: Pretty Young Thing: Poems (Paperback) by Danielle Pafunda
This was good, even made me laugh at times. I wouldn't call them all prose poems, as another reviewer here has claimed. Instead I will agree with another review in noting that the book itself, speaking about the physical copy, is not terribly well constructed. It's a shame, because Soft Skull has put out some pretty good titles, and I can't remember them looking so shoddy. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50970860 to: Landing Light: Poems (Paperback) by Don Paterson
I just remembered reading this book a few years back. Unfortunately, I can't remember much about the actual book. I think I liked it? ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45193681 to: Dark Reflections (Paperback) by Samuel R. Delany
I wonder, considering the first section especially, if this book would have as much relevance to a non-poet. I guess I'll never know, but it worked for me, particularly the first and last section (though I think the middle section is also necessary). I wrote a long review of this for class, so I'm skimping here. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48861475 to: No Planets Strike (Paperback) by Josh Bell
I liked this. Very balanced, with only a few poems falling flat for me. Ramona and "Zombie Sunday"s hold it all together. Although I've been trying to avoid an excess of similes in my own work, Bell constantly surprises with the striking images he can make from the "like" and the "as." Nice work. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48859877 to: To Live Don's Life: A Film in 15 Creams (E-chap) by Joseph Mains
O Joseph, how I love thee, let me count the ways (14, in honor of the sonnets):

1. "DonaldHero woke-- the vagina-thing"
2. "we'll fuck but we'll wear masks of each other"
3. "these poor 1st years have no clue no ball-things" (Ed. Note: Dick.)
4. "your pubic hair looks the mane unicorn"
5. "I can touch your soul just not your prick yet"
6. "--you fucked in Cathy Wing's aviary?"
7. "but isn't that so romantic like a limp/dick cradled in
the warming hands of a/sister"
8. "I said I chewed her pussy like a piece/of Bubbleyum"
9. "(narrative for Garcia: the condom"
10. "Kick the clock unplugged: you can't tell time anything"
11. "no more love just a hole to come home to."
12. The titles!
13. The quotes!
14. The cover image! Sexy cereal! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48730710 to: Incubation: A Space for Monsters (Paperback) by Bhanu Kapil
I'm reading Bhanu Kapil because she's judging a poetry contest that I plan to enter. Although I think she's wonderful, I don't think she'll like me very much. But, with a book like this, who cares? Rumor has it she wrote this in like two weeks. Very impressive. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/48058178 to: Maximum Gaga by Lara Glenum
And Action Books strikes again...

I feel like I'd have a hard time talking about this book, but some handy points of reference might be a porno through the lens of Cronenberg, or what I imagine a GWAR concert might look like.

As a kind of feminist text, this book makes Ariana Reines' "The Cow" look like a children's story about a cow. I really like that book, but this is a whole lot more effed up.

Here are a couple tamer sections:

"my slime-black braincombs/& fisted a garden gnome."
"giggling inside/like a runty hyena/with a stomach full of schoolgirl."

Brilliant!

Much of the text is composed of a play featuring what I took to be monsters, amputees, and some robots, like "Ded," a "schizophrenic machine" who speaks in Baudrillard, Foucault, etc.

Glenum also coins the phrases "eye-pod" and "cream-slammed." I think I'm in love.


]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book/recommendation/268822 Zach recommended the book Maximum Gaga to Joseph

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]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/47416274 to: Pilot (Paperback) by Johannes Göransson
I read this because I REALLY liked "A New Quarantine..." and I'm also working on a sort of fairy-tale sequence.

The mix of Swedish and English fragments(?), and words run together like "losangelessoft," were interesting, but I wasn't as into this one. Still, there were some brilliant little poems that merit a 3-star review. Below is my favorite, the title poem I suppose:

Pilot ("snag effects"):

I repeat with pig meat
I have blond hair blue eyes
and the crackliest carnation
you've ever dug a shovel
through I have a ribcage
and a stripped woman I hold
with my fire arm and
a shuddered woman I kiss
with my pet mouth


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