Buck Downs, NICE NOSE

 

FIVE SECOND RULE

all the dirt in my house
is created by me
or by the creatures
who feed on me

so I feel safe
eating any food
that hits the floor

Thelatest from Washington DC poet Buck Downs is the self-published NICE NOSE (2023), following on the heels of his chapbook-length GREEDY MAN: selectedpoems (Brooklyn NY: Subpress Collective/CCCP Chapbooks, 2023) [see my review of such here], OPEN CONTAINER (Washington DC: privately printed,2019) [see my review of such here] and Unintended Empire: 1989-2012 (Baltimore MD: Furniture Press, 2018) [see my review of such here], amongmultiple other titles. Downs’ has long been an observational, thinking lyricthat veers into surrealism, but there’s been an interesting shift over the pastcouple of years, as he’s moved into shorter forms for the sake of posting poemsto Instagram (find him at @thesomethingfornothing), and subsequently, asstickers distributed around his home city of Washington. The scope of his poemsremain, but with further density; more punch than meander, although thatelement isn’t removed entirely. The development of an increased density and brevityin his poems for the sake of a publishing form is curious, and comparable to familydoctor and poet William Carlos Williams, who wrote poems that ran down the pagebut with short lines due to composing first drafts on prescription pads. Downs’surreal meditations and skewed humour, social commentary and quirky observations,“Passive-aggressive pro-mask propaganda, dusty riddles” and other elementsremain from what he’s previously published, but with a fascinating pared-downlyric compared to prior work. This is a fantastic book that requires repeatedreading; there is much packed into the quick quirks of his lines, more than youmight even imagine.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

come on
what have
you got
to lose