Lobster With Ol' Dirty Bastard

by Michael Cirelli

Poetry. "Michael Cirelli has invented his own electric school of lyric, stamping an unflinching signature on soul-infused stanzas that are alternately tender, tough, revelatory and always, alwaays unapologetic. What's most amazing is that he possesses a voice that doesn't seem to have occurred before--its definitive drum works its way into your head and stays there, making you crave more of the infectious music he drops, exactly the way he drops it. Damn"--Patricia Smith Michael. Cirelli is from Providence, Rhode Island. He is the Executive Director of Urban Word NYC, an award-winning literary arts organization for teens. He is also the author of Hip-Hop Poetry & the Classics (Milk Mug, 2004), and received his MFA in poetry from the New School. His poems have appeared in the New York Quarterly, Texas Review, Hanging Loose, Word Is Bond, Spindle, among others. He has also been featured in World Literature Today, Spoken Word Revolution Redux, HBO's Def Poetry Jam, and King The Illest Men's Magazine. He lives in Brooklyn.

Genres: Poetry

92 pages, Paperback

First published March 25, 2008

Reviews

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't really know how to "star" poetry collections. I can say that I marked nine of these to revisit in the future. Several compelling poems discuss a difficult father (understatement mine); other poems are tributes of various kinds to hip-hop artists.

From "On Turning 30:" "She talked about how every day farther from the tragedy / is more difficult because each day is one more day wedged / between her, and him alive. So really this pain--she doesn't / want it to pass with time."

From "Dancing with Turtle:" "When Holla Back Girl marched straight out / them speakers, everyone in the circle bugged out. Flip-flops were dancing shoes. / Big brown clodhoppers--dancing shoes / Penny loafers were dancing shoes."

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the intersection where Petrarch meets Pete Rock while Immortal Technique gets down with poetic finesse. Cirelli elevates the rhythms and clash of hip-hop while staying on course with his own blend of funky formalism. While so much hip-hop literature keeps looking backwards this volume moves forward while staying true to the roots of verbal performance arts and lyricism.