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Vortex
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 27, 2021
An excerpt from my review of the book:
"Was William Wordsworth a Terminator sent back to the 18th century by Skynet to induce the self-defeating anthropocentric solipsism? A solipsism inherent in his oft-misquoted statement that good poetry is “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” without the “reflection” and “deep thought” of the equation acknowledged? What does “deep thought” look like in the Anthropocene? And aren’t we all at least a little bit cybernetic now that the internet has reprogrammed our ecological memories?
These are a few of the questions I asked myself upon finishing Jake Syersak’s blistering new chapbook Vortex(t)."
"Was William Wordsworth a Terminator sent back to the 18th century by Skynet to induce the self-defeating anthropocentric solipsism? A solipsism inherent in his oft-misquoted statement that good poetry is “a spontaneous overflow of powerful feeling” without the “reflection” and “deep thought” of the equation acknowledged? What does “deep thought” look like in the Anthropocene? And aren’t we all at least a little bit cybernetic now that the internet has reprogrammed our ecological memories?
These are a few of the questions I asked myself upon finishing Jake Syersak’s blistering new chapbook Vortex(t)."
September 8, 2023
A chapbook of poems focusing on climate change. (According to the intro, I found the poems confusing and I was uncertain what many of them were talking about. Too abstract/edgy for me, I want poems that I know what's being said and it hits me hard rather than leaves me scratching my head in confusion...)
from Verses Out of the Vortex(t): Nest Vortex: "street-water rainbow like a landfill scraped open behind a golf / course // this vein across my forehead / circumnavigates the object lesson 'like as though / the plague / became a guest' there is no exit / but through this nest"
from Though, Through, Thoroughly, "it wasn't until I'd planted an herb garden & / filed for unemployment that I felt truly American"
from Verses Out of the Vortex(t): Nest Vortex: "street-water rainbow like a landfill scraped open behind a golf / course // this vein across my forehead / circumnavigates the object lesson 'like as though / the plague / became a guest' there is no exit / but through this nest"
from Though, Through, Thoroughly, "it wasn't until I'd planted an herb garden & / filed for unemployment that I felt truly American"
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews