Bob Holman's the Collect Call of the Wild

by Bob Holman

Offers a collection of poems, including "Cupid's Cashbox," "Cowboy Heaven," "I'd Rather Be Crazy than Stupid," and "You Can't Be a Jerk and Write Great Poetry"

Genres: Poetry

158 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Bob Holman is an American poet and poetry activist, most closely identified with the oral tradition, the spoken word, and poetry slam. As a promoter of poetry in many media, Holman has spent the last four decades working variously as an author, editor, publisher, performer, emcee of live events, director of theatrical productions, producer of films and television programs, record label executive, university professor, and archivist.

[With thanks to Wikipedia]

Reviews

[Simon]

The Collect Call Of The Wild By Bob Holman

I don’t think any books have sat on my to read pile quite as long as this one that I bought when I saw Bob perform as part of Pere Ubu’s Disastrodrome back in 1998, at some point it slipped form the to read pile into the normal book shelves and I then found it last year when we re-arranged the book shelves and just a years later I have finally got round to reading this anthology of 6 of Bob’s poetry books.
Now Bob is mainly a performance poet and as such not all the poems work on paper as they need the proper delivery which is why at the back of the book are instructions on how to read some of the pieces. For me the poems that work best are the least self-reverential ones, the ones that don’t go on about the poem being a poem and the ones that are about his travels.
I like picking out the songs lines that bob weaves into his poems and although some of the subject matter is no a bit dated as who has fax machines anymore for the most part this book is very readable and enjoyable and didn’t deserve to wait 15 years to be read.