Sodomy is a City in New Jersey

by John Dorsey

Genres: Poetry

95 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

John Dorsey lived for several years in Toledo, Ohio. He is the author of several collections of poetry, including Teaching the Dead to Sing: The Outlaw's Prayer (Rose of Sharon Press, 2006), Sodomy is a City in New Jersey (American Mettle Books, 2010), Tombstone Factory, (Epic Rites Press, 2013), Appalachian Frankenstein (GTK Press, 2015) Being the Fire (Tangerine Press, 2016), Shoot the Messenger (Red Flag Press, 2017) and Triple Threat (Crisis Chronicles, 2019). He has served as the Poet Laureate of Belle, Missouri. His work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize multiple times.

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Dorsey transports you from the past to the present and back again. This is not an idle time machine it moves faster than a Delorean. If the eighties rocked your world if video killed the radio star. If the nineties turned you into a book hoarding hermit this book will easily fit into the crown jewels of any book collection. It rocks.

[Joshua Gage · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a very uneven collection. A lot of these poems read as concepts and conceits, rather than as poems; they are clever, but don't really have any resonance or depth that affects the reader. On top of that, the cliche stereotype of "poet as alcoholic" or "poet as rebel" is played a bit too heavily here, and Dorsey comes across as an imitation Corso or Bukowski rather than as an authentic, original voice.