Crucial Sprawl feedback from one of my college English professors, Dr. Richard Gillin

"The poems are energized, intense, and demanding. I tried to hear your voice in them as I read, and the combination of my memory of your voice , its cadences, power, and irony in conjunction with the written poems helps to open them and to grasp at some of the threads that run through them. Sound dominates. There is a percussive run in many, and a lash in others. On the surface I sense irony, bewilderment at times, anger, sarcasm, and ultimately hope.  The core of what you present is a sensitive evocation of now. The country is increasingly moving in radical directions politically and culturally as people search for some sense of direction. Your poems capture the painful uncertainty  that comes with significant transitions, and they develop and ironic sense of desire to hold onto old myths or at least perceptions of order. On the one hand the old stories are seen for what they are, but their loss creates a vacuum.  The sense of hope and a will to make sense out of contemporary existence inheres in the most turbulent poems. So for all the shattering of the static and distractions of the moment you create a strong voice with a latent hope for something approaching meaning. Keep writing, and maintain your critical and sharp eye for those telling details."

Wanna download an mp3 of me reading some poems from my forthcoming book? Cop it here, at the very top of the page.

It's been 30-45 days since I've had the wherewithall and focus to complete a poem.

I'm probably due, right?

I've submitted some recent unpublished work to various literary magazines, though - hopefully something strikes someone's fancy, somewhere.

And: Crucial Sprawl is coming. Promise. Soon: save your pennies!

Get ready.

EPIGRAMS FOR CRUCIAL SPRAWL

“Kim hugs Dimitri, who doesn’t seem to notice or care, and he drops his guitar by his side and stares off into the pool and eleven or twelve of us stand out by the pool and someone turns the music down so that we can hear the sounds of the city celebrating, but there’s not a whole lot to hear and I keep looking into the living room, where Muriel’s lying on a couch, smoking a cigarette, sunglasses on, watching MTV.”
Bret Easton Ellis, Less Than Zero

“Asters are purple, there‘s purple ink/Purple‘s more popular than you think…”
Mary O’Neill, Hailstones and Halibut Bones

“Redford?/I go rob/Creamed corn, no cob/Boo-hoo, boo-hoo, go sob/Your Saab?/Oh, God”
Cam’ron, “Silky”

"...and Prairie huddled down in back, hanging on, wishing they could wake into something more benevolent and be three different people, only some family in a family car, with no problems that couldn't be solved in half an hour of wisecracks and commercials, on their way to a fun weekend at some beach."
Thomas Pynchon, Vineland

“And silence is danger, but it’s not quiet here/So why you scared?”
Pavement, “Strings of Nashville”

EPIGRAMS FOR VIGILANTE FLUXUS

“I wanted to film everything but there are things we are not getting. The wild ass is in danger in Europe--we’ve got nothing on that. We’ve got nothing on intellectual elitism funded out of public money, an important subject. We’ve got nothing on ball lightning and nothing on the National Grid and not a foot on the core-mantle problem, the problem of a looped economy, or the interesting problem of the night brain. I wanted to get it all but there’s only so much time, so much energy.”
-Donald Barthelme, “The Film”

“And the stars reflected in the lake
Are water for all their twinkling
And bloodless for all their charm.
I have blood, and a song.”
-Owen Dodson, “Sorrow is the Only Faithful One”

“One day, I’m gonna say something really impressive.”
-Asher Roth, “Muddy Swim Trunks”

mp3 of assorted CRUCIAL SPRAWL and ASSEMBLING THE LORD poems

Why? Because you'd always wanted a no-fi recording of me awkawardly reading my poetry and flubbing lines for your iPod so you can rock out to it whenever you get good and sick of the Black Eyed Peas.

On archive.org. Click here to check it out.

P.S. Thanks, Dad!