JIM McCrary Engages
A Handbook
of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer
(Ugly Duckling Presse, Brooklyn, N.Y., 2018)
S/ 2004 N1 by James
Yeary
(The Magnificent Field, Grand Rapids, MI, 2018)
THE MONSTER’S TOPIC SENTENCE a chaotic murmur
by Maryrose Larkin
(The Magnificent Field, Grand Rapids, MI, 2018)
A Handbook of Disappointed Fate by Anne Boyer
This book changes the way
I think and react to poetry/poetics/thoughtful text in the US today. I do
not believe I can honestly react to this book other than to recommend that
anyone who can... should really try and locate and take the time to read the
complete text that Boyer has written and Ugly Duckling has produced.
*
S/ 2004 N1 by James
Yeary and THE MONSTER’S TOPIC SENTENCE a chaotic murmur by Maryrose
Larkin
Two chapbooks
"typeset, designed, printed and bound by Jen Tynes in Grand Rapids,
Michigan, August 2018. Publisher asks for a donation.
And was I floored to see
the announcement of these two publications by two of my most favorite poets of
these times. And who, alas, are not so much published as many and, I must
admit, I have published work by both of them in the past.
James Yeary
is always up to something...in this case he claims these poems were written as
'soundtrack'. That said, as usual, fills one with wonder and Yeary backs
up with more. I will just reproduce an excerpt from a 'poem' in the
chapbook:
Social Rosewater
Right
now, in darkest space
the
mother of the deep
takers
her sixty-six thousand year
bend
in our picture of the edge,
down
stairs of drab concrete.
The
coldest part of space
with
our number in it
a
logarithmic scale
of
incomprehensible distance
ending
in twisting staircases
we've
somehow managed to ascend...."
As introduction to a
thought or riff...or as explanation for thoughts turned to text......what will
be is here for our amusement, consideration, ponderation, gasping,
crackling and, perhaps, just as it is said. All the usual depth and
lightness of Yeary. Well done. Brilliant. As they say.
Maryrose Larkin can and does ask and answer that which she is in the midst of.
Did I say that right? Not sure but know for sure that her poetics has
always and will I am sure continue to bring the kind of pleasure which does not
come often. She is always as real as can be and seems to be...her 'voice' does
that. And yet, yet she opens up to the reader/one who listens.....a life
beyond imagination that is described in detail, in thoughtful clarity and
murmur, mumble and giggle. That is just how it is. As example ( and
forgive me such a short example)...
As
Monsters do we read
from
yield to surrender
or
from left to right?
the
opposite of deceit
crowned
in old life
as
the
makeshift
promise of
having
escaped into
a
back up solution
with
brief patches of blue............."
So......here.......two
'small' chapbooks perfectly produced and presented. Look for them.
*****
McCrary lives in
Lawrence, Ks. Latest chapbooks are Year
Book and Red Hot Son Ettes...both
from Really Old Gringo Press. Work forthcoming in Otoliths Magazine and The End
of The World Project Anthology. Regular at 8th St Taproom poetry
series in Lawrence downtown dive bar curated by M. Kaminski.