| Poetry Book Reviews by Ralph Haselmann Jr. Lucid Moon Poetry Magazine Issues #32,33 (April/May 1999) Arthur Rimbaud by Benjamin Ivry. Poet biography, $9.95, 136 pages, softcover, 1998. Absolute Press, Scarborough House, 29 James Street West, Bath, Somerset, England BA1 2BT, or in the USA distributed by Stewart, Tabori and Chang, 115 West 18th St., NY NY 10011. Available at Amazon.com or special order at your local bookstore. A fascinating new biography that is part of the Outlines series of books dealing with homosexuality in the artist's lives. This book is the first Arthur Rimbaud biography to deal graphically with his homosexual relationship with Paul Verlaine, who was married and bisexual. Other translators and biographers like Enid Starkie have been timid in their dealing with this aspect of Rimbaud's life. The author provides evidence through letters and poem parodies written by Rimbaud and Verlaine and others that Rimbaud did have a gay relationship with Verlaine as well as five other men. The book is divided into sections: Before Verlaine, With Verlaine, Getting Rid Of Verlaine, Travels and Hauntings (modern poets and writers who have been inspired by Rimbaud, from Henry Miller to Jean Cocteau to Jean Jenet and Jim Carroll, Patti Smith and Jim Morrison). It briefly mentions the great Agneizska Holland film Total Eclipse which came out in 1995, starring Leonardo DiCaprio as Rimbaud and David Thewlis as Verlaine. Ivry says that Leonardo was perfect for the role but David Thewlis was overbearing. I don't think so. Thewlis accurately portrayed the manic, effeminate side of Verlaine in all his weaknesses. Leonardo was great as Rimbaud, but River Phoenix would have portrayed him more accurately as an effeminate poet and a tortured soul (River was supposed to play Rimbaud in the movie, but he died in 1993 and the roll went to Leonardo). Overall, the research is very good and Ivory makes a strong case and statement about R & V's homosexuality. Ivry states that Rimbaud's only sexual relationships with women were in Africa, and he also had a sexual relationship with a servant boy companion. Funny, poignant and sad, this is a highly recommended read that makes you wonder how much more Rimbaud could have achieved had he continued writing, and it also makes you realize how controversial and ultimately ground-breaking was Rimbaud and Verlaine's sadomasochistic love affair. Ivry states that Rimabaud engaged in homosexual activity not just because he was gay but because he wanted to derange the senses. Rimbaud paved the way for Oscar Wilde and other controversial homosexual artists, and he remains the greatest French poet that ever lived. This book is highly recommended. Two snaps up! Burnt Offerings poetry chapbook by Peter H. Conners. 1999, 44 pages, $7 check made out to Dave Christy, C/O Alpha Beat Press, 31 Waterloo Street, New Hope, PA 18938. Alternating between shorter haiku-like poems and longer poems, Conners writes in an imaginative, bold manner that burns with passion and insight. In Answer To The Question: Where Do Your Poems Come From? reads: "You probably won't believe me cause I'm a poet half-liar, desperate for statement but the truth is: I dip my inner ladle deep into the Universal Mind, section marked poetry Come back out with bits of scarred memory fractured images, splintered love stories, visions of a weeping rose…" This is a thoughtful, fine collection of serene thoughts, images and ideas, worth checking out. Cantus Amatoria Poetry chapbook by Michael Dennis. 1999, 38 pages, $5 from Michael Dennis, PO Box 20115, Cincinnati, OH 45220. Lush, gentle softly spoken gay love poems that touch the heart. Circle Of Love reads in part: "Come to my circle of love, sweet man, please come! Perk your ears and you will hear my love call. Higher and higher lift your arms in our erotic dance. You cannot ascent to love's fires until you fall. Fall into the arms of pleasure, let your body go. Dance in joyous frenzied motions by love's bright fire. Surrender to the achings of your hungry body and soul. Let ecstasy and pleasure fulfill your every desire…" Dennis is a talented writer and a masseuse, so he knows the pleasures that the body holds and he accurately describes the abandon to which gay men feel when they are in the throws of lovemaking. Not obscene or pornographic, but gentle and soothing, like the touch of a lover at dawn. Dennis has a unique style that is instantly recognizable, and he is in good form here. Dream Siege Poetry book by Steve DeFrance, 1999, 95 pages, $12 cash or check made out to Dave Christy, 31 Waterloo St, New Hope, PA 18938. This is like a boxed set of Steve's best work, some of the poems which have appeared in Lucid Moon. I love this book! Steve is one of the most amusing and talented writers around. He always has something to say, and he says it in plain English, with a bit of poetic flourish and a wink and a smile. Something About The 90's reads: "This blue-haired crone runs her 97 urban assault 4x4 Jeep up my tailpipe. I'm trying to park. But I'm boxed in and Medussa lays on the horn. It trumpets away. She's too close, so I can't back up. It's a new Yuppie parking space. Engineered only large enough for German subcompacts, if you don't want to open doors. She won't budge. I back up till our bumpers kiss. I park. Get out of my car. She tries to run over my foot, rolls by jeering, leering and leaning on the horn. A good thing she left. I mean dragging old ladies screaming out of highly mortgaged vehicles at 9 A.M. on Monday morning--dragging them out without unfastening their seat belts smarts a bit--and then, stomping them into the ground with my trendy new mountain boots is not a very Zen way to begin a spiritual journey, even if its only a trip to the aromatherapy shoppe." Wonderful funny stuff throughout this book, check it out. Published by the great Alpha Beat Press, with a cool cover painting and a nice look to the book. Mezzotints from Black Spring Press. Decomposition: Loose Briefs and Darting Dicks poems by Laura Joy Lustig and Pissing In Confession poems by Linda La Porte. These are small four page cardboard broadsides from Black Spring Press, send sase with 2 stamps to John Gallo, Black Spring Press, 63-89 Saunders St #56, Rego Park, NY 11374. John Gallo explains that "While a still struggling writer in Brooklyn, Henry Miller wrote short pieces, had them printed up on different colored cardboard and his wife June peddled them to whomever was interested…" Laura Joy's poems are the more challenging because they are written in clipped English and incomplete sentences, somewhat cryptic musings: "Impaled fire lovers pulp ain't sinister black." Interesting, but what does it mean? Linda La Porte's poems are more conventional and easier to understand. Witty and pithy musings, like Cock Tease: "There is a difference between a flirt and a cock tease. A flirt may actually like you and a cock tease only appears to like herself." A Zen Thing Going, You Know? reads: "Before the backdrop of the blue grey sky towering trees give orders to leave on kamikazee missions." This mezzotint series is a nice idea, and cheap too! Check it out for just two stamps each on an sase. Modern Love poetry chapbook by Joesph Verrilli. 1999, 36 pages, $4 cash or check made out to Dave Christy, Alpha Beat Press, 31 Waterloo Street, New Hope, PA 18938. The second edition of this chapbook, with mild s&m overtones, but not pornographic, this is an interesting insight into the mind of the author. Gentle and loving poems with a whiff of danger and excitement permeates this chapbook, like a whore's cheap perfume. Splash reads: "Her cheap words taunted him sick sales pitch "oh baby, you know what I like!" He'd like to say this little boy aghast in the splendor of fantasy's tingle "Some guys want me to leave marks" she said in her matter-of-fact simplicity that rocks a cradle "You'll like my feet," the woman continued "They're soft and have no calluses" and with a bitch's restraint "I have painted toenails" madness of fever "We'll have fun, ha ha" sweet explosion." Joe Verrilli is a talented writer who exposes the darker side of sexuality. I enjoyed this chapbook a lot, not just because it was slightly kinky, but because it was well-written and takes you on a dark ride. Mysterious Life, Like It Or Not Poetry chapbook by Walt Philips. 1999, 28 pages with poems and illustrations by Walt Philips. $4.95 check made out to JVC Books, 509 N 12 Ave, Arcadia, FL 34266. A most enjoyable collection of Walt's whimsical line drawing doodles and his pithy poems. Post-literate Stubbornness reads: " I am a frazzled but still rugged warrior in the possibly last literary crusades against all-out stupidity and autism hold my spear while I check out whether anybody--besides us soldiers--cares." Like It Or Not reads: "An old pair of shorts on a bed whose shorts? Whose bed? Life is so mysterious." The drawings and poems are light and airy and cool to look at and read. A breeze to get through. The Notch Of The Sorceress Poetic short story chapbook, 1999, 48 pages, $5 check made out to Mark Spitzer, 833 Geranium St., Baton Rouge, LA 70802. A sexy wild romp with a Sorceress named Hazel who has a notch at the end of her nose. Mark can really write! He spills adjectives, alliterations and metaphors on a canvas like Jackson Pollack, taking the reader on a rollercoaster ride of sex and travelling through Europe, leaving the reader giddy with delirium and delight. The concluding Chapter 22 reads: "Hazel flies back leaves me in Limerick and I am consumed by a big mental scene like Stephen Dedalus on ludes as I ride trains and boats and planes alone haunted by fleshscenes swirling with Nicotine yellow and acrid three nights awake hunkered like a fetus umbilicaled to the same relentless cycle of questions leaking oil in the drive and bursting up the stairs twelve pounds lighter I scream about helmuts protecting the beauty and I scream about the Aegean destroying everything as I collapse on the futon begging to be released from whatever curse she cast on me. Hazel sits up tells me to calm down kisses my forehead calls me her wildman. But I AM Not A Wild Man! I Am A Mad Man! Ripping tufts from my head frothing rabid babbling about gray-blue birds rising up to the mouldings bleeding for a fix of an opiate more deadly than heroin or crack. Hazel tells me she's sorry and she really loves me as she pulls back the sheets inviting me in where once again the sorceress tempts me where once again I feel the smooth yield of dunes into innerflesh rouge as I slide in a swirl of erratic ellipses as the rhythm of the thighs squeezes me oblivious squeezes me insane bewitching all that remains resolving as always nothing." I enjoyed this poetry short story immensely and the sword and sorcery theme took me back to the misty mountain hop glory days of Led Zeppelin's Runes and Houses Of The Holy. This chapbook is a must. On Imagist Art and Free Will In A Benevolent Universe by Norman J. Olson. Essay chapbook and poetry chapbook, 1999, $3 each, check made out to Norman J. Olson, 946 N. McNight Road, Maplewood, MN 55119-3635. Free Will is a good collection of angry, defiant and often sarcastic poems. As every frustrated poet or artist knows, it's hard to make a living as an artist or poet. Angry poems can become boring after a while, but Olson has really beautiful poetic flourishes in his poems, and often surreal lines: Save Me From Reality starts off: "The radishes line up on the floor and smile with vacant idiocy, like poets…" Olson is so mad at the world, he probably stares at the blank floor or wall for hours and dreams up these surreal images! Beside The River has some good lines: "Beside the river, the limestone bluffs punch the city like a drunk in a fist fight. The rail yard gleams its parallel song between the dead leaves, empty bleach bottles and beer cans. Insane eyes sparkle in the shadows and limestone boulders laugh at their victims and criminals who just hang around and try to look cool. Dead marigolds and daisies are the only requiem the day could ask for and time strides along beside the river shaking its beautiful ass." A very good collection of Imagist poetry. On Imagist Art is an angry essay that describes Olson's art college years and the long trek he has made trying to make a dent in the art and poetry fields. He discusses what Imagist art is and how it is at odds with most of Modern Art, which values interesting visual objects over art drawings or poetry that try to say something with symbols or make a political or religious point, art that is a carrier of images. The invention of the camera turned the art world upside down. Before the camera, artists took it upon themselves to depict objects in photo-like lifelike detail. After the invention of the camera, all hell broke loose at the turn of the century, from Cubism, Dadaism, Fauvism, and Surrealism to Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and now shallow "modern" artists like Mark Kostabi or Jeff Koons. Olson has a disdain for Modern Art, with snooty condescending rich art patrons and the authority they and art dealers bestow on today's crappy Modern Art. Olson discusses how the editors of literary magazines take Imagist art or poetry more seriously than art teachers, gallery owners, art patrons, and grant boards, and they love the art and publish and promote it well. Olson says: "I believe there are specific reasons why the small press editors have been able to accept my Imagist drawings when the art establishment has not. First, many of the editors of these magazines are not educated about the arts. They do not read Art News and do not care what sorts of objects the latest fad says should not be considered art. They care only about how art looks in their magazines and how it works on the page. They don't give a shit about my haircut or my boho credentials. Secondly, fine art pieces done in the Modernist Aesthetic do not usually print well. This is because the medium is what makes the object and the images are either not present or not important and, it is precisely the medium which is not present in a printed picture of the object. Imagist art, in which the medium only has value as a conveyer of images prints very well because while a photograph but imperfectly captures the medium of the original, it can almost perfectly capture the images of a drawing or painting. Thirdly, many intelligent people, including the editors of many literary magazines are really sick of the in-bred, insider visual arts establishment with its silly lines of demarcation of what objects are art and what objects are not and, it's emperor's new clothes peer pressure to not find the whole enterprise of modernist art absurd. A very rich, long time establishment that insists on thumbing its nose at the rest of us and trying to pretend that millionaire arts mavens are somehow maverick outsiders is more than a little annoying to those of us on the outside looking in." Olson is angry because of the ridiculousness of the modern art movement and how he can't get into galleries or be taken seriously except by small press editors, who like him and his work but usually don't pay except in copies of the magazine. Olson concludes: "I know how the early modernists felt in France a hundred years ago and even if I can't do anything about it, I will not take it lying down. We who call ourselves Imagists are doing the art of the Twenty-First Century and the Twentieth Century establishment can kiss my ass." On Imagist Art is an important essay and should be read by anyone interested in art, poetry and getting published or getting a grant. Please buy this from Norman Olson! The Terror Of Your Cunt Is The Beauty Of Your Face. Poetry chapbook by John Gallo. 1999, 28 pages, $5 cash or check made out to John Gallo, Black Spring Press, 63-89 Saunders St #56, Rego Park, NY 11374. John Gallo is a talented writer who wields his pen like a surgeon's knife, applying cutting words and remarks here and there. He lets loose his thoughts with a steady stream of unconscious thoughts, colorful metaphors and beautiful turns of phrases. A Dream reads: "You are standing under an awning and the rain that is falling is made of glass. You hold out your hand and show it to me under the light. It glistens and I can hear it sing. They sound like a choir of angels to me; that is until you opened your palm and dropped the crystalline flakes into the gutter. Suddenly, they sound like the screams of the damned." Something is slightly amiss in Gallo's world, there is a sadness that he effectively puts into words that sing. Just Thinking reads: "I'm lost in a Cy Twombly landscape, feeling my way through child-like freedom only to be stymied by adult realities. The trumpets are deafening and the red carpet has unfurled before garbage. Take tentative steps, small tentative steps, or else track dirt all the way home". You sense a loss of innocence in his poems. The title of the chapbook originally put me off, but now I understand it, the terror of sexuality is overcome in the virginal youth and he succumbs to the woman's beauty. He is no longer innocent, and the world is a sadder, dirtier place. Powerful poems, definitely check this out. Tristero Rapid Post poetry chapbook by Eric Evans, 54 pages, $3 check made out to Eric Evans, Ink Publications, 343 Rock Beach Rd, Rochester NY 14617. Nicely done chapbook of thoughtful somewhat wry poetry rich in metaphor and description. The poems are short and the type is a little too small, but the poems are beautifully wrought and touchingly serene. The first poem Lying Like The Sun reads: "There are days when all I want to do is deceive everyone around me just for the sake of deception. It is on these days that I live my life like the sun on a cold winter afternoon--the illusion of the invisible heat just serves to make the bitter cold and harsh wind seem to sting just a little bit more." Sunday Into Monday reads: "The red numbers on the clock burn at 11:58 as I stand beside and wait for 12:01 to come and bring proof that I've made it through yet another day." Evans uses a lot of lines from other poems and references from other poets, like the title of the chap, a Latin phrase from a Thomas Pynchon novel. But he bends and reshapes the borrowings into his own. This chapbook is terrific, and a bargain too, do check it out. Two Screen Plays--Heroin Drive and Beyond Good And Evil, Plus, The Without You Poems Poetry and short play chapbook by James Michael Ward. $4 cash or check made out to Dave Christy, C/O Alpha beat Press, 31 Waterloo St., New Hope, PA 18938. Two short violent plays and some touching poems make this a good a read. The plays are gritty and bloody, about the seedy underbelly of life. Heroin Drive is about a guy who steals heroin and cash and kills several people on his way to Mexico to meet his lover Maria. It is very film-noirish. The ending has a somewhat predictable twist, but is still shocking. Beyond Good And Evil is a dark disturbing tale about two prison inmates, one who is a flesh eating blood sucking vampire cultist and the other who is called Nietzsche, because he quotes the philosopher's book Beyond Good And Evil. This play was a little off-putting, but both plays could be filmed by Quentin Tarrentino, his films are ultra violent! Maybe they could get James Michael Ward to read the poems after the first play and before the second play, just like the sequence in this chapbook, and they could make a full length film of the chapbook! This was a good read, if somewhat unpleasant. James is adept at writing plays and poetry. The first poem reads: "To kiss your lips on a cold winter day is to reach nirvana but you are gone because of my madness and I need a fix of you like a needle in my arm I close my eyes to envision you naked but the only dreams that appear in the night is that of you on a cross bleeding from the palms like Jesus did I the Father you the Son separated from the light I am lost without you and my religion is a piece of wood on a wall--" A good read for a stormy night. Please send poetry books, chapbooks, cds, broadsides or whatever for review to Ralph Haselmann Jr. at 67 Norma Road, Hampton, New Jersey 08827. Include price plus postage, who to make check out to, and address to order from. I will review them within 2 weeks and send you a copy of the review. Publishers have my permission in advance to reprint any part of my reviews as long as they send me a copy of what it appears in. The reviews go out to several small press discussion lists, inlcuding David McNamara's poetry )ism( list, Doug Holder's list, Kelly DeSaint's list, J.J. Campbell's list and Frank Moore's list, after which they will be archived on my Lucid Moon Poetry Website. My reviews are also picked up by 5 websites, including Andre Cordrescue's Exquisite Corpse, (http://www.exquisitecorpse.org), Carlye Archibeque's The Independent Review Site (http://www.irs.theroadlesstraveled.org), Don Hoyt's Web Writer's Workshop (http://www.webwritersworkshop.com), Brian Morrisey's Poesy magazine and website (http://www.geocities.com/bmorrise2/), and Al Aronowitz' The Blacklisted Journalist website (http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/index.html). Ralph Haselmann Jr. HOME PAGE & ARCHIVES
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