| Poetry
Book Reviews by Ralph Haselmann Jr. Lucid Moon Poetry Website (June 25, 2001) Alchemical Elegy: Selected Songs & Writings poetry spoken word and music cd by Anne Waldman. 2001, 64 minutes, $14 payable to Anne Waldman, Dept of Writing & Poetics, C/O Naropa University, 2130 Arapahoe Ave, Boulder, Colorado 80302. This superb collection is like a greatest hits of Anne Waldman's poetry songs. Many were recorded at the William Burroughs Word Virus Lab at Naropa, the university Waldman cofounded with Allen Ginsberg. Duality is a good start, with sociol-political references and the duality of self, all voiced in an echo. Paean: May I Speak Thus? (AIDS Litany) is about Aids and comes from the book Kill Or Cure. Crack In The World centers around the gimmick (gimcrack?!) of Anne emphasizing the word CRACk in each new sentence. It works! Jack Kerouac Dream sounds great with saxophone, a Beat favorite. Notes On Sitting Beside A Noble Corpse is a powerfully expressive eulogy to Allen Ginsberg on his deathbed: "Allen Ginsberg will never tell awkward teen boys he's known since birth he's sexy again from hospital bed, the boy stood at the window while his mother sobbed because Allen Ginsberg said he's dying today…Allen Ginsberg will never embarrass China, Russia, the White House, dead corrupt presidents, Cuba, the C.I.A. Universe again…But Allen Ginsberg will ever ease the pain of living with human story & song that''s borne on wings of perpetual prophecy --life & death's a spiral He's mourning the stars now with Vajjra Yogini…" Excerpt from Devil's Working Overtime is an appropriation for Amiri Baraka and has Amos and Andy vocalizations. Kali Yuga Blues could be an outtake from one of Allen Ginsberg's albums. Verses For The New Amazing Grace is a beautiful rendition of that song. And Excerpt From Memorial Day (with Ted Berrigan) is an older piece from 1974 where the two recite a poem while joking around and laughing, very charming, you can hear the existential pops and cracks of time on this old piece. A good way to end the cd. All in all, top quality recordings and great song poems make this a refreshing listen. Anne Waldman is a giant among the Beat Generation figures, and this cd is a must for anyone's collection. A Simple Guide To Marketing Your Book by Mark Ortman. 1998, 94 pages, $9.95, available at Amazon.com or by special order at your local bookstore. An absolutely essential informational how-to guide that teaches you how to create a marketing plan, where to find the best distributors for your book, how to get more book reviews, the easiest way to gain media attention, and ways to sell your book on the internet. With address of book review publications, awards and grants, and other valuable information. I am using this guide to market my two poetry books Wounded Heart, Naked Soul and Scattershot Haze: A Tribute To The Beats, and Ortman's simple guide is very helpful. For more detailed info, there is the 700+ page $27 book 1001 Ways To Market Your Book by John Kremer, which I will review soon when it is reprinted in June. (Hey I made a rhyme!) Beat Scene No. 38, Kevin Ring, Editor, 27 Court Leet, Binley Woods, Nr Coventry CV3 2JQ, Warwickshire, England., email kev@beatscene.freeserve.co.uk $8 single issue or $38 5 issue subscription , check made out to D. Hsu PO Box 105, Cabin John, Maryland, 20818. A fantastic color and black and white magazine on the Beat Scene, clearly the best of its kind, with articles and interviews but not a poetry magazine. This issue memorializes Gregory Corso with a few of his unpublished poems; also an interview with Dave Haselwood of Auerhan Press; an article on the auction of Jack Kerouac's original manuscript scroll for On The Road; interviews with Ruth Weiss, A.D. Winans, and Dan Fante; Kerouac's lost girlfriend; an article on Lew Welch, plus an extensive Beat Scene Rewview Section. I spent hours reading this wonderful publication with delight, it is chock full of great information. Highly recommended. Bone, poetry chapbook by Todd Moore and R. D. Armstrong with illustrations by Claudio Parentela. 1999, 48 pages, $6 ppd to Lummox Press, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. Todd More writes poetry that is rude, crude, and unglued from reality, usually about lowlifes getting shot. This is unpleasant to say the least! Weasel thought reads: Weasel thought he cd make a living out of robbing banks & decided to practice on jim holly's county line but the second he yanked his 22 auto & dropped it between barstools holly pulled the sawed off out from under the cash register & fired then a chunk of meat from weasel's guts hit a bar girl in the crack of her ass." R. D. Armstrong's poetry seems like Jack Kerouac's best in comparison with Todd Moore's poems. Armstrong's Zoot reads: "I thought I saw the ghost of him floating over the boulevard at half past ten last night. His tenor called to me down the long corridor of the Harbor freeway, distant and haunting like the final notes from Micheline's Hohner lost in the screech of brakes at ride's end. I've got it bad. I thought I felt a strand of moonbeams or was it a string of notes, gently wrapping themselves around my legs, sending me tripping across Hawthorne nights. Sending me into a velvet fog so cool and wet that neither A Train nor Strayhorn could guide me swinging back home to your lush life." Raindog is a pretty good poet I must admit, and I enjoyed his work here, but Todd cut too close to the Bone. With cool illustrations by Claudio Parentela. Cajun Flavored Mayonnaise, poetry chapbook by Rene Diedrich, 2000, 40 pages, Little Red Book #30, $6 ppd to Lummox Press, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. I love the title of the chap, Cajun Flavored Mayonnaise. You have the spicy spices spicing up the blandest of condiments, mayonnaise! Rene Diedrich writes like cajun spice on your tongue, hot and saucy with a flair for detail, a gritty cinema verite of lowlifes. She has been called the female Bukowski because of her penchant for writing about striptease dancers and other lowlifes, but she is more than a Bukowski wannabe. She's a talented poet with a penchant for describing vivid scenarios. Confessions Of a Bipolar Cactus (love those titles!) reads: "My life is unfettered by storms; I bend to passion -- Amusing myself with the hard living earned by lizards, who are self-conscious, irritable about being outwitted by flies. I remain on the side of the flies, wishing I could interfere because my memories disturb me like that weird, old pigeon who flew into the office building last night, its eves clouded by raw scales. Losing its sick gray feathers, it refused bread with ruffled dignity in the company courtyard. Plump and pale, the secretaries inside cooed, "Poor little thing." Then demanded its removal fear of its diseases. Disease is life. They want a cure for that, while I evoke verbs to fend off a five-state killing spree and other altruistic urges; Their prayers as unworthy, as my answers are. No, it's not the eloquent Yeatsian Madness I had hoped for, but I prefer it to Prozac, to therapy. Sometimes I bloom ugly needles, but no matter how hard the winds blow, my petals rarely tremble. I'm not like the secretaries of those girls in magazines. That's why I could end up like Frances Farmer or Ironic Pep, but I doubt it. Dante has other plans for me." Rene Diedrich writes from the gut and astounds you with her words. Cliffs Notes, poetry broadside by T. Kilgore Splake, 2001, 4 pages folded over, $1 plus one stamp to Dave Christy, 31 Waterloo Street, New Hope, PA 18938. This is a great broadside of scattered imagery involving 9 poems about a man named Cliff who is scaling a cliff mountainous region. The imagery is crisp and clear as cold mountain air and is refreshing to read. Bach Requiem reads: "low brain hummmmmmmmmming brain skull corners hitching raggedy jeans doning ratty parka duct tape patched boots steady steps rising Cliffs trail ankles wobbly hams taut achy lower back coming into dawn summit escarpment ledge breaths icy clouds bidding autumn adieu tiny distant specks geese vvvvvvvv's edging south dark wet sky momentary sharing oneness soul essence beyond definition hot green tea blank page pen waiting below." Cliff reaches a high point of Zen existence on the mountain cliff top, where a pen and blank paper await him below so he can put into pure poetry what he has been experiencing. Splake writes with a jazzy cadence and fine detail that does the Beat tradition proud. A must read, cheap too! Diner, Spring/Summer 2001, poetry magazine. 90 pages, $8 single issue or $18 ppd two issue subscription to Diner, PO Box 60676, Greendale Station, Worcester, MA 01606-2378. A classy poetry journal that comes out biannually, with such name poets as Dave Church and Lyn Lifshin and featured writers Mary Fell and Fran Quinn. George Stalker's Origami Penguins reads: " Somebody's daughter came and extended a small hand cupped with extreme care. And I thought I needed glasses till she explained I was seeing Very Small Origami Penguins. So I looked down at the very bottom, and they were there. And really they were exceedingly small. So I said after consideration, Well, Those are without a doubt The Very Smallest Origami Penguins I have Ever Seen. Which was apparently the correct reply. Later I was talking to God about life, and saying, "As to children…" while extending a hand, palm-up and fully open, the fingers wide and spread apart, to mean I Have None but it's No Big Deal. But I saw it served me poorly, this disobedient hand, the fingers tight together and no space between. And God then looking down doubtfully too at this compact hand cherishing nothing, said with immense tact, Well, Those are without a doubt The Very Smallest Children I have Ever Seen." Clever, there's more clever writings in Diner, do check it out (even though they rejected my poetry!). Familiarities, poetry chapbook co-authored by Patricia Cherin and Gerald Locklin, 2001,Little Red Nbook #33, 48 pages, $6 ppd to Lummox Press, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. This collaboration between teacher Gerald Locklin and former student Patricia Cherin is pretty uneven. While Cherin writes with grace and humor and shows off her good vocabulary, Gerald just blathers on and on and bores the piss out of me. After 80 some books he has definitely dried up, even though this collection is supposed to be about everyday things. Mt. Everest In The Suburbs by Cherin reads: "My mother who had a hard time getting it together used to pile everything in the middle bedroom of our World War II Tract house in a great big heap and close the door We used to call it the mountain and if anything was lost we were pretty sure it was somewhere THERE in the sedimentary Most people have a scrap place or junk drawer but not many kids grew up with such a salient geographic feature It was kind of objective correlative that stuff inside us that stacks up the incoherent that makes a promontory of itself The neighbors had bunk beds and other verisimilitudes in their neat homes We had a symbol a primal attempt to gather what is dealt." I'm not going to bother excerpting Locklin's lousy poetry, there is no poetry in his work, it doesn't sing, he just blathers on and on like a teacher telling anecdotes interesting only to himself. Really, Gerald Locklin is the most overrated poet in the small press today. Feeding The Animal, poetry chapbook by John Thomas, The "Lummox Of The Year, 2001", Little Red Book #31, 2001, 48 pages, $6 ppd to Lummox Press, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. John Thomas writes about unusual circumstances in brilliant vibrant detail and with a quirky sense of humor. Black Planet, Yellow Moons, What Strange and Yearning Intelligence? reads: "He was eighty-one and more than a little confused. He had gone in with prostate cancer, the poor old mutt, and was going to have the thing cut out. But when they opened him up they found instead a long trail of torn and flattened wildflowers. Understandably, surgeons don't like to talk about these things, but they happen, oh they happen." I enjoyed this collection of poetry very much, many memorable poems in this collection. Frisson:disconcerting verse, horror poetry journal, Spring 2001 #21, 28 pages, $2.50 check made out to Scott H. Urban, Skull Job Productions, 1012 Pleasant Dale Drive, Wilmington, NC 28412-7617. This is a magazine of dark horror poetry, with terrific fantastic drawings by Chris Friend. While the poetry is not my cup of tea, I cannot help but admire the go for broke mentality of the writers, who dish up images that send a shiver down your spine; they really scratch an itch for morbid writings. Annunciation by Phillip A. Ellis reads: "Death announces itself in manifold ways. First is the drowning and crack of the eardrums. Second is fire, and the third is the sword. Fourth is the gun, and fifth is the sickness. Sixth is the strength of the current electric. Seventh, ah seventh, the slow strangulation. And more I could name, in the heat of the passion; more could I name in the cold calculation. Some are like gas with insidious beauty; some are like poison with foul maledictions; some are like heart attacks, sudden and painful: all of them are beautiful." Now that's twisted! I prefer to read about fluffy happy bunnies, but if you prefer the boiled pet rabbit scene in the movie Fatal Attraction, read on! Joey and The Black Boots issue #8, 2001, 20 pages, $2 cash or check made out to Cari Taplin, PO Box 3189, Nederland, CO 80466. Another fine publication at an inexpensive price from Kitty Litter Press, this is the contest issue with award winning poems by Michael Kriesel, Justin Barett, Dan Buck, and others. The poems are very good and enlightening. Katnip Reviews issue #34, 2001, 20 pages, $2 cash or check made out to Seth Taplin, Editor, PO Box 3189, Nederland, CO 80466. Succint reviews that are fun to read, by such regulars in the small press as Tim Scannell, John Berbrich, Cari Taplin and others. A good read at an inexpensive price. Subscribe today! Lost Highway: A Blues Poetry Anthology, poetry chapbook by various authors, 2001, Little Red Book #25, 44 pages, $6 ppd to Lummox Press, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. A great collection of poetry celebrating the blues, by such poets as R.D. Armstrong, A.D. Winans, Jimmy Smith, John Macker, Val Sigstendt, Todd Moore, Lawrence Welsh, Jim "Jazz" Chandler, David Crittendon, Errol Miller, Linda Lerner, Clabe Hangan, Rick Smith & Yazoota, Tony Moffeit and Scott Wannberg. You can almost taste the hot weather on the backporch as the musicians strum a guitar and let their emotions flow. Robert Johnson by Tony Moffeit reads: "Soil sifting through lean fingers that pluck those steel strings tightened by bottleneck to give a sensual groan that unchains his throat cuts loose his blues it's what makes mud sanctify blood anoint watch his hands his fingers the way they gesture with the glint of his eyes call the skies to rip loose the lightning night for the devil calling in his dues." A fine, richly detailed effort by all. The Lummox Sampler, poetry chapbook by various poets, 1999, 44 pages, $6 ppd to Lummox Pres, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. A fine compendium of swell verse that has appeared in The Lummox Journal and previous Little Red Books. Bud Powell by Mark Hartenbach reads: "the bandstand is bouncing human confusion blurred into palpable resolution we are filled with a thousand ghosts stepping right out of our shoes while fetching that shiny thing bang those 88s to hell and back tell them heaven isn't slippers shuffling down an endless well lit hallway but dancing on red hot coals jumping higher…higher." Many of these poems, like Hartenbach's, are from a previous jazz anthology, and those poems really rock and swing and sing. Overall, a fine overview of what editor Raindog (R.D. Armstrong) has been up to the last 6 years. Raindog is one of the hardest working editors in the small press today and he should be proud of his accomplishments with The Lummox Journal and The Little Red Book Series. Maytag Heights Poetry Collection (Poets Raising Funds For Habitat For Humanity, Long Beach, CA), poetry chapbook by various authors, 1999, Little Red Book Series #16, 56 pages, $6 --d to Lummox Press, POB 5301, San Pedro, CA 90733. A first rate collection of poetry to help raise funds for a good cause, Habitat For Humanity. Chockful of good verse, like Julia Stein's Angels Of Los Angeles: "Three beggars knocked at Sara's door, that barren woman gave them food, the angels blessed her with a child, now angels beg for a meal in torn clothing, sleep in cardboard boxes and alleys among the broken glass and rubbish, I always give them the homeless all my change, they bless me every time in our city of the angels sleep in doorways and if you give these drifters money you will discover barefoot angels disguised in dirty shirts in our city of Los Angeles." Most of the poems are about helping the homeless. Habitat For Humanity is a good cause, I spent one day with my friend Adam in Trenton New Jersey building a home for the Habitat For Humanity branch in that city and I felt good. Please donate to this good cause and buy this chapbook of very good heartfelt poetry. Also, make a donation to your local chapter of Habitat For Humanity. Me And Bukowski -- Poem For All The Kids Who Couldn't Get Enough OF Bukowski broadside by A.D. Winans. 2001, 4 pages, $9.99 numbered, $14.99 lettered, Freethought Publications POB 238671, Encinillis, CA , or A.D. Winans, POB 31249 San Francisco, CA 94131. A beautiful looking broadside with rare photographs of Charles Bukowski by Michael Montfort and pen and ink drawings of Bukowski and Winans by Christine Fullwood. The two poems capture the essence of Bukowski in all his squalid glory. A little expensive at $10 or $15, but this is a numbered, lettered limited edition. A superb production form a publishing company that puts out rare artistic publications. The Patient Presents, poems by Kelley Jean White, M.D. 2000, 72 pages, write for price at The People's Press, 4810 Norwood Ave., Baltimore, Maryland 21207-6839. The Patient Presents is a haunting collection of medical-themed real life poems by Kelly Jean White, an M.D. in the Philadelphia area. The poems offer a glimpse into the everyday world of a hospital in the inner city, where child abuse, drug abuse and gang-related violence is an everyday occurrence. The poems are told in a matter-of-fact way that elicits sympathy and heartwrenching feelings from the reader. Message reads: "The surgeons-in-training wear their blood-stained scrubs with arrogance; unshaved, they talk loudly over morning coffee..One, balding, haughty, self-important, staring at his beeper, dials the house telephone in the nearly empty cafeteria. He struts back towards the team. A quiet black man holds a nearly empty styrofoam cup in both hands before his chest: "Excuse me." The intern pulls up short, annoyed. "Did you, do you know anything about a young man with a stab wound brought in about two am?" "Which one?" (Laughter from the table.) "We got three--Saturday night Rod and Gun club." "Young man, nineteen, dark skin, slight build…" "What, you the one that did him?" "No. I'm his dad." These poems are an important document of the lives of the poor inner city people. These poems bring out the humanity in us all, as we strive for ways to help and understand those less fortunate than us. Kelley Jean White has written a remarkable collection of poems on human nature and we feel her empathy with those that are suffering. Highly recommended. Rikki Hollywood's Bukowski Unleashed, (Bukowski Journal Vol. 1), essays and reviews about Charles Bukowski. 2001, 160 pages, $20 International Money Order to Bukowski Journal, Box 11271, London N22 8BF U.K. Bukowski@aol.com This is a thick book chockful of intriguing essays on our man Charles Bukowski and essays about his books and films based on his writings. Also included is a cd of snippets of interviews with Buk, Ginsberg, Burroughs and Kerouac. I was amazed to find out that during filming of Barfly with Mickey Rourke and Faye Dunaway, Barbet Shroeder filmed 15 hours of interviews with Buk and made a four hour film out of that called The Charles Bukowski Tapes. I'd love to see that. Buk fan Sean Penn and his wife Madonna make the obligatory appearances at Buk's parties in the late 1980's as expected. Of particular note is Alexander Goins' essay Steal This Book Now! About how Buk and Kerouac are the most frequently stolen books from bookstores worldwide. Also noteworthy is Neil Schiller's lengthy article Social Mechanics and American Morality, about the meaning of Buk's prose and poetry, especially the misogyist slant of many of his writings. This is a terrific compendium of essays and reviews, one wonders how many more issues Rikki Hollywood can put out before he exhausts his supply of Buk Material. With drawings by R. Crumb and Colin Cross and thankfully no poetry or short stories by Buk wannabes! Issue #2 of The Bukowski Journal will be a tribute from R. Crumb with lots of his artwork of Buk. 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 Al Aronowitz' The Blacklisted Journalist website (http://www.bigmagic.com/pages/blackj/index.html), Joe Grant's BookZen website (http://www.bookzen.com/ ), Andre Cordrescue's Exquisite Corpse, (http://www.exquisitecorpse.org), Carlye Archibeque's The Independent Review Site (http://www.irs.theroadlesstraveled.org), Brian Morrisey's Poesy magazine and website (http://www.geocities.com/bmorrise2/) Don Hoyt's Web Writer's Workshop (http://www.webwritersworkshop.com). Ralph Haselmann Jr. HOME PAGE & ARCHIVES
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