22 jun 2005

Another revewing template is "Reading [name of poet] is like being high on [name of illegal substance] while attempting to [difficult activity requiring alertness and manual dexterity]." A close cousin of the "Rod Smith is like Frank O'Hara on [name of illegal substance]" trope.

I'll show you how it works:

When you read lines like these

"Your pomegranates have rocked my magenta swirl
of a world, like icicles on a bad hair day..."

you feel like you have just awakened from a dream in which all the Jackson Pollocks in MOMA have been replaced by replicas of glam-rock wigs. The effect is a bit disconcerting at first, but, once you realize it's only a dream, you feel immensely grateful for the experience. Trying to read this book is like knitting a sweater for a very large grandson while coming off a bad LSD trip, and then realizing that you have no grandchildren.

4 comentarios:

shanna dijo...

laughing b/c that sounds like a book i'd like to read.

Patry Francis dijo...

Sounds like a few books I actually did read.

Jonathan dijo...

We've all read those books, and those reviews of them in which the reviewer tries to to echo those mixed metaphors in the poems themselves.

Nada Gordon: 2 ludic 4 U dijo...

That pomegranate line rawqued my whirled thank you very much!