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*Jordan Davis. Million Poems Journal. 2003. 92 pp.

This is a deceptive book in some way, read straight through. You think it's going to be one thing, and then it shifts into something else, and then again. There aren't roman-numeraled sections to organize the material for you--which is probably better. Note, grammatically, that it's not "million-poem journal" but "million poems / journal."



I like, among other poems, the poem, "Nationalism," which begins like this:

"The German part of me drinks beer
And stares into the sun
The Welsh, Scots, Irish parts of me
Take whiskey "from the gun"
The English prefers caffeine
But also treasures rum
But give wine to the French of me
And then your night's begun--"


I always wanted to write a poem like this:

The Spaniard in me is an Englishman in love with Spain
The Englishman in me is a sunburnt tourist, agape in Florence
The Italian in me is better dressed than I, living in Lisbon
As the Portuguese in me, a dull functionary drunk on
The Scots-Irish Whisky in me...