Monday, April 26, 2010

SOME WORDS ON DANIEL BAILEY'S THE DRUNK SONNETS


http://magichelicopterpress.com/drunk.htm

The Drunk Sonnets are obsessed with breathing and love and loneliness and Daniel’s inability to think and feel and function properly in the absence of a friend or a beer or a good woman. The poems are claustrophobic, an oxygen tank set to its highest setting while the man on the other end has embraced his demise, drunk, alone, but for memories of lost love; and for Bailey there is only one; she is everything and nothing and beautiful and careless:

I’M GLAD THAT YOU’RE SILL ALIVE AND DOING WELL
I’D HATE TO LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE YOU DON’T EXIST
I CAN SAY THAT HONESTLY, AND I’M GLAD I DON’T HAVE TO LIE
IF YOU KNOW ME, AND I THINK YOU DO, YOU KNOW I’M NOT A LIAR

EXCEPT FOR WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG IN MY LIFE
AND I HAVE TO BACK AWAY FOR A LITTLE WHILE
INTO ANOTHER CORNER OF LIFE WHERE I’LL SAY ANYTHING
TO MAKE YOU BELIEVE ME RIGHT NOW

I can’t remember reading an alcoholism this tender this vulnerable and heartbroken and incapable:

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE WANT LIFE TO MEAN SOMETHING
I WISH I WERE THE MOSS ON THE TREE STUMP IN ANOTHER STATE
AND WE NEVER ENDED UP SEEING EACH OTHER

I CAN’T BELIEVE THAT WHAT I DRINK EVERY NIGHT CAN MAKE ME FEEL
ANY DIFFERENT, AND I THINK WE’LL BE GONE FOREVER RIGHT NOW
I AM GONE AND YOU ARE GONE AND THAT IS IT


Ultimately, I’m not convinced that Daniel will make it. Reminiscent of the best parts of Plath’s Bell Jar, these sonnets are mad and hopeless. They offer no solutions, no redemption, just a human being stripped to blood and tiny fragments of muscle tissue who is just as uncertain of his escape as I am:

I CAN’T TALK RIGHT NOW WITH MY MOUTH FULL OF SAND
IF YOU WANT TO TALK LEAVE A MESSAGE AND I WILL RESPOND
AT A BETTER TIME I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND
BUT I UNDERSTAND IF YOU NEVER DO

AND IF I NEVER DO
AND IF WHAT WAS GOOD WAS NOT REALLY GOOD
BUT WE WERE TRYING TOO HARD TO BE GOOD

God bless you Daniel Bailey.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

ANIMAL MAGNETISM. ALEXANDRA ISACSON. KILL AUTHOR


ALEXANDRA ISACSON
KILL AUTHOR 6
ANIMAL MAGNETISM
http://killauthor.com/issuesix/alexandra-isacson/


Read a little piece here:

"The anesthetized man rose from the surgery table and grabbed the young nurse around the waist. The last time a man surprised her like that she was dancing at a biker bar in a copper ghost town."

REVIEWS OF ACHILLES CHAPBOOKS

Thanks to SALVATORE PANE and the folks at PANK for their fine review of NICOLLE ELIZABETH's THREADBARE VON BARREN. Here's a little piece of Salvatore's wise words:

"These pieces are story distilled to the very core and are almost too personal for narrative, too close to the surface to shape with illusions of form and structure. What we’re left with is a powerful rawness and urgency that only grow with each subsequent reading. Only then is the reader finally able to grasp the emotional gravitas at play."

Read the rest here:
http://www.pankmagazine.com/pankblog/?p=3856


Thanks to MARC SCHUSTER at the SMALL PRESS REVIEWS for his excellent review of PETER SCHWARTZ's, OLD MEN, GIRLS, AND MONSTERS. Here's a brain teaser:

"The monsters named in the title of this slim volume are humans — or, at the very least, what humans become when we let our demons get the better of us. Throughout the proceedings, Schwartz presents a host of lonely, psychologically damaged characters, all of whom seek comfort in the company of others yet, tragically, lack the capacity to connect in a meaningful way."

Read the rest here:
http://smallpressreviews.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/old-men-girls-and-monsters/

Both Salvatore and Marc pretty much nailed these reviews. Good shit guys. Thanks for your friendship and support.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

CORIUM MAGAZINE

CORIUM MAGAZINE
http://www.coriummagazine.com/

SHORT FICTION
Stephen Elliott
Donna D. Vitucci
Sean Lovelace
Alec Niedenthal
Adam Moorad

VERY SHORT FICTION
Kim Chinquee
Scott Garson
Andrea Kneeland
Kathy Fish
Sheldon Compton
Julie Babcock
Ryan Ridge
Beth Thomas
Laura Ellen Scott
Christina Murphy
Eric Beeny

POETRY
Shaindel Beers
Corey Mesler
Sam Rasnake
Rusty Barnes
Cami Park

PRICK OF THE SPINDLE 4.1



Jac Jemc
The End of the World

Hannah Oberman-Breindel
The Runners

Hannah Pass
Tiny Houses

Mimi Vaquer
And then the Phoenix

xTx
Yet, I Kneel. I Tie.

and other good shit from other good people...

MORE STUFF TO READ



SAM PINK
FROWNS NEED FRIENDS TOO
X
BEST OF THE WEB 2010
DZANC BOOKS
X
WOLF PARTS
MATT BELL