POESY ISSUE 36 - REVIEWS

NEXT EXIT: FIVE
poems by christopher cunningham

a review by brian morrisey

THIS IS NUMBER FIVE in the Next Exit Series in the prolific Kendra Steiner Editions edited by Bill Shute. A series that Christopher Cunningham is the fifth writer who continues a tradition of trail-blazing the small press into new arenas of influential writers (i.e.: Misty Rainwater-Lites, Doug Draime, Bill Shute, Michael Layne Heath, Hosho McCreesh, Glen W. Cooper, and other up and coming writers
building a solid foundation for the Kendra Stein Editions bylines

Next Exit : Five takes us on a journey through Mid-Atlantic U.S.A. out to the rich Americana of Alabama. The poems are not a journey from one state to another, which I wonder if it would have strung these poems together a little better if they did, but really start to kick in around Moultrie, GA, half way through the book. The previous poems are well written sketched snapshots of ordinary life, nothing shocking or showing too much. However, after following Cunningham for a few years now, I do find traces of Kerouac qualities in his descriptive characterizations which keep the wheels turning and powering through each state.

If I am going to quote a poem from the book (to keep the lazy trendy aspect in the art of book reviewing alive), it would have to be the closing poem which had more of an impact than any other in the collection. Dahlonega, Georgia still resonates with me and begins driven, hopeful men / fighting the / curious whisper / of / madness.... that scream weep, / sweat and bleed. // a gilded future. // the birth / of a nation. // just another / place / where / dreams // aren’t.

LOVE & DEATH & TEETH IN THE BLOOD
poems by todd moore

a review by neal wilgus

THE TITLE OF TODD MOORE'S CHAPBOOK is a bit misleading. There’s plenty of death here and there, but the love seems to missing. Well, it depends on what you love I guess. Moore seems to love death and teeth in the blood.

And that is, in part, the power of Moore’s poetry. Make no mistake — these are powerful poems indeed. Poems of violence, murder, revenge, barroom brawls, car wrecks, sex, body parts, pools of blood. Oh yeah, there are also poems of childhood remembered, friends recalled, and memories relived graphically.

Moore leads of with a poem titled, they, in which a guy in Reno faces off with another guy named Packy and the result is right eye / turned into / a soup bowl / of blood. Moore ends the chap with one tire, depicting a car accident in which Larry escapes almost laughing until he sees Dora with something / steel thru / her & the / angle of the / sun at that / time of day / made the / wind look / red.

As you must have noticed by now, Moore has a very unique poetic style. Sharp narrative snapshots, two or three lines, no capitals or punctuation, some words with vowels missing, some words broken onto two lines, the first line acting as the title. Thus, we have shannon sd that one /where you / have a guy / bleeding into his soup is vin / tage spill / and w/ a / touch of / zen...

His memories of childhood and friends are tough too. Moore is playing guns behind the / clifton hotel... when a guy gets out / of a black / ford and walks / over sez you / boys ever / see a real / gun... Moore recalls sitting on the front / stoop of / the clifton w/ / my old man / who has a / bottle of / beam be / tween his / feet... In whenever, Moore asks Jonnie Taylor, how do you / know when / you have a / song he / smiled wide / & sd cuz / the words / taste good.

Moore is at the Clifton Café writing poetry in the best place, where linda the / one-eyed waitress wd / cruse by / w/ the coffee / & say you / got any dreams. In laying, he’s w/ harry / dove who / liked to pre / tend he / was getting / ready to / rob a train. Moore says, i aimed the beer bottle / at manny’s / face... and he turned thru / a shower / of glass / snot & / blood / howling / like a dog. This is where Todd comes from and this is the harsh, moving poetry he writes.

Moore is best known for his epic poem Dillinger, in which the famous bank robber’s life and death are immortalized in a series of episodes using some of the same techniques found in love and death. No Dillinger is not in this volume, but the same outlaw paradigm prevails, the same teeth in the blood. In bottle of a tough guy dares Moore to put whiskey, cigarettes, cards and a gun into a poem and the poets says he does it all the time & some / times it / works & / sometimes / it sucks & / you can’t / have the / aces w/ out / tasting / the blues.

NWILD STRAWBERRIES
poems by eric greinke

a review by irene koronas

ERIC GREINKE'S POEMS, LIKE MESSAGES IN A BOTTLE, found after so many years of being afloat, his poems are the experiences of being within, the experiences of being in nature. Each poem is a cathedral of actuality, of thought, of inspiration. We can take this walk with these poems or we can stay in our homes, inside, never venturing outdoors; we can listen to the telling after the fact. He has the rare talent to walk with our environment to bring us a profound lesson that nature often has if we listen to the ice crystals or growing green. He takes our hand and shows us what we have forgotten to look at,

the rain is the key
the dolls are asleep

there are books in the field