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Thursday, March 5, 2015

John Yamrus Endure. Tree Killer Ink, 2014 (16 pages)


Yamrus examines the theme of endurance through this collection of twelve short poems. Eight of the poems focus on Yamrus’s wry, ironic take on being an enduring poet, having now published twenty-one volumes of poetry and two novels. The front & back covers are by the enigmatic Swedish artist Janne Karlsson.

My favourite poem, however  in Endure is the portrait poem ‘they’ in which Yamrus takes a different stance on the issue. A sick soul, known as Ballrush, achieves a sense of  enduring memory in his community when:

one
day,
Ballrush

got
a pistol,

a
rifle,

a
pocket
full of shells,

and
made those
people in the market

remember that name forever.

This chapbook only just begins to lick at the genius that is John Yamrus. For longer, more considered works, I recommend you start with his collections of poetry doing cartwheels on doomsday afternoon and BARK.

John Yamrus’s Endure is Punk Chapbook #7 of the 2014 Tree Killer Ink series. Check out where to buy the chap and the other titles here: http://www.epicrites.org/tree-killer-ink.html

Visit John Yamrus online at: www.johnyamrus.com