INTRODUCTION
I recently came across this old book & found it interesting and entertaining
to read and discovered some new poets working from the streets. In his
Introduction writer and editor William Taylor Jr. says he was approached by
Lummox guru RD Armstrong and was invited to solicit work from a handful of his
favourite poets with the possibility of creating a book. It didn’t take Taylor long
to draw up a list of writers and he says that they are not from any particular
region or school of poetry:
“What connects these writers in my mind is
obviously not location, or even style of writing, but more a spirit that I feel
shines through in the work of all involved. All the poetry contained here is
accessible without being mundane, well crafted without being academic…Poetry
for people who might not realise they like poetry.
“It is my belief that your average reader can
pick up this volume, open it to any page, read a bit, and think: This makes
sense to me. This is a fellow human
sharing their vision of what it is to exist, and it inspires me. Or, it
could well be they’ll think something more along the lines of: This is some cool ass shit! That works
too.”
The title poem ‘Down This Crooked Road’ is
taken from Christopher Cunningham’s poem of the same name. It speaks of the
uncertainty and daring of striking out on the road. The poem concludes:
we
are almost ill-prepared
but
there
is madness
and daring
in our eyes
as
we cut ties
and
stare back
at
the abyss,
laughing.
The collection includes seven poets:
Poet
|
pages
|
M.K. Chavez
|
11-28
|
Christopher Cunningham
|
29-48
|
Miles J. Bell
|
49-70
|
William Taylor Jr.
|
71-96
|
Christopher Robin
|
97-116
|
Father Luke
|
117-133
|
Hosho McCreesh
|
134-151
|
Bios
|
152-153
|
In this short summary of the book I will
provide a brief overview of each poet’s work and will provide some links to
their latest work, if available.
M.K.
CHAVEZ
Chavez is the only female poet in the
collection. As it says in her bio, she “writes about the beauty that can be
found in ugliness.” ‘Ode to Methamphetamine’ is her strongest poem but ‘Mission
Street Love Story’ and ‘Everything that I needed to Know about Writing I
Learned from Being a Stripper’ are also highly impressive.
CHRISTOPHER
CUNNINGHAM
Cunningham is a highly observational poet who
compresses everyday experiences to often make metaphorical comments on life.
The title poem ‘down this crooked road’, ‘GO’ and ‘bending, but not the other’
are some good examples. His writing is pared down, exceedingly clear and
excellently conceived.
MILES
J. BELL
Bell is an English writer and is probably best
known for his 11 page poem ‘Icarus Rex’ which appears in this collection.
Some of the other poems represent threshold
experiences which prompt the speaker to make a realisation, such as, the need
to move beyond the expected & to surprise yourself, that feelings like pain
and love are fleeting and “will eventually fade to shadow” and the like.
Find some of Bell’s work online:
WILLIAM
TAYLOR JR.
Taylor who lives in the Tenderloin area of San
Francisco, is the best known poet in the collection. In these poems he wanders
through the local bars and cafes in the search of sad woman and material for his writing. My favourites include
‘Slow’, ‘The Strangest’, and in particular, ‘It is Enough’. The poems are
highly observational and chronicle the passing of time, in which Taylor shapes
his experience to make some subtle but profound metaphysical statements about
life.
Follow William Taylor Jr.’s latest writing on Facebook:
CHRISTOPHER
ROBIN
Robin brings to us the world of food stamps, of
women with kids with foetal alcohol syndrome, of bathrooms which haven’t been
cleaned for six years. He describes in blunt detail those who live at the
bottom of the food chain. His best poems include the brilliant ‘Freaky
Mumbler’s Manifesto’, ‘Infinite Joy In Spite Of’ and ‘Slingshot’.
Robin is a labourer from Santa Cruz,
California. He has published three
chapbooks and is editor of Zen Baby zine, a self described “pseudo-literary
train-wreck in print form since 2000.”
FATHER
LUKE
Father Luke Miljevich from his 2009 bio
describes himself as a person who “waits with a woman he loves for a perfect
world.” He writes about the pain and loneliness of living on the fourth floor of
an old hotel in an up-beat, often humorous way. His best poem is ‘With A Seagull For Company’ about the
death of Little Bob, his aquarium
crab.
HOSHO
McCREESH
In this collection McCreesh writes grand
philosophical poems about the inevitability of death, the lack of purpose, our
loss of innocence, the snuffing out of the light & the approaching
darkness. He likes using long-winded titles which emerge into the poem, such
as, ‘You Never Want To Say That/ We Owe It To Ourselves/ To Be Happy As We Can
Possibly Be/ For All The Many & Nefarious Ways It’ll Be/ Taken Out of
Context, Be Co-Opted/ By The Greedy., The Self-Important, The Gluttonous, &
Idiotic & Insatiable…’ and ‘As Madness Abounds, As Brutality Trumpets &
A Cold, Hard World Gets Colder, Harder, & The Death Of All That Might Save
Us Increases…’
Hosho McCreesh hails from the American
Southwest and more information about his writing can be found at his official
page for his books of poetry: http://www.hoshomccreesh.com/poetry/
