notanotherbookreview

"Wortsman displays a savage descriptive edge, precise and crucial, that is as natural as it is canonically reminescent of the panEuropean urbanism of such writers as Robert Walser and Robert Musil" --Anthony Abbott in  American Bookseller "Wortsman hang(s) with the masters....Dozens of dangling avalanches for people with dreamer's block."--A. Scott  Campbell,  The Boston Phoenix "A fantastic book....Marvelous writing, wonderful craft; and the breath of imagination....(Wortsman) succeeded so well in his craft and art that it reads 'artless' and'spontaneous,' which to me is the highest of compliments.--"Herbert Selby, Jr., author of  L ast Exit to Brooklyn. We have more time to think and seek meanings in our Covid lives. Consider Peter Wortsman's words.  He creates strange universes of human life we think we know, and shows them singular in ways we might never have imagined. Peter Wortsman is the author of novels, books...

Anne Waldman's SANCTUARY (Spuyten Duyvil, spuytenduyvil.net)  is a mind bending book of poems with wonderful collages by T Thilleman. Anne Waldman is an renowned poet and founding member of the "Outsider" experimental poetry community. She has read in the streets, as well as Casa Del Lago in Mexico City, the Dodge Lit Festival in the U.S.A., the Jaipur Lit Festival in India and teaches poetics all over the world. Waldman is an original "Open Field Investigator" of Consciousness.  Among her many books are "Fast Speaking Woman" (City Lights), the P.E.N. Award-winning, Lovis Trilogy "Colors in the Mechanism of Concealment", and her 2018 "Trickster Feminism" (Penguin). An excerpt from a poem in SANCTUARY below.  Her calligraphic design, important to the text of the complete poem, couldn't be reproduced in this blog. I think you get a sense of her dynamic words. More at annewaldman.org. Light Coda Occludes   w ell,...

Invocation to Nature/C Virus Peace Amid the Chaos STAT COUNTER BLOG ARCHIVE ►   2020  ( 8 ) ►   2019  ( 17 ) ►   2018  ( 25 ) ►   2017  ( 26 ) ▼   2016  ( 22 ) ►   December  ( 5 ) ►   November  ( 3 ) ►   October  ( 2 ) ►   August  ( 1 ) ►   July  ( 3 ) ►   June  ( 3 ) ►   May  ( 1 ) ►   March  ( 1 ) ▼   February  ( 2 ) Go to Mars or die? Why the Emissions Standards of ... In honor of Pres' signing of Keystone & Dakota Pip... ►   January  ( 1 ) ►   2015  ( 17 ) ►   2014  ( 22 ) ►   2013  ( 25 ) ►   2012  ( 28 ) ►   2011  ( 10 ) ►   2009  ( 5 ) ►   2007  ( 3 ) ...

Called "one of the innovators of the short short story" by Publishers Weekly, Peter Cherches'  Whistler's Mother's Son and Other Curiosities (3/23, Pelekinesis) is a marvel of wit an ingenuity. In this collection of short works, over 100 pieces of prose, he veers from minimalism to satire, noir to children's tale, abstraction to surrealism. Cherches' imagination takes a variety of forms; parodies, standarized tests, nursery rhymes, conundrums, rescued cliches, misbegotten mysteries, dark Americana, existential misdemeanors, optimistic nihilism and more. Whistler's Mother's Son features material never before published, published in small magazines, and from his early  Condensed Book .   Here are beloved characters; Hamlet, Gertrude Stein, Amelia Earhart, Fred Flintstone, Mr. Mondrian--hard-boiled dicks, a man with two mustaches and even a confused Peter Cherches. Though I have read  Between a Dream and a Cup of Coffee,  Lift Your Right Arm  ...

In 2020 ICE is a frightening fact of life for undocumented aliens, as is mistreatment at the border for asylum seekers; a far cry from " Give me your tired, your poor,  Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,  The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.  Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,  I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”   Lazerus' poem, long part of the American creed, is a question  in 2020. With the rise of the Trump administration there's a belief among his supporters that illegal immigrants, asylum seekers, are unlike "us" Americans. They are criminals, interlopers stealing our jobs/resources. Ironically, this attitude ignores the reality that hardworking immigrants fueled America's climb to the top. The politics of hate has heated up a crisis in 2020, yet as 72 MILES TO GO Shows, the huge impact of immigrant policy on families is not new. Set in Tuscon, Arizonia in 2008-16, the fissures between legal and illegal runs ...

Photo Essay. I love photography that begins where words  leave off.  This work is visual poetry, evoking feelings and sight  below the surface of consciousnes,  while showing what we think we know  in one moment of time. Begin this walk. This is an excerpt of a longer series to be savored some night. S.W. On a Darkened Night, SoHo 2018 GHOST WALTZ, Volume 1: "Acquainted With the Night" by Diana A. Rivera New York City's architecture is full of layers of history. Rabid development continues to destroy historical buildings at an unprecedented rate. My current urban photography series Ghost Waltz was born from searching for New York City's past eras before they vanish. This series explores different neighborhoods and their singular a t mospheres; Downtown’s gritty patrician buildings; Midtown’s unearthly heights; U p town’s broad swathes of recognizable yet hidden historical elegance. With influences such as Brassai ̈ , silent films and spir...