Justin Taylor
DOUBLE YOUR POETRY FUN: Chris Tonelli’s No Theater, G.C. Waldrep’s Archicembalo
Christopher Salerno reviews Chris Tonelli at the Tarpaulin Sky blog. Click through to read the whole review.
Chris Tonelli’s chapbook, No Theater, the first from Brave Men Press, feels like a flagship collection. Tonelli’s poems are highly Apollonian. As a whole they are sculptural, relying largely on their form, moderation, measure, and order. These poems are leaden, unmovable yet spare: “You wear your mask to bed, / so you never have to be asleep. / I’ll wear mine / while I’m awake, / so I never have to / be awake.”
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Darcie Dennigan reviews G.C. Waldrep at the Rumpus. Same click deal as before.
On the front flap of this book of prose poems structured after a 19th century musical primer, G.C. Waldrep prompts us, “What does it mean to listen to poems the way poems listen to paintings?” While I have sincere doubts that even Waldrep knows exactly what this means, the directive is liberating. No matter how intimidatingly intellectual these poems might look to the casual browser, the poet himself is basically saying, “Hey, no critical analysis required.” And so, over the last six months, I’ve made Archicembalo into background noise—I am reporting on it not as a reader but as a listener.
Tags: Arhcicembalo, Chris Tonelli, G.C. Waldrep, No Theater
butler finally let someone post about poetry.
i knew he’d have to break sometime.
butler finally let someone post about poetry.
i knew he’d have to break sometime.
You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get him to agree. All I’ll say about what happened is that if it doesn’t come out of my hair after this next wash, I’m just going to shave it all off. All. Off.
You wouldn’t believe what I had to do to get him to agree. All I’ll say about what happened is that if it doesn’t come out of my hair after this next wash, I’m just going to shave it all off. All. Off.
i prefer to think of it as a post about po-eems
i prefer to think of it as a post about po-eems