5 Poets, 15 Poems
Hello, listen, I don't know much about poetry. Let me first summarize my relationship with poetry, before we dive into things:
1. In fifth grade we learned about poetry. I don't remember what I wrote but I remember reading this kid Tom's poem and he rhymed "rooster" with "booster shot" and I remember thinking that was some lazy bullshit
2. In 8th grade, I had to compile a binder of poetry I liked and I mostly just included Smashing Pumpkins and Modest Mouse lyrics
3. In high school, we went to some local college for a writing competition thing and there was a poetry major who talked about writing poetry and it seemed wild and dangerous to me that you could just "major in poetry". She seemed so old and wise even though she was probably 20 at the time
4. Later in high school, my English teacher would give us extra credit for writing poems. I didn't need extra credit but I didn't wanna watch the movie version of some important play or whatever so I wrote poems
4. I haven't written poetry since, in any real capacity. I wrote a couple poems about a trip to Europe with my wife and a journal rejected them and I'll probably never show them to you
5. My friend Nick writes really funny poetry for fun and sometimes he sends it to me. I like it, especially when he follows very complex poetic structures he looks up on the internet. He made me a book once about the shitty grocery store we worked at together and it's one of my prized possessions
So because of my ignorance re: poetry, I thought it'd be a trip to do my mixtape about poetry to get out of my comfort zone. But to keep it comfortable, I also thought I'd only select work by authors who have books out on House of Vlad Productions. The cool thing about this is that they boast exactly 5 authors at the time of this writing and all 5 of them have published poetry and all 5 of them have pages on Neutral Spaces. So hell yeah, magic in numbers.
Two Poems
I love Rebekah's vernacular. I love seeing shit like "piddlin'" and "fine-ass" in the poetry canon. I like these kinds of words and phrases in the larger, eco-mystical context of his poetry, too. These two poems in particular embody this kind of mixture, raw-hide imagery wrapped around an Ego+Id combo, like a cellophane wrapper around a gas station sandwich. But these aren't fun alt-lit pomo observations, which is refreshing. They aren't over-wrought, but they are, still, wrought.
Two Poems
These are the only poems of Bud's I've ever read. I know him as a fiction/nonfiction man. I knew he wrote poetry but sort of challenged myself, in a weird, anti-poetry way, to not read his poetry for a while. In any case, I'm glad I looked at these because they are perfectly, concisely Bud Smithian. Are they really poems? Hey, listen, I don't know much about poetry, but I know enough to tell you that poetry can be anything so yes, these are poems. Thank you.
Three Poems
These are Sam Pink deep cuts. Yeah yeah I could share something from his forthcoming/out-now collection, but I thought you'd appreciate seeing these. They are bleak, weird, classic Pinks. Everyone riffs on millenial suicide-ideating despair humor but Sam was doing (and crushing) this a decade ago, and he was doing it better than anyone else because he crammed them full of joy. Yeah, I said it. Joy. Ever heard of it?
Three Poems
Noah's the most intimidating name on this list because his work goes way back when. He has a wikipedia page. Etc. These specific poems exemplify his real-world grounding, his wry grasp of the daily absurdity. He channels his real life ideo-specific experiences, passions, and knowledge into a larger, evocative image. I also realize now that in writing these summaries, I keep trying to articulate basic tenets of poetry, which is to do the aforementioned channeling. But whatever, he does it good, is my point.
Five Poems
I really like Brian's poetry. It's an anti-poetry, a kind of contemporary haiku. But importantly, they are crafted works. He treats his subject matter with an equal measure of disdain and appreciation. He's not finding beauty in the ugliness per se, but distilling the ugliness into a relatable essence. But maybe "ugliness" is too strong here, because these aren't dumb gross exploitations but rather patient still lives. Swap out the bowl of fruit on a wooden table for leftover pizza on the floor. That's all. I dunno. I cherish these poems.
About Mixtapes
These mixtapes are a way for the Neutral Spaces community to read and share each others writing.
The idea is to go through the site and select 5 pieces from 5 authors.
For Neutral Spaces authors, these get collected and you are given a space to write about your mini-collection.
On the page, the curator and the 5 selected authors have their website linked, together with the 5 external links for the chosen work.
If you run a journal, I would love to spotlight your site with 5 pieces, you can use the introduction to let people know what you're trying to do with your site.
If you want to put together a mixtape, e-mail me.