Thursday, May 9, 2013

BLAME FAULT MOUNTAIN by SPENCER SELBY

jim mccrary Reviews

Blame Fault Mountain by Spencer Selby
(BlazeVOX [books], Buffalo, N.Y., 2012)


Blame Fault Mountain just showed up one day.  I had no idea. And that is one of the best things about living in Kansas is receiving books in the mail….like in the mailbox down at the end of the driveway.  No don’t get me wrong.  It’s not that I live on a 40 acre ranch…just an old neighborhood on south east side of Lawrence.  So really the only access to print poetry is not so good at any bookshops (including locally owned and or the university)….selections of anthologies for any and every reason out shelf all single author books now days it seems.   So……..this book is among those received in the mail from ‘friends’.  That is a real treat and I thank the authors and publishers so much for taking the time.

The first thing about Spence’s book was the text….all of it.  Not his usual more visual based works seen online and in print over the past few years and I had not seen many of his text only poems.  How to begin.  Well I will extract a quote from his preface:  “I would ask those readers that are discerning…to remember that these pages aren’t  for normal use.”  Forget what I left out, thanks.  And, of course, we must reflect on just who Spencer is writing to or for or too in this ‘preface’.  But I thank him a lot and with all seriousness for saying that….giving that bit of recommend to his work because…man I simply fell on the couch and read this fucker from start to finish….nonstop.  It was surreal…I was floating and fluxing and surfing and  bouncing through the pages until it ended.  And I couldn’t remember where I started.  Was simply baked….even the cat got up and went to her bed.  Can I say that all again…..and really trying hard to do this without choking on my foot because (this is aside) there seems to be so very much writing about how people who write about poetry just “don’t get it”.  Whatever is meant to get.  And believe me I am not there.  I cannot name names or references or schools or influence because (a) I don’t know and (b) I don’t give a crap.  Here is the deal…Spencer’s poetry lets me read it and without my being too aware, kicks my butt into somewhere literary enhanced by his choice.  Now I don’t know if that is the correct way to say it or not.  And really, as well, not trying to dumb myself down or piss on the writer who may or may not know more than me.  This is my response to what Spencer wrote.  He writes it and I read it.  That works for me…..here.  And this selection is just that too and does not, or is not intended by me to ‘describe’ the book.  I cannot do that!   This is part 1 of a 20 part poem and I post it so you can read it…just that.  I have no more to say.  Okay….


ITERLOGUE

1
Seeing eyes of screen which erupt
At regular intervals on command

Snatches of monotone humming
Path to impediment flanked by

Crutches at the back of an unlit
Room
Burning half-darkness shows issue

Spotted with mold as though the
Structure had been broken and

Resealed under vague threat
Of a single point just beyond


*****

McCrary's latest chapbook NOT NOT now available from Hanks Original Loose Gravel Chapbooks.  You can find video of him reading from Kathy Ackers Pussy King of the Pirates if you look for the Taproom Poetry Series blog.  You can find him at the book table in basement of the 8th St Taproom during regular poetry reading series.  Other recent publications include Es Verdad, Po Doom and ReVeiled.  He lives on fixed income so dont fuk with his social security!!!!!

Editor's Note: Also, here is his kitty kat Iris reading the latest book by Galatea Resurrects’ editor!





No comments:

Post a Comment