In the newly resurrected can we have our ball back?!!!!!!!!!
three poems:
“Gut the Lion,” “It makes there be some duende,” and “47 or 4 or 7”
& a collaborative poem with Adam Tedesco & Aimee Wright Claw, “Unsayable & Right Here”
CAN WE HAVE OUR BALL BACK?
the mother of all online poetry magazines
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One of the social functions of art is to document and respond to the human condition. In response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, The Nervous Breakdown presents three poems by three contemporary American poets. One of the social functions of art is to document and respond to the human condition. In response to the global Covid-19 pandemic, The Nervous Breakdown presents three poems by three contemporary American poets: Shira Dentz, Aimee Claw, and Adam Tedesco
by KATHRYN COWLES
Some books of poems have to teach you how to read them because you can’t read them any of the old ways. Some books, in addition to being about whatever they’re about, are also about improvising a new way of saying, and therefore require a new way of reading. Some books are an investigation of methodology even as they plow ahead, and this is true of Shira Dentz’s how do i net thee (Salmon Press, 2018). So before I get into the specifics of Dentz’s original, weird methodology and language, I want to posit a theory of the why behind the how—the thinking I see going on behind the doing that manifests in the many luminous and strange visual elements in the book. But just to make sure you don’t lose interest amidst the theorizing process, here are some juicy bits of language, completely decontextualized, to hook you in, many of them employing this poet’s characteristically startling figurative language or her characteristically complicated alliterative twists and turns: continue reading here
Poetry in Performance at the College of Saint Rose
Students perform poems from Shira Dentz’s how do i net thee (Salmon Poetry, 2018). Listen here at SoundCloud
“Let the possum go,” a poem from THE SUN A BLAZING ZERO (Lavender Ink/Diálogos, 2019) featured at Verse Daily on Monday, 3/16/20. Read it here!
Wow, what James Knippen wrote in his shout-out to a a few of the best books of poetry he’s read in 2019:
“THE SUN A BLAZING ZERO, Shira Dentz: I am a sucker for poems that eschew traditional syntax for purposes of rhythmicality and general weirdness. But too often such poems, entertaining as they are, feel more gimmicky than authentic—the strangeness being the point rather than the strangeness serving the point. Dentz’s poems, though, are personal and feel wholly authentic—less Ron Silliman (strangeness constructed) and more Alfred Starr Hamilton or Michael Burkard (strangeness inherent). Their syntactical and tonal variety, and rhythmicality, work toward elucidating heartbreak and trauma rather than obscuring it. And what self-respecting poet wouldn’t succumb to language like this: “i want tomatoes rocks a whole story happened/flying across water a leaf falls birdacross/the sound sparrow tight welcoming//saw words the element sparrow of wind. it mat i like wate. breast botta moving./procks alone”?”
It’s Sugar House Review‘s 10-year anniversary. Which means instead of publishing two issues in 2019, there’s one, deluxe issue—available now!
I’m honored to have four poems in this incredible issue with such great writers and writing.
Check out this unique magazine in which all its contents are inspired and centered on MAPS! My piece, “COME, BE ONE WITH ME,” was inspired by a map of a dual tetrahedron. Read the whole 11th issue here
Volume Reading Series, a monthly reading series, co-curated by Hallie Goodman and Dani Grammerstorf French, is happening again Saturday, October 12 at 7PM, and I’m looking forward to reading from my new book, THE SUN A BLAZING ZERO, along with writers Leland Cheuk and Elissa Altman. Yay to Spotty Dog Books in Hudson, NY who host this reading series! More info here
