Monday, May 09, 2005

Canary #4

Great new poems in Canary #4 by Mark Bibbins, Zachary Schomberg, Dan Beachy-Quick, and Rachel Zucker.

I hadn't so much been able to connect with Zucker's work in the past, but this new poem, "What Dark Thing," slaughters me. It's a sprawling, out of control, and despirate meditation on capitolism, marriage, sex, and infidelity. This poem alone is worth the price of the magazine--a $10 poem.

And I love Beachy-Quick's work. This poem, "Difference in Triplicate," loses me a little, but it's still motored by the fragmenting energy, which still conveys a clear and locatable sense of urgency, that I love so much in his work. He seems to be pumping books out at a fairly ferocious pace--the next one is due out soon from Tupelo--but I'll keep reading them. I love his first one a very great deal, especially the poem "Psalm (Philomela)," which features this lovely passage:

Your thunder over the field but bends the rows
of wheat--my cry
Lord, but moves motes

Of dust to my fevered chord, and then
They settle, Lord,
On the floor

And do not move again...

(blogger seems unwilling to reproduce the indentations, but believe me, I wanted them there.)
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Anyway, back to Canary. Bibbins has two very slick poems. It's wonderful to have some new work. I wish I knew the name of an opera singer to sub in to Schomberg's stunning prose poem. There is also some new work by Cole Swenson, whose forthcoming book I am looking forward to.

I suppose you could have found out about all of this via Canary's website, but then what would I have done this morning to take my mind off teaching.

Also, please note new links to Typo Magazine, Adam Clay, and Jesse Ball. They make themselves available to you via the world of wide web.

hope everyone's having a good day.

1 comment:

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