The latest edition of Word Riot is out, and a review caught my eye because of the title of the book: We Swallow(ed) Spiders In Our Sleep. The book is a collection of poems by Zachary C. Bush, and you can read the review here, which includes a few excerpts. I gather that the reviewer, Christopher Cunningham, is a bit of a poet himself, judging from the opening sentence of his article:
“Zachary C. Bush’s hallucinatory poems, riddled with unexpected word choices, strong images, the occasional foray into surrealism and the razor edges of a hard young life being lived are the songs of an adventurous poet determined to squeeze each drop of lyrical imagination from the sun-burned, needle-pricked, aching skin of existence.”
Wow. If I ever manage to get a collection of my own poetry together, I’ll have to remember to send a copy to him for review.
Unfortunately, like most poetry chapbooks, it’s not available on mass market sites like amazon.com. The book is published by Pudding House Publications, but is not listed on their early 90’s-style webpage either (frames? really??) for some reason. The author advises in his blog to contact Jen@puddinghouse.com to order a copy.
Following are pieces of poems I found by Bush in online magazines. I’m not sure if these poems are published in his book or not, but these should give you a feel for his writing style. The first excerpt is from Expelling Angels(s) as published in The CommonLine Project:
Love was spending Sunday
Mornings in bed wrapped in you,
Laughing at the weeping angels
Blanket curled, leaned against
The grey brick corner of my mind, holding
Soggy cardboard signs that read:[Will Work for Some Pity]
And this one is from a poem called 18. as published on the cleverly named site, Unlikely 2.0.
Blindfold her tight, not to allow light.
Strip her slowly.
Lay her on granite couches clothed in velvet.
Tie her limbs with maroon sash.
Offer her drinks flavored with peppermint and sweat.
I will be keeping my eye on this talented writer and also keeping my fingers crossed that his next book is a little easier to get my hands on.
A Bunch of Wordz 