City Table Review
Winter 2002
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(Please note: the
text of the below review is archived on my site for promotional purposes
only, as it is no longer on Larry
Winfield’s website. The
original review quoted several poetry excerpts, which have been edited out
for the purpose of length.) |
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Born in The foreword of this cool book is
alone worth the price. Mr. Watson's philosophy of poetry is one that I and
most of my performance poetry friends from Chicago have expounded for years -
that intentional obfuscation set to verse to demonstrate high intelligence
and artistic originality is bullshit, that it shows utter contempt for the
reading and listening audience. I've always said that a two minute poem that
requires a five minute introduction is a piece of crap, that art that must be
explained is next to worthless and such precious creators need to get over
their elitist, over-educated asses. So what that they get more ink space than
poets who communicate to the Reader instead of down to the
Reader? In the grand scheme of things, poetry is still a minor player in the
art world outside of academia...sorry, but, being a saloon poet, this is a
favorite rant of mine. Anyway, Mr. Watson's book is a fine collection of
eclectic intelligence, poems full of inspired twists of metaphor that aren't
just clever to impress, cool insights that don't push their emotions at you
either. The best poems never have to wield a sledge hammer, become anthems or
rabble-rousing speeches (nothing wrong with anthems, they just aren't
poems...) There are too many great poems in Adam's book to
do them all justice, so, to mention just a few: poems triggering your own
memories of school, friends, funerals, particular mornings-after staring at
strange faces; hilarious poems about poetry; the reality and raw grind of the
touring troubador's life; an intelligently erotic
tale of a lap dance, told from both sides . . . The one-liners scattered
throughout are gems . . . The photos in the book, by Douglas Staley, are an
excellent complement to the poems in the book; not there to illustrate any of
the pieces, but as poems in their own right, sparking introspection in
concert with Adam's words. Mr. Staley lives in This is a great book of verse, let alone being Adam's first. I look forward to reading, and hearing, his poetry in the future. |