“Only
cool people can understand what's cool.” - Fad
I like
the weird and the strange, especially, when it comes to books.
Fad: Poetry by a Loud Gray Bird (copyright 2012 A Loud Gray
Bird), looks like a small, unassuming chapbook... or is it? Fad
tells the story of a moment in time, a universal moment of crisis:
that of identity: The Poet... who is he? Is he a lone voice
crying out in the wilderness, or is he nothing more than an amalgam
of different personalities pieced together from bits of electronic
media and pop culture?
At
first, Fad comes off as a short read, with a handful of verses
surrounding a longer stream of consciousness poem, in which the poet
starts, as best as can be described, “cast out” the confluence of
information – 21st century images and phrases - he's
been forced to ingest from the Information Age; a self-exorcism,
where, at the end (8 pages later), he's restored his “Command of
Language.”
Trounced by
subliminal tides
I'm a
peanut
Between
continents
On this
clueless raft
With no
language
To salvage
my tongue
Or give
condolences to its mother
I'll raise
its bastard son
To be my
superficial lover
And fuck
its lifeless
Under this
relentless sky
Burnt and
starving (or just hungry?)
I surrender
My tears
To this
desiccate sea
Its a
(Disney) pirate's life for me
This
is where the poet now stands, alone, naked, with a decision – to
escape, or, again, embrace/internalize the never-ending flow of
information that overcomes every human being on the planet?
Truthfully,
every artist, at some point in his/her existence, will find
him/herself in this position. The idea of asking, “Who am I?,” is
not new, but Fad has found a different answer to his question,
one which I will not reveal (spoilers).
Suffice
it to say, reading Fad feels, and IS subversive, which, as any
good poet will tell you, is the end goal, which Fad has
accomplished successfully. Is Fad cool? I believe so, but I
leave it to each reader to determine that for herself.
(Fad:
Poetry by a Loud Gray Bird,
copyright 2012 A Loud Gray Bird, http://aloudgraybird.tumblr.com,
26 pages, $3 – can be purchased at Skylight Books,
www.skylightbooks.com )
(words and photo copyright 2012 marie lecrivain)
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