The Complete Book of Kong gathers the poetic wit, woe,and wisdom of both new and favorite Kong poems into a collection that will rattle your cage. This Kong is undiluted and indomitable, ready for anything from power lunches to paparazzi, from Manhattan to Mambo, from Godzilla to God. He is hip and horrendous, always terribly in love with a screaming blonde, and still bearing the biggest, brightest heart Hollywood has ever broken. Kong treads fortissimo where mortals fear to go and holds forth in these poems with the fresh no-nonsense voice that makes Trowbridge one of poetry's most cutting edge bards.
Come forth ye canon weary. Behold your inner Kong!
William Trowbridge has published three poetry collections--Enter Dark Stranger, O Paradise, and Flickers--and two poetry chapbooks. His poems have appeared in periodicals such as Poetry, The Georgia Review, The Southern Review, Prairie Schooner, The Iowa Review, New Letters, and Boulevard. He lives in Lee's Summit, Missouri, where he continues to write and edit.
*Kong Bares His Soul Regarding Miss Tyrannasaura Regina*
Ok, so we're not the perfect royal couple, / me a hermit and her temperamental / as a hot volcano and not what you'd call / "pretty." Standoffish, too, as if / warm blood and opposable thumbs were too / lowbrow for dining out on stegasaurus / guts. Maybe I could wear my hair / shorter, get a tail piece, learn to hiss / and bolt my food. Maybe then I'd find / the nerve to crush her boyfriend's spine / and ask her out. / I should know better, but / those eyes, so green and deep you hardly / notice her head is two-thirds teeth / and her toenails lay down sets of foot-deep / divots. / I don't know. Last night / I dreamed of someone lovelier: swept in / from the sea, golden-tufted like a bird of paradise / who needed rescuing from pterodactyls / and teeny-weeny white men, and sang to Kong / in a voice so high it broke his heart.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Details
Paperback: 64 pages
Publisher: Southeast Missouri State University Press (October 2003)
William Trowbridge holds a B.A. in Philosophy and an M. A. in English from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in English from Vanderbilt University. His poetry publications include five full collections: Ship of Fool (Red Hen Press, forthcoming), The Complete Book of Kong (Southeast Missouri State University Press, 2003), Flickers, O Paradise, and Enter Dark Stranger (University of Arkansas Press, 2000, 1995, 1989), and three chapbooks, The Packing House Cantata (Camber Press, 2006), The Four Seasons (Red Dragonfly Press, 2001) and The Book of Kong (Iowa State University Press, l986). His poems have appeared in more than 30 anthologies and textbooks, as well as in such periodicals as Poetry, The Gettysburg Review, Crazyhorse, The Georgia Review, Boulevard, The Southern Review, Columbia, Colorado Review, The Iowa Review, Prairie Schooner, Epoch, and New Letters. He has given readings and workshops at schools, colleges, bookstores, and literary conferences throughout the United States. His awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize, a Bread Loaf Writers' Conference scholarship, a Camber Press Poetry Chapbook Award, and fellowships from The MacDowell Colony, Ragdale, Yaddo, and The Anderson Center. He is Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at Northwest Missouri State University, where he was an editor of The Laurel Review/GreenTower Press from 1986 to 2004. Now living in Lee's Summit, MO, he teaches in the University of Nebraska low-residency MFA in writing program. His web site is http://williamtrowbridge.net.
This review is from: The Complete Book of Kong (Paperback)
Trowbridge's Kong poems are great examples of the relevancy and potential of contemporary poetry. Although Kong's power as a cultural icon is basically antique, Trowbridge creates a fresh and complex personality who tells the story of his Hollywood lifestyle in the form of poetry vignettes. The book almost reads like a comedic novel.
There are many hilarious moments in the collection, including Kongs power lunch with Godzilla and his try-out for the Chicago Bears. But the book is more than a few good laughs. Each poem reveals more of the persona Trowbridge has created within his simple, effective verse. It's like a clebrity bio without all the whining and impossibility of authenticity. Kong represents the American idea machine at its biggest, and Trowbridge knows just how to manipulate the figure to teach and entertain.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: The Complete Book of Kong (Paperback)
Also available in a hardcover edition, The Complete Book Of Kong by William Trowbridge is a unique and highly recommended collection of poetry celebrating that famous giant ape of the silver screen, King Kong. Trowbridge presents a varied and lyrical depiction of this fearsome beast and the forces he symbolizes, in a reader engaging and refreshingly adventurous series of imaginative verse. Kong's Crush On Madonna: It was that steel/brassiere, leveled/at my heart. Cupid's/twin warheads,/heat seeking,/armor piercing.//Her eyes locked on./She counted down./I had ignition,/lift off.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
This review is from: The Complete Book of Kong (Paperback)
The life and fate of the Eighth Wonder of the World is the playful and poignant subject of Trowbridge's latest collection. Each of the poems is written from the point of view of Kong (the gritty 1933 version, not the fluffy, disco Kong of 1976). Kong takes mambo lessons, tries video dating, meets Godzilla in the commisary (''I felt this could be/ a big step for me, though at first/ he just sat there drumming his talons,/ nursing a vat of Courvoisier''), all attempts to get his life in order after Fay. (Sadly, no mention is made of MechaniKong.) The jokes are there (many riffing on Kong's size and strength), but Trowbridge takes the conceit to surprisingly serious and sad places. When Kong competes on Let's Makes a Deal, Trowbridge writes, ''the great door opened/ to reveal a big TV with a La-Z-Boy recliner/ and a woman dressed, I think, for mating./ Cheers swarmed like biplanes. 'Am I human now?'/ I asked, feeling bare, and somewhat smaller.'' Altogether, Trowbridge puts the big oaf of an ape in perspective and paints a picture of a melancholy titan just as vulnerable as the rest of us.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
