Customer Reviews

The Last American Valentine

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's hard to describe how much love I feel for this collection, this press, and all of it's authors. Love is much, much larger than life, and this collection explores that rushing immensity with fiery, street-wise openness, and a steady, close, accepting eye. I'm a writer myself, and all it took was reading "Blue" in LB's Fingerprints to let me know that this book was something big, something critical- a whole movement of no shame, no bounds, and no exclusivity. This book wants to reignite those idyllic hopes you've long since boxed away, and give you a few new ones. I've read lots of poetry, went through lots of establishment and anti-establishment work at UC Riverside getting my degree in creative writing, and I have to say this is, by far, my favorite poetry collection and press.

Brown is an editing animal, expansiveness and intimacy layered together over and over with an amazing dedication to illustration. The inscription on the inside is right, this book deserves to be passed around among people you love, or anyone who's heart and world you want to expand. It was the first collection to prove to me that there are still lots of people in my generation who will break themselves open for all of us to learn- who won't be afraid of, or turn their nose up to, the most stiffly modern and everyday. As after all, all we'll ever know is what we're willing to tell each other. Michael Cirelli wields a hell of a psychic sword, C.O. Aptowicz is a naked, fearless thug, Rick Lupert is my new hero, Hirschman is the San Fransisco Socrates, and John Gardiner will steal you away.
So, if you're a bursting optimist and romantic, like I am, and believe, or want to believe, that 'love is all you need,' like I do, then this book will be your home for a while. It will make you want to write bloodier and bloodier, and that's a beautiful thing.

Other favs of mine from Write Bloody- Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns (i'm buying this book for so many friends...), I Love You is Back, No More Poems About the Moon, and their new collection, Good Things About America.

Have you ever read a love poem and gagged? Rolled your eyes? Wished with all your black little heart that the poem would immolate in the hands of an ex-lover? Good news - this book is FILLED with love poems that don't make you despise butterflies.

The Last American Valentine is exactly what you should expect from an anthology of love poems from Write Bloody Publishing. The authors in this collection are poignant and playful, telling stories that smack you in the mouth and make you want to be in a relationship again. For real. I normally hate love poems, as many of them are superficial or sickeningly rose-colored. This book has none of that. Finally, a collection fit for a wedding gift or a break-up, or just an afternoon in the sun. Bonus - most of these poems are PG-13, so they're perfect in the classroom and high school students devour these pieces.

Cease your pathetic attempts at flirting and read "The Last American Valentine!" This Write Bloody anthology includes works from Jeffrey McDaniel, Mindy Nettifee, Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, Anis Mojgani, Beau Sia, Buddy Wakefield, Shappy Seasholtz, Derrick C. Brown, and many other poets and artists. "The Last American Valentine" is a charismatic anthology that reveals the latent romantic in us all.

Not all of these poems are ones that you want to read to a S.O. But, All of them are amazing. My copy is filled with dog ear marks of my favorite poems.

Now, I bought this solely for the reason to read the work of Shappy Seasholtz. I expected a lot of cheesy, dense text where love was everything you'd find in someone's junk drawer, but I was pleasantly surprised. While the idea I mentioned before was present, there were a lot of cool poems that were really honest and original. Definitely a smart buy.