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Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!

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I frequently capture people's attention in my bathroom by leaving them with limited reading material. This is the only effective way I have found to spread my propaganda. I leave Skeptic magazine, Ulta catalogs and poetry. One of my friends stole this book recently, which I think is a pretty good sign he enjoyed it. The alternative is that he used it to wipe himself. I find that highly unlikely as I buy excellent toilet paper. I digress.

This book of poetry is George-Carlin-amusing. Simple and bare, it speaks to the part of us many have tried to kill off. If you can remember what it was like to draw a picture and have an adult ask you "What is that supposed to be?," then you remember the insecurity and self-consciousness that Davis writes with.

I first became aware of this series of poems by Peter Davis when a selection of them were published over the course of a week by the online lit journal No Tell Motel. I was startled and delighted by their wit & nakedness.

While most poets wrote poems, with secret hopes that poetry will eventually be anthologized, published in high profile literary journal, used in the classroom or read by future generations, Davis actually writes poems ABOUT these situations, often expressing shock that they are happening and championing the reader / editor / student for becoming so engaged with his work. The series on No Tell Motel was roughly a half a dozen poems, released one per day for a week. I'd hold my breath every day hoping that that the series would continue, and delighted when it did.

So magine my surprise a year later when I stumbled upon "Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!" a book representing 100+ pages of this wicked series, published by the wonderful indie press, Bloof Books. I fell in love with Davis's work again, as his series stripped down the act of being a writer to its based elements: hope, beauty, ego, neediness, fear, awe, wonder, humor and sadness of it all. It is like he has taken every thought a poet has every had about writing and pinned it the page for full exposure.

Poems are addressed to the blind, to future students, to editors considering the poem for anthologies; poems are addressed to the illiterate, to his children, to fans of heavy metal who don't understand anything about poetry. He addresses the (unlikely) circumstances that his poetry is being read underwater, or by force by the U.S. government, or exclusively to kittens. Each piece written with a sort of grounded absurdness, that allows him to take a joke out to the absolutely edges, but still be telling a wonderful stinging truth.

It's a smart, honest & witty book, and I can't recommend it highly enough to poets and non-poets alike!

As demonstrated by the pieces that comprise "Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!", Peter Davis is a master of the prose poem format. A kind of one-man poetry slam (the titles of his poems are as unusual as the poems themselves), the quality of his work is nothing short of impressive and highly recommended reading, especially for those with an appreciation of his contemporary avant garde style. 'Poem That belligerently Address People Who Believe I'm Self-Obsessed Or Something Like That': Well, you have an enormous ego too. That's why you're reading this, you narcissist! Get over yourself! Sure, you're smart because you get what this poem is about and how cool it is, or you get how crappy this poem is, and you know why, but you're still just another reader. So, don't look at me. You're the one obsessed with yourself!

I read a review of Davis' first collection, Hitler's Mustache, in the online journal, The Dream People. It sounded appealing to me, but I forget about it. Until I met him during the AWP Conference in Denver this year. I was drunk and in a bar. I think we were in the bathroom. That sounds kind of sordid, but it wasn't. Anyway, he offered to send me a copy of his book, and I happily accepted. And not only did he send me Hitler's Mustache, but he also sent me this book.

Now as far as Hitler's Mustache, unfortunately I had trouble getting into it and did not finish, although I will return to it eventually. While with Poetry! Poetry! Poetry!, I liked this book a great deal more. My favorite poetry book that I've read in years. I often have trouble liking contemporary poetry and my tastes are very specific. My difficulties are related to its experimental aesthetic and abstractness. I need to establish a connection with the poetry, and this needs to be done with some degree of lucidity on the poet's part. I'm currently an MFA student with a prose concentration in a school that is lacking in fiction classes, and have had to take a few poetry-esque courses to make up for this deficiency, and they have been pretty tough for me.

But this book felt like a vacation from that. It breaks down poetry to its most basic form, breaking through the "code" and being extremely self-referential and telling the reader what they should be experiencing while reading each poem. Actually, the title of each poem addresses a specific kind of reader.