Customer Reviews

Suction Files (Yellow Jacket Series)

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Suction Files makes you uneasy--- and this is a good thing. Few poets I have read have managed to make so much out of such sparse language, and to strain that little bit to the point where the language starts to break apart into sensory experience. I have other poetry by Blitz (Five Days in the Electric Chair, for one) and I am so taken by the ways in which he refuses to let words settle into the comfort of singular meanings. The very first poem in the book foregrounds the phrases "such as" and "as such" in a way that borders on torturous---a delicious kind of torture (though he calls it "torment") that compels you to go back over each line, each phrase, to see what else Blitz has packed into them. Then he turns a phrase that is so original--strange--that you feel as ifyou _should have_ heard it before, though you know, of course, you haven't...lines like: "The wrong knowledge is the thunder of memory" and "Each private torment quote-unquotes you." Suction Files is a Small Press book that packs a heavy punch.

I have read this author's poetry and really liked another of his books (Five Days in the Electric Chair). This book, "Suction Files" hooked me by the title. What on earth could this be about? Turns out it has some of the most beautifully sad pieces in it. The speaker/author squeezes out so many meanings from words and images. It's as if the whole book is a series of surprises: you just didn't know it was possible to express sadness in this way. I recommend it hightly.