Telegrams from the Psych Ward and other Poems [Paperback]

Marc Awodey (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0965890341 | ISBN-13: 978-0965890342 | Publication Date: March 25, 1999 | Edition: 1st

A visionary collection of poems by the inventor of the literary vending machine, leader of one of the most active guerrilla poetry presses in the northeast, and a pioneering Internet poet. This collection synthesizes formal and free elements into a fearlessly original volume of contemporary poetry.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a spiritual cousin to Rimbaud's A Season in Hell." -- Joseph Lisowski Ph.D., New Works Review

"Awodey's poetric vision is meditative, quietly troubled, dense with suggestion." -- Jim Esch, Turk's Head Review

"Awodey's poetry invokes everything from medieval lyric to Celan's dark moods to Lorca's deathward-leaning duende to Ginsberg's howl." -- Samantha Hunt, Seven Days

"This book is a dance, a song, a virtuoso performance." -- Thomas Fortenberry, Mindfire Poetry Journal

"astounding stuff" -- Trevor Reeves, Southern Ocean Review

(cover quotes)

Marc Awodey writes with mesmerizing intensity. His poems are passionate displays of cadence and rhythm; swirls of drunken, expanding metaphor, all artfully choreographed within an elegant framework of stories. Telegrams from the Psych Ward resonates with one of the most original poetic voices I've encountered in years. (Catherine A. Salmons, poet, literary critic The Boston Phoenix Cambridge, MA)

"I like the way the images leap in these poems. There is flight reminiscent of the Spanish poets of earlier in this century: Frederico Garcia Lorca- certainly the energy, and often the grace." -- Douglas Currier Poet, critic The Harvard Review, Vox, and other publications Burlington, VT

From the Publisher

Jean Cocteau said- "Victor Hugo was a madman who thought he was Victor Hugo." Perhaps we can say the same of Awodey. His work is difficult for some- brilliant to others.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 101 pages
• Publisher: WPC-Minimal Press; 1st edition (March 25, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965890341
• ISBN-13: 978-0965890342
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,183,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "a new path into the eye of the cultural continuum", October 13, 2000

By 

Cathy Resmer (Burlington, VT) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telegrams from the Psych Ward and other Poems (Paperback)

Buy this book. Marc's language is intensely beautiful, and his style is defiantly unique.

By buying this book, you're supporting 1) a visionary poet 2) the minimal press--a guerilla poetry collective 3) the idea that the distribution monopolies cannot control the spread of good poetry.

Marc says in his fine document, "Art & Machine:95 Theses": #53 "We mucst repossess our prerogatives. Disseminate ART in subways, bars, grocery stores. Sneak books INTO libraries. Sneak books INTO chain book stores. Sneak books into prisons."

Buy this book, photocopy some of the poems, and leave them lying around on busses, in bookstores, in bars for others to find.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read, August 19, 1999

By 

[e-mail] ([e-mail]) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Telegrams from the Psych Ward and other Poems (Paperback)

Marc has such a passion for poetry and that passion shows in each line he commits to paper or screen. When he isn't writing poetry he is doing his best to promote poetry, helping other to do the same, through his poetry vending machines and his underground guerrilla poetry press.

Telegrams has such hypnotizing intensity such joyous exploration with a dance of meter and metaphor, non-linear Zen like thought tangoing with our reasonable mind's linear thought, then a touch of classic presentation and grace rounds the work out. If you love poetry, if you live in today's "nuthouse" society you must read this book. Leslie Blanchard

Editor A Writer's Choice Literary Journal