Customer Reviews

46 down, a book of dreams & other ramblings

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Michael Madsen's poems are evocative and real. He holds nothing back and discards devices, contrivances and coherence in presenting his thoughts. My favorite work is his poem (or perhaps he would refer to it as a rambling) titled "Movies."

Here are a few excerpts:

"Marlon Brando finding the dead Pigeons on his roof.

Gloria Swanson walking down those fu-king stairs and

Bette Davis testing the weight of a rifle."

The ending is poetry/ramblery at its most powerful. It captures how all of us are on journeys in our lives, but only few are famous:

"We are all on the run.

From the richest Maharajah

to the lowest, dirty, stinking pedophile.

The big, the wrong, the last, the found,

the forgotten, the remembered,

the free and all the long timers.

All on the run,

one way or another.

Yesterday I was the answer to 46 Down

in a crossword puzzle

in the L.A. Times."

Madsen brings his keen insightful vision to record our common movie-going experience using a confessional type of experimental prose that becomes a becomes a wild mixture of abrupt confessions, lyrical perceptions, disjointed observations, and ironic asides:

"Tim Roth as the only interesting money and

Harry Dean walking and making Paris, Texas. Watching

Paul Newman eating those eggs."

I highly recommend picking up this book as well as "Signs of Life" or his complete collection "Volume 1: 1995-2005."

Actor Michael Madsen has been compared to as "today's Robert Mitchum." I would go so far as to say he is also "today's Charles Bukowski." The poetry featured in "46 Down" continues to capture the same intense, introspective and honest writing. Highlighted poems are: "Forgivness," "Goodbye Buk," "Bitch," and "The Doer." He still can walk the walk... and talk the talk!

I would also recommend "A Blessing of the Hounds."