See full review: https://irenaioannou.com/?page_id=92

Experimental poetry with absence of titles—though the poet smartly addresses this peculiarity of his in page 119—punctuation and capitalization makes the navigation rather tenuous, but the playfulness in the syntax and the linguistic awareness compensates the reader.

His poems about writing are interesting, and so is his evolution into shorter forms. I recommend the anthology for thoughtful reading. The title of the anthology came from the poem:

the only place to go
is up against beyond
what other challenge worthy
what other meaning
less than war
more than game
between covers of book or bed ( )

Interesting. I am not well-educated in poetry, so when I read it, I depend entirely on personal response (feeling, seeing clearly), not technical knowledge or comparison with other poets. Holt's poems are obscure, lack titles and punctuation, and feature too many made-up words that are often more irritating than evocative, but some of them work for me. Here's the start of one I re-read several times with great interest:

listen pig
and write the words I whisper thee
I am your best muse
formed by all you imagine
and mastering it
as the whip for your continuance
your struggle at the slipperied rest
of gainful sloth employment... ( )

I enjoyed this book for the most part. The layout was nice but would have liked titles to the poems on the pages. I couldn't find the rhythms to the poems at all in the first part. The second part picked up, and I enjoyed it quite a bit more. It is a collection of poems over many years.

(1994) Poems selected from Fine in Kafka’s Burrow
(1999) from Memos to No One
(2003) from A Hair’s Breadth of Abandon
(2005) from Relics from an Open Vault
(2009) from Longstern Poems
(2012) from “A Brace of Sonnets”
(2014) from Inversed
New Poems

I will re-read in the future and see if my opinion changes. ( )

Not kindle unlimited, not showing ebook at all though sent with selection of pdf or the other not mobi, but got it through librarything for possible review back in April, and because of finding this buried in email have spent all day clearing out my email. My apologies and then some for the delay.

This is a compilation or anthology or collection or whatever. The use of / to separate parts was distracting, not sure if that was because of the format or what, and couldn't find the rhythms to the poems at all in the first part. The second part {it all is somewhat divided in a way} was a bit better, more 'regular' style and no / so was easier to find some kind of rhythm, not any could live without but interesting even though some of the words weren't really quite in context of how normally used, and again the page format threw me off when the page ended but the poem hadn't. Assume that is not an issue in a non ebook format. The rhythmic 'difference' the writer is noted for definitely throws me off. The 3 stars is to match amazon's 3.

Suggestion: Buy in non ebook format, like poetry, really like poetry, not mind if there are totally made up words or actual words put together that don't normally go together. Be okay with 'rhythmically different', it kept throwing me off. ( )

Up Against Beyond:Selected Poems 1994-2017 by Jason Holt is a good free form poetry selection. He is a dark wordsmith that pokes at ones imagination, ones emotions, and does not mince words or opinions. ( )