John E.

Aargh! So many poets are simply content to use poetry as a means for not very calculated self-expression. That's all well & good but makes for an avalanche of 'amateurism' that's not so prevalent in more ambitious forms like novels. I reckon that makes poetry 'perfect' for DIY culture but, as w/ punk music, when everyone's in a punk band or a poet, there's not much that differentiates the results enuf to make them interesting for me. SO, I, like probably most readers of such poetry, end up 'liking' the bks mainly b/c I like my friends who've written them. But I won't call the bks "awesome" just for the sake of being 'positive'.

John E. is certainly an interesting guy. He coedited the political satire magazine "Reality Sandwich" (wch I liked & contributed to), he improvises on alto sax & he sings, he's a gay anarchist who edited the Wobbly paper, he's been in pop-punk bands, he was in a big band that I cofounded, we went on tour together, he's a man of many talents.

From the back cover:

""There have been
The stryrofoam faces
With plush carpet brows
Which have not felt a questioning raising
In years...""… (meer)