What Language

by J. P. Dancing Bear. Slipstream Press. P.O. Box 2071, Niagara Falls, New York, 14301.

Book Review by Michael Basinski

J. P. Dancing Bear is reading this day or yesterday up at Niagara County Community College and I am here writing this after reading his book and I wish I were up there listening to him carve the words with sharp mind blade that moves through the pumpkin and leaves a few fingers on the kitchen floor. What language? NO! What Language! That is the first clue to this superior poet and his magnificent poetic ability. Awesome! His uses let me quote him ‘ruthless language.’ I like that and he does not back away form the brittle and brute life yet he is a strong poet who knows how tender words themselves are and how they can be miss-used so he doesn’t. Hence each word like hen’s teeth is pore-cisely placed palaces a palace of his in word work and ’ well ’ in the midst of the poem the words fly like slipping on black ice and the ghosts are speaking all around. Hear’umm.