Zerx Press no. 54

by Mark Weber and Gerald Locklin. 2003. Zerx Press. erx Press, 725 Van Buren Place SE, Albuquerque, NM 87108.

Book Review by

This is one of the Mark Weber/Gerald Locklin flip books and is the 54th in the Zerx series! Wow. Fun. Zerx continuously keeps pumping out the solid stream of musical human cadence works, and we have to thank Mark Weber for that continuously devotedness to Locklin’s Jazz works and to poetry and poetry and music in New Mexico. Salute! Locklin’s work here in features several long works and one imagines that retirement from the teaching load of Toad allows him to generate longer poems in which he explores the endless variation of line and speaking cadence that has fortified small press works for over forty years! So, there is an evolution in Locklin, perhaps, occurring as the lines linger longer and poems find larger canvas. How exciting. Locklin’s work continues to inspire and enlighten, tease and teach, makes you grin, laugh and opens a world of poetry that is tangible, touchable and enjoyable without losing any art or abandoning the power of language. I have to mention that there is a wonderful poem called: Keith Jarrett Meets Charles Bukowski, which stands as a poem for ages. And standing along side it (for me) Mark Weber’s poem: Dry Year, which is a poem of conscience and ethics, eco-mind import, and clear poetic criticalness of mass TV culture and power politics which is killing the natural world. The kind of poem that must continuously be written for all of us to keep in mind the ravages that Bush thinking has upon the natural world (where in is poetry in its raw form). Weber writes: the guys who call all the shots/ are insane with money lust and power/ would our President, if he were a frog/ with burning skin/ even make it to the pond, kerplot/ jump in? (asketh Basho) Here I write thank you Mark. I am with the frogs and the pregnant and women who eat tuna laced with mercury. Recall all: Bush just relaxed the mercury emissions/clean air laws. Now all the young women and their unborn babies can be poisoned by heavy metal. What a great guy: George W. Bush. And Mark Weber stands up and speaks it. I hear. You do ’ out there ’ do you hear? Hear or get off this page - you don’t belong here. Poetry is for people with souls. I stand up with Mark Weber. Patriot. Thank you Mark Weber for this poem and all your other poems yeah, yes, also.

Made with ♥ in Baltimore.

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