The Closeouts

by Matthew Wascovich. Sloe Toe Publications, P.O. Box 6592 Cleveland, Ohio 44101. www.slowtoe.com

Book Review by

‘curator television for the memory loser’ … a line that sticks in mind from Matthew Wascovich The Closeouts. Each line in a Wascovich poem is a distinct unit and often a definition of instances or instant poetic information. And this vital bullet or knife or poetry laid by lines, above and below one another, captures instances. Pops! Seconds when the poetic mind flips open for an instant instant half or tenth of a second and Polaroids all that is there. It all floods in as if the poem were a bathtub. This then becomes the poem, a poem of poetry beyond the words themselves. This is penetrating work. Fresh stuff, peculiar stuff without leaving behind any of the pointed daily of it all. Savor this section of his poem Knife On The Desk (from Blinking Envelope):

run from things like an addict
he is buried in water in india
but his sounds are in this room
he's got tanks in his ear
and your voice in his head

Each line is linked but also stands as an entity itself. Can’t beat this new form of meat loaf brain poem that pour forth from fully utilized, vitalized, poeticized perception. Matthew Wascovich’s imagination sees with the poem!

Made with ♥ in Baltimore.

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