Four recent texts by so-called L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E poetry's Ayatollah of political scat song.
The first piece, "Time Expansion," explores in twenty short sections the microtechnics of reading through an aesthetic of delay. It was originally presented to the public as part of the music accompanying the choreography of Sally Silver's "Oops Fact."
"Secret Refracted Somewhere Else" is a vintage Andrews collage poem -- short, quickwitted rhetorical jumpcuts.
"Improvisation," the transcript of a thirty-five minute performance piece, is the heart of the book. Improvised in the act at St. Marks Poetry Project in NYC during the first week of the first war with Iraq it crackles with humorous rage and some of-the sassiest and most refreshing political backtalk I've heard in a long time.
The volume closes with "Black" an elegant
abecedarian list poem which effectively and economically
underlines the basis of racism in America in the first
half of each line. The last five lines:
white vote
white who
white xerox
white yanking
white zeitgeist
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #2,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1993, 1995.