This is the "Grand Slam" edition, Spiro having won a 1992 New York Grand Slam competition. Spiro has power in his urban voice; he activates his characters with Beat cadences: "...move the poets of another color/ the lip blisters, the three quarter mister keep your change/ sister hipster black poets..." He shakes the tree of poetry, he doesn't dance around it, elusive is not his style. He is bold & blatant, loud & quick, scary & real. He is "some sort of turbulent, flesh, sensual, eating, drinking, and/ breeding/ son of Brooklyn." He gives it to us straight & condemns those who don't--one of his poems is titled "Poetry; A Broad Historical Review; or, Just Read the Fucking Poem, Man." Read this one outloud.--R.R. Lee Etzwiler
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #3,
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