There aren't many, if any, poets writing like Mark Pawlak. His poetry has conscience. It actually deals with issues, political issues. It calls attention to the world class structure and the crushing power of wealth and privilege. I've been in dozens of conversations that revolved around the fact that poetry has almost no audience. If there were more poetry like Pawlak's than every person earning less than 50 grand a year would be all ears. Need comparisons? Like Reznikoff. Pawlak has a gift for the ironic. A fragment of his poem "Progress in Honduras": "in outlying hamlets/ where doctors had been unknown/ the stooped peasants/ lugging sacks of corn// now ease their backaches/ with aspirin at bedtime/ thanks to U.S. medics."--Mike Basinski
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #5,
Contact the editor, luigi-bob drake, at Burning Press
Copyright Burning Press 1994, 1996.