Parthenon West Review

There's a good new issue of Parthenon West Review. Sandy Florian's piece is amazing.

Here's a paragraph:

"Done with tongue and stumble with hump. Making quarter more snows on the open piano. Rootless and toothed. Bootless by the bottom. Make a mole my anatomy. Make a dress from the severed. I am several now. So make me the hole of your slumber and sleep on the inside. Crude, unusual warden. Quoting Ovid and calling me by name. Caterwauler. Clone. Clock. Odd things, these birds, abundant."

I first came across Sandy's at a conference in Denver a couple of years ago. She read some sections from what later became "Telescope" and I was completely enthralled. She read with Danielle Dutton and that must be one of my favorite readings I've ever been to (Other favorites: Inger Christensen/Jackson Mac low in 1994 and Joyelle McSweeney at UGA in 2004). I think it helped me to hear Sandy read before I read "Telescope." A lot of people have told me that they are perplexed by "Telescope." I think that in part it should be viewed as a direction for a perfomance.

From what I understand, the new book is based largely on rewrites from Shakespeare and Milton, and it retains something of the beautiful archaic texture of such texts. What I've read is absolutely amazing.