poems by Justin Hyde

Poems by Aimee Delong

Cat, Poem, & Notes (poetry & fiction)
by Ralph-Micheal Chiaia

Artwork by Bruce New

Charlie Parker's Garden (poetry) by Puma Perl

Red Mama (artwork/poetry) by Moctezuma Johnson

The Mob (poetry) by Doug Draime

Willie Lepers (music video) by Norman Ball

1 out of 6 by by Rob Plath

The Recipe by Emme Hor

Sometimes Suicidal by Aimee DeLong

Last Night at Southport by Justin Hyde

microwave popcorn haiku by Pete Lee

 

Damaged by Andy Riverbed, art by William Joyner Jr.

Andy Riverbed’s chapbook Damaged is a collection of post-confessionalist poetry that draws inspiration from heroin addiction, race issues, and sexuality. With illustrations by William Joyner Jr., Riverbed explores these themes with shades of surrealism mixed with what appears to be fluxus inspired techniques. Contently, the book explores the damage self-destruction causes, not by giving examples of how the damage happened, but by leaving a trail of the aftermath. Riverbed’s book is one that presents the ruins of the storm, instead of showing the storm itself. It exists as a history of the main speaker’s actions. It shows the scares and asks the reader to recreate for themselves the reason behind the scars.

Riverbed’s poetry seems to center around a group of lines in the poem “infinite pleasures arises:”

releasing yourself
(slowly)
as possible

Damaged reflects the sense in these lines, the poetry will be a slow moving turn away from the bondage caused by the speaker’s race, sexuality and addiction, However, and this is one of the collections biggest flaws, the ethereal prayer-like qualities of this short poem are completely undercut by Joyner’s illustration of a “Cathy” like woman sitting on a toilet. This is a pity. Riverbed’s poetry is suggestive enough to allow an artist to add facets to his poetry, building and expanding his themes by showing a reflection of those themes in art. Joyner doesn’t seem to concern himself with Riverbed’ poetry at all, often taking a detached pop-postmodern attitude. Most of the time, the reader is left to just wonder what Joyner was attempting to do, or if Joyner even took Riverbed’s work seriously.

Despite this Riverbed seems to keep moving forward, delving into his themes unapologetically, and at times, with the greatest of honesty. Consider the first lines of “No Key Locks (III):

Now that I think about it, I’ve realized I don’t
like poetry and I don’t like literature; I hate
movies and music is nauseating; my job is a
boring mindnumb…

Here, echoing Berryman’s famous epiphany from The Dream Songs (life, my friends, is boring) Riverbed shows the self-apathy of an addict. These lines expose Riverbed’s disdain for like without heroin. And it is when Riverbed can sustain these moments, that Damaged is at its best. For example:

The last day was yesterday
thank god we did it all
before it rained.
--Someone who cannot accept his own

…I grant vision into lack-there-of
achievements, break summer-time synopsis
and bring out the dead…
The sweat
smack of syringes’ lash
--The Sunrise is Missing

a suicidal child draws a picture of death
--fingernails

don’t give up
and rotate
dim [only
(giving off
infrared heat)].
--For Carolyn I

I am malachite
you: azurite…

we grow slowly
(eating this earth)
--For Carolyn II

These lines not only incorporate the poet’s lyrical strength, but also contain the raw emotion and desperation in imagery to elevate the reader’s understanding of the speaker pass the poems. In these instances, Riverbed lets us leave the page and stand staring at the shambles of the speaker.

However, ironically, it is also in the same attempts at these moments the one finds Riverbed’s biggest weakness. Riverbed doesn’t always let the reader “find” him. Throughout the book, there is unwillingness on Riverbed’s parts to fully let the reader “see” him. He starts this, strangely enough, on the acknowledgement page refusing to state if any of the poems “may or not have been published.” Unfortunately, this “hiding” has an extreme negative impact on some of his work. This is especially true of the poem, “nothing,” which while showing an Ethridge Knight influence, strains to remove the context of the poem to any sort of emotion or experience of the poet:

let’s
waste time
let’s do
stupid things.

The use of pronouns and the overall flat language in the poetry just can’t engage the reader in any way. Likewise the poem “Sunday in Retail,” a predictable anti-consumerism piece, and the confusing “A Child” detract from the overall collection’s impact, with the same blandness.

Two flaws cause part of the reader’s detachment in these poems. The first is a forced diction that Riverbed incorporates:

going soon
Puerto Rico
and we’ll prob’ly do some
smack
--So says my mother

I’m all fucked up
--No Key Locks (II)

and until this global warmin’
makin’ it all seem unnatural—
--Someone who cannot accept his own

While this strategy to capture the spoken word has been used since Hughes, in Riverbed’s hands it sounds like cheap, almost stereotypical, attempts that distract the reader away from the poem. Riverbed’s choice of form further compounds this problem. Often spacing between words and line breaks seem to be done at random. The reader feels like they are reading poetry off a telegraph. While I understand that Riverbed is a performance poet, I don’t find this to be a problem in other performance poets, such as Sean Thomas Dougherty and Anne Waldman.

Notwithstanding these problems, Riverbed’s poetry shows a lot of potential. Most of his problems could’ve easily been fixed with some simple editing and his ability to use language and image, as well as his willingness to take chances in composition, make one very hopeful for future publications. Damaged shows a great deal of ability to create sound verse and shows what the poet will be given some more time.

You can see more Andy Riverbed in the new Second Lit Chaos Print Issue.
Also, check Andy and his first book on Google or see his blog at http://ylarivera.blogspot.com/?chaos

Book Reviews:

Dancing on Thin Ice by George Anderson (review by Ralph-Michael Chiaia)

92 Rapple by Lyn Lifshin
(review by Helen Peterson)

10 Poems & Ampersands
by Ralph-Michael Chiaia
(review by David McLean)