From time to time, I may publish reviews of poets' chapbooks. Here is the first!
Contumacy
by Paul Hawkins published by Erbacce Press
Put
Arthur Rimbaud, Charles Dickens, Keith Richards, John Mayall, and Sir Francis
Drake into a blender, make a smoothie called the Golden Hind and put on your
hat for an adventure. Gandhi, Thoreau, and Mandela refused to knuckle under or
bend and so does Mr. Paul Hawkins in Contumacy. Poems float down like sweet
snowflakes while bricks amass in walls. Paul boogies to the dry-fly while Troy
scalds his balls. A nine stone William S. Burroughs break dances in a bed of
dead batteries and bullet rain. Sounds, thoughts, images, and secret Oulipo
dust are all sprinkled through this master opus of words. Edgar A. Poe and Dylan
Thomas arm wrestle. Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin play Scrabble. I thought of
when Cheech and Chong got pulled over by the cops. The cop says, “Your eyes are
red, have you been smoking dope?” Cheech replies, “Your eyes are glazed, have
you been eating doughnuts?” Catch Contumacy from Erbacce Press and Pawl
Hawkins, a great English writer, before he turns into Houdini and blows your
socks off while your shoes are still on.
Paul Hawkins is also the co-editor of Boscombe Revolution.
This poem "Tell Me" is from Contumacy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AuZsBJ9v8jg
"Drifting" will take you to Hawkins' own website: http://hesterglock.com/2014/11/13/drifting/
Here is some Jack Walrath for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNSYjpfHIds
I can't find videos of the Jack Walrath songs that my husband plays, so here is some Charles Mingus for you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xN_ecx46c24
On Thursday I will be posting an interview with Charles Clifford Brown III, so the blog-zine is truly branching out.
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