Literature Talk at the County Fair

[rowens]

Literature Talk at the County Fair

Poe Carroll Bukowski dumb stuff Thompson
go down a row, you got your

Lovecraft Crowley Gaiman, stuff like that . . .
William Burroughs, and occasionally  Philip Dick & David Lynch.

Then, you got your Stephen King and Anne Rice and
your V. C. Andrews.

Mostly it's Harry Potter. Mostly, it is.
And no one's ever anymore heard of the Marquis de Sade.
They just use his name in vain.

And there aren't many sexy ones around,
mostly young—but fat—  and mostly talk 
about Poe and Thompson,
Poe and Carroll, like they talk about Dahmer and Manson.
Very few's heard of Bukowski, other than the name.

And I say I've never read any of them;
that's the safest way to get laid.

[billy]

the only neg for is the title. it does in all honesty work but my first thought with [down a row] was of the library. not a lot of imagery but it's one of those poems that doesn't need it. why do i like it? it just works for me, i can't explain why. the twist at the end is almost perfect. the enjambment works well. well worth a few more reads.

[Keith]

Hi rowens
On first read the name drops put me off but the twist at the end was good enough for me to loop back for a few more reads, and i really enjoyed the whole piece, the setting is good and I can see the books laid out on a market stall, the level of interaction with social commentry is balance just right with the slam dunk at the end. Thanks for the read. Best Keith

[Thunderembargo]

I like the title, precisely because it only addresses and represents the idea of the poem (which is to impart criticism and a critical intellectual life to would-be pop consumers and shallow parvenus or dilletants or savants who have no working knowledge of contemporary literary thinking, development or progress by which to measure or understand the implicit criticism and list of critical writers which the poem imparts) i.e. might as well be at a county fair musing and reminiscing over one's own thoughts if there is no one to share them with---no body who has read Charles Bukowski!

[rowens]

They've killed our library. . . . You all seem to get it, and that's right about the title, Thunderembargo. Though I see what billy means about it, though, at least here, we're living in a postlibrary world. And Keith is right too, there is a literal county fair, but I mix literal and figurative notions haphazardly in my writing. These are the popular names and books, and one movie director and some killers, that the young women get their strange joy out of, over the last 25 to 30 years. And I can't help but be sentimental. And I am prone to making fun of people and things that I have nostalgia and feel affection for.