Poetry of NOW

Poetry

WE’VE HEARD of shock therapy, and “Shock of the New.” What about shock poetry? Or at least, Poetry NOW?

Meaning, ways of approaching current events in a more unstructured fashion; in so doing, expressing the truth of a matter better than long think pieces. Our new featured poetry, “On the Killing of Brian Thompson and the Coronation of Luigi Mangione” by Bud Sturguess, is an example of the examination of news through art– distilled through art– containing resonances of past and present accused/villains turned into celebrities, as well as our society’s all-encompassing media landscape. Echoes of influences we carry inescapably with us at all times.

Read the poem and see what you think!

I saw Mr. Oswald (or someone who stole his face)
Mr. Guiteau, a slew of Proud Boys,
defenders of such and such a race,
and the fellow who shot Spencer Percival
(I was embarrassed to forget his name)
There was even a scruffy fellow I knew as Joe
(of “Hey Joe” fame)
and true to lore, in his hand he held a gun

Pop Lit Summer 2024

Announcement, Poetry

WE ARE HERE to celebrate life, the world, humanity– including the celebration of ART and the joys of prose and poetry. Despite wars and inhuman tragedies filling our phones, our screens, and our brains, the world is for the moment still here– it’s summer. July! Let’s enjoy it.

TOWARD THAT END we have several pop lit happenings to announce.

FIRST, our new feature, “Four Poems by John Zedolik,” which consists of– you guessed it– exactly four thought-provoking new poems by John Zedolik, one of the best practitioners of the poetic art around today.

SECOND, ongoing happenings and happiness at our pop-lit literary art gallery, Fast Pop Lit. The current week’s special-on-the-menu, “Ad for Contemporary Artist Wannabes,” is by hyper-talented actress-writer Zoé Mahfouz. Summer writing with flair and energy.

THIRD, we have coming up in less than a week at Fast Pop Lit an impromptu Hemingway Festival(!!) as tribute to one of our favorite authors and literary role models. (Without doubt the best of the highly-touted 20th Century modernists.)

Things are happening. Don’t miss any of it!

What’s Authentic?

Poetry

PATHS TOWARD REVIVED LITERATURE

WE LIVE IN A WORLD where increasingly everything is fake. Fake images sounds food faces– chain restaurants with fake Taco Bell Olive Garden artificial cuisine, dupe the masses, sell them robot dates, pump the digital AI-generated fake voices shouting hype to keep the money flowing– fake crypto currency money backed by nothing but the promises of megabillionaire tech hustlers whose only purpose in life is to rob you blind.

WHERE do we find the real, the genuine, the authentic?

Well, maybe in art, for a few last waning days when we can glory in the work and words of actual human beings, before a mass of content generated from the Machine drowns everything.

WHEN reading our new feature, “Two Poems by James Lee,” I thought of a 1998 quote by music critic Dave Marsh, in a book of his essays which recently came out: “That kind of culture, existing in isolation from the Ted Koppel world, exists only at the extreme margins today. A hammer dulcimer picker here, a maker of Cornish pasties there, a quilter in a cabin off in some holler or a rancher singing old corridos in some Southwestern arroyo.”

YET if we’re to become grounded, we need to get back to our roots. Culturally, because only culture will save this mad society. Revived culture. I don’t know exactly where poet– or Odist, as he prefers to call himself– James Lee is from. Tennessee, I think. Perhaps from the kind of isolated place Dave Marsh speaks about, where’s he’s been more in touch with our linguistic roots. His poetry has that sound– the kind of word music which could’ve been heard in England by the Bard himself. No, we’re not going back to some archaic, outdated, or impossible past. But there’s no reason why we can’t draw on elements from the past– examples and techniques from a variety of people, places, sources, as culture traditionally has done (see the roots of rock), like drawing clear water from an underground stream.

THE GOAL: Revived writing. Fiction. Essays. Poetry.

We hope you like James Lee’s poetry!

I Think I’ve Found My Place
Within The Swamps Of Belamour
Liquored Honey From The Gods
Brought There By The Mods
Who Escaped The Plastic Pods
Rising High Above All Odds
We All Go Running In The Streets
Being Chased By Suits And Neats

The Importance of Poetry

Poetry

Is Poetry 3D?

POETRY may be the most multidimensional art, because right now rules are few: there’s an endless variety of ways to create and present the art form. Unique ways of viewing and reacting to the world.

TODAY we offer as powerful a feature poem as we ever have: “Slick” by Ali J. Prince.

Want poetry with passion? Which addresses the world around us? Poems that grab the reader or listener by the lapels– or t-shirt or pajamas– to pull the person from their comfortable chair or complacent attitude and shake that individual to say, “This is the world. This is art!” If so, then you might enjoy today’s offering.

SIMULTANEOUSLY with our feature poem, we’ve been showcasing at our Fast Pop Lit site the very different style of poetry of James Croal Jackson— including his latest for us, “House Concert,” which itself has a 3D or cubist quality to it. Click on it and see if you agree.

UPCOMING: More striking writing and provocative ideas, setting down in the current chaotic environment a path out of the morass into all-new artistic experiences. Stay tuned.

Is There Hope for Literature?

Controversy, Poetry

Last week Lit Mag News ran a short article about AI by New Pop Lit’s Editor (myself). My co-editor Kathleen Crane– this site’s conscience and objective intelligence– liked the article but said there wasn’t enough hope in it. An apt criticism, because this literary site was built on hope. One of our missions is to be a positive force in the culture amid a mass of literary negativity and complacency. I’m an optimist– a realistic one who knows the world is a tough, chaotic, often hellish place, but there are stray gems of goodness and beauty to be found in it.

Which might be the appeal for us– and hopefully our readers– of the poem “Little Church” by Dominik Slusarczyk, presented at our Fast Pop site. An aged structure serving as a reminder of humanity’s past– of human decay and weakness, as well as humanity’s hopes. A marker of those who went before us on this mad planet.

This church has stood strong for centuries
But we will be here to see it fall.

\\\\////\\\\////

(Why am I an optimist? Culturally this civilization is at the bottom of a wave. The only direction we can go is UP. –KW)

Summer Poetry 2023

Poetry

Yes, it’s officially summer, so we can call this feature summer poetry– though we’ve been on a poetry kick now for several weeks, including presentations of poems at our new Fast Pop Lit site. (Did you miss them? You have to act fast, before they vanish.)

The world is moving fast, as it did in the time of F. Scott Fitzgerald and his famous character Jay Gatsby. The Roaring Twenties! We have today in the 2020’s the same kind of sped-up economy– we simply need a tad more glamour and style.

To celebrate the memory of Jay Gatsby, the Twenties, and a peak era for writers and the literary scene (may it return quickly!), we present a wonderful poem by Sara Megan Kay— “I Am Gatsby”— plus two other poems which may be even better. See if you agree.

Eyeglasses are my curse.
I am not God.
I do not see all.
Part of me struggles to leave
This damned garage once and for all

More and More Poetry

Poetry

Hello! Today we continue presenting poetry– it’s a summer season for poetry– the latest being “The Crow” by Ken Kakareka, exclusively at our new Fast Pop Lit site. Check it out.

THEN, within days, look for a special Sneak Preview– at the same special underground venue– of work from another amazing poet.

Think of a basement club where appear the world’s best new poets. . . .

Poetry and More Poetry

Poetry

Poetry enthusiasts take note! We’ll be devoting much of the next few weeks to the art of poetry, presenting work from poets expert at the art. We don’t believe just anybody can write great poetry– it takes knowledge of the craft as well as sensitivity to echoes of the world. Our selections will, we hope, demonstrate this.

We start our poetic journey with Three Poems by John Zedolik.

Brother wine will accompany me
into a deep red evening, hours of elevation
above the average plain, a tethered balloon
from which to look down upon my usual self
—not in disdain—only a note of amusement

(NOTE: We’ve already published a Sneak Preview of John Zedolik’s oeuvre at our Fast Pop Lit site, here.)

The Importance of Poetry

Poetry

Study the roots and context of Shakespeare’s poems and plays and you realize the extent to which people of his time and class loved language. They were first-generation literate but from an oral culture background, with all that entailed. They were extremely verbal people– more than we at great remove can appreciate. Ben Jonson and Stratford Will arguing at the Mermaid Tavern.

Poets and poetry have existed for millennia in all cultures. Poets practicing today are our connection to our past and to what it means to be human beings. To Homer the blind poet himself– and others before him.

Poetry isn’t logical. It expresses feelings beyond logic. Our sensitivity to this magical analog world we inhabit. Today we present Four More Poems from Tom Preisler, a young poet and a musician whose words capture that sensitivity and magic.

We hope you enjoy them.

nylon string guitars, denim jackets, the sound
of crinkled leaves under my boots, with a book
of longing in my pocket and ghost stories read. . . .

XXXX

1850 painting by John Faed

New Poetry 2023

Poetry

OUR FIRST FEATURE of the new year is a good one– Four Prose Poems by talented Toronto musician and poet Tom Preisler. The poems are set in Toronto, at nighttime. They’re first of a two-part set of writing from Tom for New Pop Lit, the second set to appear in a few weeks.

What distinguishes Tom Preisler’s work from the crowd is its ability to convey atmosphere and mood. With a phrase or a word, the reader is put into the world, the moment. Simple yet evocative. “Do more with less!” we’re often told. Here’s a writer who does it. His edge is that he creates in more than one art form– which enhances the quality of both.

If today’s literary scene is to be transformed– we believe it will be– it will be through new writers like Tom Preisler.