WILD CHILD IS another more recent chapbook by Robert Fernandez, this one published by Illicit Zines, which is part of Blush (https://www.blush-lit.com/illicit-zines).
The five poems on these thirty pages are the typeset-and-printed versions of poems also found at Fernandez's website The Chimeras (https://www.the-chimeras.com/) in their original form, "poems composed using nontraditional media and supports," e.g., poems written in (I am guessing) chalk, crayon, or felt tip marker on cloth, or fluorescent light tubes, or silver balloons. The site is worth a visit whether or not you pick up the chapbook.
Is the chapbook worth picking up? Lord, yes. I read the poems without knowing they came from a project in a liminal zone between poetry and visual art, and they amazed me. "Natasha" has a kind of narrative arc to it, like a shattered reflection of some long ago episode. "Antigone" adds a dimension to Fernandez's ongoing fascination with Sophocles' tragedy. "Neck Braces" and "Book of Black Cigars" feel like action paintings turned into poems. "Winter Dreams," a riot of bubblegum colors in its original form, is Fernandez in his relentless mode: "LSD / RIMBAUD / BLOOD".
This is the first Illicit Zine I have looked at, but it seems like a worthwhile operation. And it's always good to have more Fernandez.
No comments:
Post a Comment