Panic Attack, USA

by Nate Slawson

Thank the poetry gods that there is someone like Nate Slawson in this otherwise neutered world. Thank the poetry gods that Nate Slawson writes with a hard-on. When I picture in my head what the speakers in these poems look like, this is what I come up with: a man naked on a pogo stick hopping down the street. This is a man, in other words, who lets everything hang out. This is a man who is not afraid or ashamed to tell it like is. Christ if I don’t wish there were more people like this, and especially more poets like this.

— from the foreword by Peter Markus

Genres: Poetry

128 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2011

About the author

Nate Slawson is the author of Panic Attack, USA (YesYes, 2011) and two chapbooks, including The Tiny Jukebox (H_NGM_N Books). Recent work has appeared in We Are So Happy To Know Something, DIAGRAM, diode, sixth finch, and other places. He lives on the SW side of Chicago.

Reviews

[Lori · Rating 5 out of 5]

from publisher
Read 12/26/11 - 12/27/11
5 Stars - Highly Recommended / The Next Best Book
Pgs: 100
Publisher: Yes Yes Books

This is everything that poetry should be and never was until now. Honest and naked. Sensitive to the point of sappy but with a surprisingly hard core edge. Nate Slawson's words punch you in the gut with their beauty. They make you wish your boyfriend/husband/partner pined for you in such painfully raw and inspiring ways.

Wouldn't it be heaven if people actually spoke to one another like this -

"... is it wrong if I write your name on the soles of my tennis shoes.."
"I think we are becoming some kind of galaxy"
"... every morning I rasp for you..."
"Be invisible ink on the inside of my eyelids"
"I want a nuclear tongue so I can lick dirty words into the bottom of your feet"

This book touched me in places I shouldn't have enjoyed but did. I love it's naughty, raunchy little heart. If Panic Attack, USA were a person, I would kidnap it and hold it hostage in my closet and make it whisper its dirty little poems to me every night.

Are you curious? Don't be all sly and shy, you know you are. Do you wanna hear what's got TNBBC all hot and bothered? Here's a little taste... Follow the link to my blog review to see Nate reading some selected poems from this collection:
http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...

It's slam. It's ragged. It's dirty and delicious. And you need to get yourself a copy of it now!

[Jill · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 Stars!!

This book of poetry was everything. It was heart wrenching, raw, beautiful and utterly brilliant.

I haven’t read a poetry book like this in so long. It reminded me of a mix between the writings of Jim Morrison and Jim Carroll. Loved it ❤️

[Hannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was like every poem in this book was the same poem written in different words for how much the poet wants to fuck a girl.
There was surprising language, but the same tricks got old after a while.

[Aidan Salier · Rating 4 out of 5]

i think it'd be so fucking cool (and ok maybe a little creepy) to be the "you'' in one of nate slawson's poems. his style is breathless and electric and most of all, weirdly obsessive over whoever the "you" actually is, if it's anybody, but he's full of amazing images of who this "you" is to him (or the speaker, but i think the speaker is slawson) -- everything from musical instruments, and there are a lot of music references here, to bodies of water, places in the Midwest, indispensable body parts, various states of mind.

though the poems are short, you have to take a deep breath before reading any of these and then just dive in. they take you from point A to point B really quickly. slawson is real good at staying locked within the microscopic frame of his poems and existing within their world, whether the world is gym class, antidepressants, or Cameron Frye.

[Dain · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nate Slawson does, indeed, walk around with a hard-on all the time, I am convinced, after reading his collection of poems. I had fun with them, but they lacked any variance from the subject of total all-out, destructive love. It just seemed unsustainable, though I applaud him for his emotional moment. The one about raspberries, in particular, was great.

[Wendy Xu · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books of 2011. You want this book, and you want it to go to town with a sledgehammer on your heart. Nate, we thank you.

[Kelsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Raw as hell. I want everybody to read it.

[Anya · Rating 2 out of 5]

So much disappointment. :'c