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Rabbit Punch
In Greg Santos's Rabbit Punch!, Marco Polo reminisces on his friendship with Kublai Khan over deli sandwiches, Wilfred Owen and Ernest Hemingway trade war stories at Hooters, and Senator John McCain remembers that fateful day when his father took him to eat bubble gum ice cream. With punchy poems that are intimate, dark, enigmatic, playful, and surreal, peppered with pop culture figures ranging from Batman, to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Paris Hilton to 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, Rabbit Punch! delivers a poetic KO.
- GenresPoetry
120 pages, Hardcover
First published April 24, 2014
189 people want to read
About the author
Greg Santos
10 books17 followersGreg Santos a poet, editor, and educator. He is the author of BLACKBIRDS (2018), RABBIT PUNCH! (2014), and THE EMPEROR'S SOFA (2010). GHOST FACE (2020) is his most recent full-length poetry book. He is an adoptee of Cambodian, Spanish, and Portuguese descent.
He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. His writing has been featured in The Walrus, This Magazine, Queen's Quarterly, Geist, Vallum, The Feathertale Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Best American Poetry Blog, and World Literature Today.
Santos regularly works as a creative writing instructor with at-risk communities and at The Thomas More Institute. He is the Editor in Chief of the Quebec Writers' Federation's online literary journal, carte blanche.
He lives in Montreal with his family.
He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School. His writing has been featured in The Walrus, This Magazine, Queen's Quarterly, Geist, Vallum, The Feathertale Review, Cha: An Asian Literary Journal, McSweeney's Internet Tendency, The Best American Poetry Blog, and World Literature Today.
Santos regularly works as a creative writing instructor with at-risk communities and at The Thomas More Institute. He is the Editor in Chief of the Quebec Writers' Federation's online literary journal, carte blanche.
He lives in Montreal with his family.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 29, 2022
Poets scrawl their verses onto knives,
flinging cutlery into the air,
letting chance decide.
Gypsies slink through throngs,
slippery scrolls of poems
into oblivious purses and pockets.
And the hungry can slip into a bordello
and be fed poems until ink
drips down their chins.
We have returned to this good land,
where the forest at twilight
is filled with the mingling cries
of wolves and flying baboons.
* * *
The president was on TV
and told us all to keep calm.
Nothing's going on.
See, my wife said,
I like the president.
He's not freaking out
like the rest of us.
I turned to my wife.
That man is not
the president,
I said, knowingly.
* * *
By Google Mapping I found out
Where I was going.
By being disrespectful to the haters, how to love.
By searching Tumblr, whom and what to reblog.
By texting, how to LOL and ROTFLOL.
Out of image macros, I have built memes.
Out of unlikes, likes.
Almost now I know who I iz.
Almost I have the boosts to be that man.
Another follower
And I shall be the Twitter King.
flinging cutlery into the air,
letting chance decide.
Gypsies slink through throngs,
slippery scrolls of poems
into oblivious purses and pockets.
And the hungry can slip into a bordello
and be fed poems until ink
drips down their chins.
We have returned to this good land,
where the forest at twilight
is filled with the mingling cries
of wolves and flying baboons.
- In the New Republic of Poetry, after Martin Espada, pg. 4
* * *
The president was on TV
and told us all to keep calm.
Nothing's going on.
See, my wife said,
I like the president.
He's not freaking out
like the rest of us.
I turned to my wife.
That man is not
the president,
I said, knowingly.
- Presidential Address, pg. 41
* * *
By Google Mapping I found out
Where I was going.
By being disrespectful to the haters, how to love.
By searching Tumblr, whom and what to reblog.
By texting, how to LOL and ROTFLOL.
Out of image macros, I have built memes.
Out of unlikes, likes.
Almost now I know who I iz.
Almost I have the boosts to be that man.
Another follower
And I shall be the Twitter King.
- Long Live the King, after Irving Layton's "There Were No Signs", pg. 50
July 5, 2022
A collection of charming and often quirky poems that unite pop culture and poetry. Santos shows a deep knowledge of his years of poetry study through his many allusions and references to other works and poets. I really enjoyed this collection and while some of the pop culture references don’t hold up (who ever thought Paris Hilton would fade from view?), as reflections from a moment in time are totally on point. A poet’s poet.
May 18, 2016
Praise for Rabbit Punch!:
"Greg Santos' poems are so quick on their feet, and fly by so fast, and are so pleasurable, I almost forgot that they are poems. Of course they are, and are as literary as they are entertaining: New York School by way of Paul Violi. But even tradition deserves a jab or two. Santos packs a whole lot of enchantment in each of his rabbit punches. Getting knocked out has never been such fun."
- David Trinidad
"Rabbit Punch! breaks the neck of poetry and stuffs it in a bag and trudges with it through the forest and spills it out onto the kitchen table, where Tara Reid and John Ashbery dig in. This is a funny, creepy, reverent, irreverent and insolent collection. And likely the only one in the history of literature to mention Tara Reid on the back cover."
- Stuart Ross
"Help is on the way for the Anglophone reader in a global poetry world. Rabbit Punch!, the second collection by Greg Santos, offers an admirable finesse to the reader who craves good verse."
- The Small Press Book Review
"Rabbit Punch!, Greg Santos' second collection of poetry, combines a quick wit with poignant insight. Playful and fast-paced, with numerous references to pop culture, Santos's poems nevertheless manage to depict a certain vulnerability that make his works more than simply clever wordplay."
- Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
"Greg Santos' second book Rabbit Punch! is filled with lithe poems, quick on their feet, poems that are witty, whimsical, serious, sarcastic, celebratory, bittersweet. Some are entertaining, while others are deceptively so—poems layered with meaning that reward upon repeated readings."
- Nancy Chen Long, Poetry Matters
"santos chucks these poems at you at lightning speed so naturally you end up with whiplash. and the poems are so bold and dark and perplexing that you almost feel like santos is fucking with you, but he’s not..."
- Beyza Ozer, Probably Crying Review
"Greg Santos knows how to make the poetic playful and the playful poetic."
- Beach Sloth
"Greg Santos' book of poetry, Rabbit Punch!, from DC Books, made me happy. He writes about fish, mythology, zombies, celebrities, young love, and rabbit punch. I’m not sure what a rabbit punch is. Maybe it’s when you hit someone quickly, your arms up like a bunny."
- Megan Lent, Arbitrary News and Review
"Here’s the only problem with Rabbit Punch!: the book is too sweet for it’s title. And it’s a good thing that it is."
- Zachary Cosby
"Greg Santos' poems are so quick on their feet, and fly by so fast, and are so pleasurable, I almost forgot that they are poems. Of course they are, and are as literary as they are entertaining: New York School by way of Paul Violi. But even tradition deserves a jab or two. Santos packs a whole lot of enchantment in each of his rabbit punches. Getting knocked out has never been such fun."
- David Trinidad
"Rabbit Punch! breaks the neck of poetry and stuffs it in a bag and trudges with it through the forest and spills it out onto the kitchen table, where Tara Reid and John Ashbery dig in. This is a funny, creepy, reverent, irreverent and insolent collection. And likely the only one in the history of literature to mention Tara Reid on the back cover."
- Stuart Ross
"Help is on the way for the Anglophone reader in a global poetry world. Rabbit Punch!, the second collection by Greg Santos, offers an admirable finesse to the reader who craves good verse."
- The Small Press Book Review
"Rabbit Punch!, Greg Santos' second collection of poetry, combines a quick wit with poignant insight. Playful and fast-paced, with numerous references to pop culture, Santos's poems nevertheless manage to depict a certain vulnerability that make his works more than simply clever wordplay."
- Cha: An Asian Literary Journal
"Greg Santos' second book Rabbit Punch! is filled with lithe poems, quick on their feet, poems that are witty, whimsical, serious, sarcastic, celebratory, bittersweet. Some are entertaining, while others are deceptively so—poems layered with meaning that reward upon repeated readings."
- Nancy Chen Long, Poetry Matters
"santos chucks these poems at you at lightning speed so naturally you end up with whiplash. and the poems are so bold and dark and perplexing that you almost feel like santos is fucking with you, but he’s not..."
- Beyza Ozer, Probably Crying Review
"Greg Santos knows how to make the poetic playful and the playful poetic."
- Beach Sloth
"Greg Santos' book of poetry, Rabbit Punch!, from DC Books, made me happy. He writes about fish, mythology, zombies, celebrities, young love, and rabbit punch. I’m not sure what a rabbit punch is. Maybe it’s when you hit someone quickly, your arms up like a bunny."
- Megan Lent, Arbitrary News and Review
"Here’s the only problem with Rabbit Punch!: the book is too sweet for it’s title. And it’s a good thing that it is."
- Zachary Cosby
July 27, 2015
Greg Santos has written a very entertaining collection of poetry, ranging from short, three lines including the title) to word play with "we." The three sections aren't numbered but exclamations !,!!,!!!. The first is a bit odd "Abyss" and "Our Seafaring Ways" are great examples of this. The second section take comedy as its primary role, "Zombies" and "A Wild Night at Hooters" showcase his talent for funny poems quite well. The third takes the funny and makes it poignant; "This Poem Wants You to Trust It" is the best for this feeling.
Through out the comedy is not lost but it holds best in part !! and showcases Santos in a way that cannot be done by mixing the poems together as other authors books do.
Disclosure: I received my copy through a Goodreads Giveaway
Through out the comedy is not lost but it holds best in part !! and showcases Santos in a way that cannot be done by mixing the poems together as other authors books do.
Disclosure: I received my copy through a Goodreads Giveaway
September 19, 2014
When I read him I am happy.
More - http://bentanzer.blogspot.com/2014/09...
More - http://bentanzer.blogspot.com/2014/09...
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews