Too Much Johnson

by Michael C. Gizzi

Poetry. "TOO MUCH JOHNSON is its own one-book genre: a sub Shakespeare/ sub Dostoevski speedfest peppered with pop nihilist one-liners that purport to be the inside scoop on the human condition. It's Shakespeare ravaged by airplane glue; a geek Dostoevski bebopping the bad bugaloo"--James Ellroy, from the Introduction. Proceeding on E.M. Cioran's belief that "all inspiration proceeds from a faculty of exaggeration," Michael Gizzi's new book pulls taut--nearly to the point of bursting--the sagging borders of lyric poetry: "Suddenly there was one/ lying on his bum Paris in one/ hand crustaceans in the other/ and glow worms on the swan/ in question but not a typo but the air/ of a mandarin with three/ pigtails whose knock knacks/ perform acts no practical object/ would dream of..." ("A Planetary Drip"). Michael Gizzi is the author, most recently, of INTERFERON (The Figures) and NO BOTH (Hard Press/ The Figures). He lives and works in Lenox, Massachusetts. Saddlestapled chapbook.

31 pages, Chapbook

First published January 1, 2007