some planet

by jamie mortara

some planet is a tiny cosmos in fevered conversation with itself. some planet is what it’s like to be a human. existing in one’s mind, in one’s body, in one’s world, in one’s galaxy, all tiny universes inside tiny universes all locked in fevered conversation. some planet is the coin in your pocket when you don't know how to choose. some planet is when everything is both itself and simultaneously else. jamie mortara is leading you through the woods by the hand, trying to get you home safe before sun goes down.

Genres: Poetry, LGBT, Queer

74 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2015

About the author

jamie mortara (they/them/their) is a queer poet, performer, publisher, organizer, and artist. They grew up in New Jersey and have learned to stop apologizing for it. jamie is author of the poetry collections GOOD MORNING AMERICA I AM HUNGRY AND ON FIRE (YesYes Books, 2018) and some planet (YesYes Books, 2015), and the interactive fiction collection small creatures / wide field (tNY Press). Three of their DIY zines are indie bestsellers and the others are likely scattered to the winds somewhere. jamie is founder of the audio poetry magazine Voicemail Poems, a National Poetry Slam competitor, and has performed their poetry in 29 states and counting. jamie holds an MFA from UNCW and is a proud Capricorn. More about jamie can be found at jamiemortara.comjamiemortara.com.

Reviews

[Noura · Rating 4 out of 5]

How is this book real?
I want to know what it's like to be inside the mind of this author. I want to understand how someone can know that a paper fortune teller poem type of thing could work. How to make the readers who have never read anything from the bible before (like myself) look up verses to fill a piece in this book. How it kept me leaving notes, highlighting quotes and having an ongoing conversation with what is considered an inanimate object.

How can someone write this. Something that I can lose myself in. Something that's an immersive reading experience. Something to help you make sense. Something to comfort and to understand.


I like this book a lot and I hope anyone who reads it feels the same ✨

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was ill prepared for the interstellar mind journey that was some planet. Every poem in this collection moves forward relentlessly from simple train of thought to galaxy revolving wonder. A poem never backtracks to contemplate the past or even the brief present. Basically, Mortara is driving a train that runs on feelings and it's in space and the brakes are busted. The final poem is going down as one of my favorite poems of all time.

[Mrunal Nargunde · Rating 5 out of 5]

I gifted myself this poetry collection and it's my first from an independent publisher yesyesbooks in the US. This publication specifically prints books to bring forward the voices of non-binary genders. I have found this book a truely unique perspective. This book has a spectacularly unique writing style and experiments with poetry as a form - flowcharts, interactive cutouts, indents. To elaborate that, one example could be that the indents and spacings mean something in the context of the poem. So you are reading the gaps too. Another example would be poems in tabular forms meaning the poet is possibly trying to hint at the extreme need of structure in the society and how the non-binary people find it hard to find their place in those neat, strict slots.
Reading this book is a fully involved experience in terms that my copy is heavily annotated mainly because it's a interactive experience to read the poems. The poems carry themes of space (not earth-ly) weaving in it with feeling a outsider or strangeness/other worldly and what that means. I found this book very interesting and will definitely try more books from this publisher.

[Brian Alan Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Poetry is pretty much a dead art form for me but every now and then I'll find someone who does wild and interesting things with it. Mortara is one of those people. I've already published my best of 2015 book list but I came across Mortara's latest book while unpacking the other day and kicked myself a bit for not squeezing it in somewhere. Also surprised to not see it turn up on the gazillion other best of lit lists I've read this month. It's beautifully designed and really unlike most books you'd find in any genre (pages fold out and I think there's a map and even directions to build a birdhouse out of it). Just playful, humorous and often powerful shit from someone who isn't afraid to have fun with their art.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

A universe of light forming behind closed eyelids, robots attempting to build humans, people as churches, people as final battles, hearts as alien spaceships, and darkness as the beginning–the place to start.

Mortara’s universe is an interactive playground for the reader. With pages that pull out from the book much like a map, the reader can choose a direction or watch the news and leave behind tally marks of bodies, or even cut out a poem and fold it into a paper fortune teller.

Mortara's limitless mind is a guide for the reader to explore such a delicately woven universe.

Special thanks to Megan for lending me this book!

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply weird poetry. They play with form quite a bit and there are lots of lines that snag onto something in my head and/or heart. Didn't love everything but it's like eating a large selection box of chocolates - some will hopefully be to your taste.

Favorite bits-

from 'Parse Table' "plan: lines and numbers manifest; they are dazzle; rough estimate of what will never pass"

all of 'i am trying to tell you' but especially: "jupiter is a star that never happened"

"i am quickly learning i can't have my moon/ and eat it too"

my heart is an alien spacecraft: "the truth is my heart is not interested in your feeble planet"

[Dani Kass · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found some planet really hard to get into and hard to stay focused on. I probably just wasn't in the right mood for it and would be willing to try again, but I just couldn't really absorb it.

There were a few lines that absolutely knocked me dead and will haunt me for life:
"I mistook the scars on our bodies for signs of life."
"I believe we need to place my dreams under strict supervision/if we don't keep a close eye on them I might love you on accident."

I also really respected how Mortara played with format, making poetry out of fortune tellers and flow charts. It was wildly creative.

2.5/5 stars

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best collection of poetry I have ever read. The way they write is incredibly interesting and each time I re-read any of the poems I get something new from it. This collection is so thoughtful and complex in such an odd way that I take it with me when I go away just in case I find myself needing to read it.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read two books on my ASTC trip to Tampa, Christian Bauman's as-of-yet unpublished The Night Door, and this book. There is now something about the experience of circling around Tampa on our approach that is imprinted on this book for me -- that intersects with the words when I open its pages.

This is another Heather Hughes find. Every time that girl recommends a poetry press on Facebook, I end up with three books on order. (Always three, what is that about?) This is the second I read from my YesYes Books order. I admit I selected this book mostly for its cover as well. (Not so much else to go on, ordering from a website, but clearly, whoever is doing cover design over there is doing a smash-up job.)

I like these poems. Mortara clearly geeks science and space. There are a couple of experiments with forms -- two sort of flow charts, one paper fortune teller. I love these. I like the poems that are instructions for experiments.

There is a line "If anything my heart is keeping the earth at arm's length." For a moment I think that all these poem's are at arm's length. But of course they are. How else do you hold a city in your hands, a house, a planet? But he is also in the forest, toes in the sand. I find myself reading these poems over and over again, and my body is in them, my mind.

So happy to have found this.

[Chloe]

What?! ?!

[André Habet · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is really playful and beautiful like a game with a stranger that you can't stop laughing with.

[Rebecca Petruck]

By expressing so much of the grief, confusion, and oddity of being alive, these poems give me hope. Mortara is filled with love and generously shares it, even when he's ticked/pained/sad. This is how we wend the peaks and troughs of life, and cherish those moments of light that make us laugh in gratitude--that make us feel beyond the planets of our bodies and experience all the gorgeous worlds around us in the bodies of others.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

About:
Some Planet is a poetry collection that was written by Jamie Mortara (Also known as John Mortara) and published in 2015 by the small poetry press YesYes Books.
This is an experimental collection with poems that are flowcharts, paper fortune tellers and made up of bible verses from a hotel bible. Although, there are also poems that are more ‘traditional’ in format as well. There is a theme running through this collection of things relating to outer space and the universe, but yet is grounded in affairs that are essentially very human.

Did I Like It?:
Yes I did! This was a great collection of poetry. I didn’t love all of the poems, but there were a lot that I found inventive or I felt a connection with. I thought it was a fun idea to throw in poems in flowcharts and paper fortune tellers etc. There were also a series of poems threaded in throughout the collection that were ‘experiments’ and I liked those also. A lot of the ‘regular’ poetry had lines that were separated by slash’s and I really liked the flow and feeling of that style.

Favorite Poems:
My absolute favorite poem was: i am trying to tell you. I read that one over many times. I thought it was just wonderful and it struck a chord in me. Some other favorites were: you pick a road, Q&A, distortion planet,gray, my heart is an alien spacecraft, black tourmaline, i am under house arrest inside my own body, you wake in a world where everyone is a robot and they are trying to build humans, vacation, heaven and how to start. There were two ‘experiment’ poems that really stood out to me as well: the one where you flip a coin to make decisions and the one about climbing the mountain.

Do I Recommend It?:
Yes! If you are a fan of contemporary poetry then you should check out this collection if it sounds like something you would like. Also, if you particularly like reading poetry from small independent presses or are interested in themes such as outer space and the universe than this may be a collection for you!

Here is a link to get this collection from YesYes Books if you are interested:
https://www.yesyesbooks.com/product-p...