PLAN/K

by Kristi Maxwell

Poetry. Following in a long line of acts of piracy by women writers (Kathy Acker's Pussy, King of the Pirates ), Kristi Maxwell proves herself a masterful ventriloquist. Slipping her hand into through a card game (Royalty), a children's book, historical documents on sea pirates, and Treasure Island , Maxwell speaks, strikes, through double entendres, puns, homonyms, and jokes—all the devices scorned by the 'original' pirates of linguistic, cultural and political power. PLAN/K—not only Dickinson's plank but also Maxwell's (and Kafka's) plan K (plans A-J always go awry)—engenders alternate subtexts, defrocks priests and denudes '['where are your manners' 'where are your manners' 'inflected' 'infected' 'affected']) but reads as a He by her mother's (Design / Deceit [by her knowing the Signs by which a Pete is Mister-ed and Sir-ed (Served vs. Serfed)]).]' Meaning radiates in all directions, refusing and submitting to the lure of narrative, the drive to ''Frontier Thesis[:] [...] Turner's funda (men)tal orientation [turner] to the land.' Though Maxwell sets sail with the infamous pirate(ss) Mary Read, PLAN/K is less a 'whole lotion to cross' than perpetual Brownian motion in the Petri dish of culture, a nervous twitching of semantic, syntactical and grammatical categories. It is also a book sounding the ''Gen-Hur on a cherry-it a char[ge]iot (c [as see]-h[e]r-riot!) Mary Read, the woman compelled by her mother to deceive in order to '[Mary Read has no Reed ( Penis; Man- Oar).' Oar-less, Maxwell takes a leap—is pushed from the PLAN/K. And adventure begins."—Tyrone Williams

Genres: Poetry

132 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 2013

About the author

Kristi Maxwell currently lives and writes in Tucson. She is the author of Re-, Realm Sixty-four and Hush Sessions, along with the chapbook Elsewhere & Wise.

Reviews

[Kenning JP Garcia · Rating 5 out of 5]

A work for anyone in love with words.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this. The Treasure Island and other pirate stuff was AWESOME. The anagram section I could have done without.