Toxic City

by Heller Levinson

Heller Levinson's first full length collection of poetry. Rabelaisian in wit and the sheer breadth of pop vs. historical vision, the style and contents are heady, satirical, sad, serpentine, and sexually wrangling enough to ejaculate poetry into the next county. Truly, a work that will be studied by edge busters for generations to come, it is a marriage of high intellect, humor, and devastating social criticism. From the Introduction by Anthony Seidman: "The American poetry workshop has churned out legions of poets writing narrative, anemic poems, free from any moral conflicts or nakedness; poetry with a clarity bordering on idiocy, as Breton would say ... Poetry today seems to be lurching in mediocrity, plastic teeth coughing up plastic fetuses, while the meat, misery, and fire in the poems of our brother poets in Latin America, in Africa twist and scald with an urgency lacking among the majority of poems published in the States. With this collection in hand, the reader has the opportunity to NOT ignore or be uninformed about a uniquely innovative voice. Heller Levinson has been publishing his incandescent poetry for years, and readers have been able to feel his words char the pages of such journals as SULFUR and HUNGER, and online publications such as OMEGA, yet we now have the conduit and the turbine of a full collection. ToxiCity is a volume for the starving masses of readers to devour, then shelve among poets who refused to succumb to the shrews and molls of convention and mediocrity dolling themselves up as muses. Nothing is lost in Heller Levinson s prolific study of philosophy, history, music and the arts: the poems in ToxiCity are like a palimpsest where diverse lexicons, facts, detailed observations all meld.... For full description and reviews, go to: www.howlingdogpress.com/toxicity.htm

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Reviews

[Michael Annis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heller Levinson's "ToxiCity" reveals the work of a poet's poet--one who constantly breaks new ground in dealing with the language intrinsic to poetics. The breadth of scope in Levinson's writing is only matched by the sheer inventiveness of his language, and the creative manner with which he articulates his vision. An excellent book for any student of poetry, poetry lover, or poet who seeks out the potentialities of language, spirit, emotion, wit, and heart of an artist.