Humanoid

by Joel Craig

"These marvelous, intently dialogic poems believe in that presence (and that absence) that we call 'the reader.' In HUMANOID, each sharply measured poem staggers down the page in its self-interrupting performance, tilting and darting toward an elusive social possibility--that we, whatever 'we' are, might actually come to somehow dwell together. These poems do so in their own fleet idiom of admonishment--self-admonishment and admonishment directed toward others, reader included. It all combines in the rushing substance full of sting, care and delight that is this poetry's movement. Alertly observant of its own cognition, and the foibles of cognition at the interior of its historical moment, this is harsh and tender, often funny and always deeply urgent work that Joel Craig has given us. Despite all the forces pushing against the possibility of such a thing, there is much love in it."--Anthony McCann "The speaker of the poems of Joel Craig's HUMANOID floats and careens in the interstices between tract housing, breaking news, love, and existential questions regarding time in the Anthropocene, so called. The difference between what we want to hear and the alternative is terrifying, but it is also where life is now. This book says such things."--Lucy Ives Poetry.

176 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2021

About the author

Joel Craig is the author of HUMANOID (2021) and THE WHITE HOUSE (2012), both from the Green Lantern Press. He co-founded and hosted the Danny's Reading Series in Chicago from 2001-2015 and serves as an artistic associate for the LitLuz festival (litluz.org) and poetry editor for MAKE literary magazine.

Reviews

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't know
how to describe
a bunch
of poseurs
thus
the word
poseur
roger that
most assuredly (26)


to have
a collective
social
assumption
you know
trying
to figure out
to whom are you really
writing
good morning
ladies
you dads
think you're all
so funny
combatting
toxic
masculinity
with cheerful
humility (31)


I think fighting
and opposing
is a spiritual
trap
if you meet
evil
with hate
you lose
okay
I get it (56)


you know how people
rid themselves
of agony
by putting agony
into someone
else (67)


this era
excels
so much
at a certain
situational
absurdity
that it never
seems
to recognize
a uniquely
magical experience (69)

no matter
how inspired
we are
we are bound
to have moments
where ambition
exceeds
technique
you open a door
only to ifnd
another door
and another
until you find
the people
who park
their money
in absurdity (79)


the thing about movies
is that some day
no one
will be around
to marvel
at the absurd
expense
of their creation
in the midst
of so much
need (91)


almost all
Barry
White
records
are under
five bucks
and they are
all good
but sitll
they don't
sell
well
don't people
fuck
anymore (117)


I want
to get
as close as I can
to understanding
not just
the human mind
but the mind
of God
and I want
to be able
to live
with what
I find (168)

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Poems that observe the interplay of cognition and the social, staging their thought in atomic syntactical units floating across the page that sometimes glimmer in each other's back light. Through this they think w/a rare precision in framing the exact moments where propositions transform or change direction. Will return to this one.