Lovely, Raspberry: Poems

by Aaron Belz

Aaron Belz's first collection, The Bird Hoverer, was "masterfully strange" (Boston Review) and "thought-provoking, hilarious, and altogether original" (Rattle). A former resident of St. Louis, where he founded the Observable Poetry reading series, he now lives in Hillsborough, North Carolina.

Genres: Poetry

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2010

About the author

Aaron Belz has won basically every writing award there is. If you know of a writing award he hasn't won, please notify your mom.

Reviews

[Aaron Belz · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wasn't totally sure about this one. Yet it still managed to change my life?

[Remy Wilkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

You expect me to tell you about the interior of the book and connect that to your feelings, but I'd rather tell you about the interior of another book and use that a symbol. By Aaron Belz, the new book of poems, Lovely, Raspberry, is -to quote the blurb on the back- "designed by Dinah Fried". On the cover are smoochy lips or it is a tongue divided, like at Babel Tower or perhaps it is two heads put together to think up a third book unknown to anyone. Full of math word problems and unfinished jokes, it is the challenge of heterodoxy, it is the smirk of absurdity, it is the thinking man's silliness.


Full disclosure: Belz is my Chiquita, being from Pasadena it is his perogative to bore me, but when I email him he replies with "What".

[Brian K · Rating 5 out of 5]

It must be said that Belz's poetry is more than a bit adulterous, if it were married to the usual themes of poetry. On the other hand, if it were instead yoked with the English language herself, LOVELY, RASPBERRY would express a linguistic love (e.g., puns and associations and raw human emotion) so pure it could blind you.

[Aaron Finkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Lovely! Raspberry! This one is a lot of fun. I've passed around this book, and am glad to have finally gotten it back."

[Courtney Johnston · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes, it's okay for poems to be funny. Not Pam Ayres funny, but wry-life funny:

what

Every day I get emails
that say things like
BELZ! We should
have done that one
thing that one
time, remember?
Really though
how ARE things?

And I always reply
the same way,
like, DUDE!
I do not know
who you are.
Where do I know
you from?
But I never hear back.

I save all those emails
in a special folder
labeled "I hate my life."

Aaron Belz is funny. Funny and confiding. Funny and I-want-to-get-emails-from-him-with-thoughts-like-this-in-them:

thirty illegal moves in the cloud-shape game

Potatoes
Waves
Ghosts
A Rorschach blot
Fuzz
Clouds
A dragon head
Chèvre
A puddle
Cloth
A swab
Crumpled up paper
A blob
Trees
Jelly
Scallops
Fungi
Hair
Milk
A piñata
Chamois
Sheep
Feta
A fist
Algae
Alsace-Lorraine
Quiche
Stew
Bubbles
Pudding

I want Aaron Belz to write me a letter containing 'five beginnings of jokes'

1. Why did the elk, deer, chipmunks, coyote, sea stars, orca whale, sealions, newt, weasel, and many different kinds of birds cross the street?

2. Elk, deer, chipmunks, coyote, sea stars, an orca whale, sea lions, a
newt, a weasel, and many different kinds of birds walked into a bar.

3. How many elk, deer, chipmunks, coyote, sea stars, orca whale, sea
lions, newts, weasels, and many different kinds of birds does it take to
change a lightbulb?

4. Elk, deer, chipmunks, coyote, sea stars, an orca whale, sea lions,
a newt, a weasel, and many different kinds of birds were entering heaven,
and St. Peter stopped them to ask a question.

5. What do you call elk, deer, chipmunks, coyote, sea stars, an orca
whale, sea lions, a newt, a weasel, and many different kinds of birds at a
party?

I want Aaron Belz to talk to his other friends about me, and when he does, to call me 'my chiquita'

We were friends. We dressed up as bananas
sometimes and went out on the town.
I called her my Chiquita. All in good fun.
We talked about dating - whether we should
make our relationship official. We decided no.
We were happy to have the freedom
of just being friends with banana outfits.

And then I would confide back to Aaron Belz, and I would tell him stories about things that make sense in my head, but not out loud, like the 'things that i have only one of'

I have two kinds of things, she says.
I have things that I am in to
and things that I have only one of.

That there is more than one thing
that I have only one of is, of
course, the irony of ownership;

the real question, though, is
where do the circles overlap?
What are the things that I am in to

that I have only one of? she says,
and looks momentarily tired.
Perhaps, she muses; perhaps

there is a third kind of thing.
For I also have many things
made of leather. See? she says,

gesturing to a large collection
of leather objects. I am also
into ornithography. Now,

does that count as a thing that I
have only one of? For I do not
have more than one ornithography.

But occasionally Aaron Belz will write a long poem, with a complicated layout, full of tabs, and little narrative, and no funny bits (or no bits that I feel confident laughing at, in case he was trying to be serious, because he's tired of being thought of as that guy who writes funny observational poems, and couldn't people for once see that he has something to say, like, an important view on the world?). And I'll read those ones dutifully, but I won't be able to tell him that I didn't like them, because I didn't get them. Instead, I'll try to distract him by saying, "Hey, Aaron? What about that wand one? I really like the wand one. Read it to me again."

my best wand

Of all the magic wands
I've bought over the years,
only the steel one
with the sharp tip
really works -- you point it
into someone else and say
ABRACADABRA
and the person magically
becomes wounded.

[Paul Siegell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely! In the past few weeks, I think I’ve read this book about four to seven times. I just keep picking it up. It’s like I just want to hang out with it. Swing in its breezes. There’s a poem in here that has the line: “I bore you and enjoy doing it.” Nothing about this book is boring. In another: “When every word sounds cliché, / each turn of phrase derivative, / that’s when I turn to slapstick / and boorish sexual innuendo.”

There’s a sensitivity to humor here, and to the reader, that I’ve never seen before in a book of poetry. Maybe that’s why I keep rereading. Belz addresses the reader like as a friend, not like someone trying to trick or outsmart them. It’s fun, and also incredibly imaginative and intelligent. And artful. From the poem “shifters” (I think my favorite in the book — and the longest): “As Stephanie continues to blow peanuts through her nose, / the audience knows all too well what she is up to.” I don’t know if Belz is Stephanie and the audience is the reader, but I can’t wait to find out what Aaron Belz will be up to next.

[Drew · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Lovely, Raspberry." Hmm. Is it a raspberry from the wild or from The Bronx? Probably both because this collection of poems is equally sweet and impudent. It also happens to be pretty funny. I bought "Lovely, Raspberry" because I went to high school with a guy named Aaron Belz. This isn't the same guy but I bet the other A.B. wish he'd written such gems as "direction," "critique" and "the love-hat relationship." And those are just the first three poems! A reminder to try things by people you have never heard of or don't know (and not just the ones who have the same names as those you do).

[Travis Scholl · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only thing better than reading a poem by Aaron Belz is hearing him read his poems. He strikes a posture somewhere between literary poet and stand-up comic (see what I mean on YouTube). His poetry is, quite viscerally, play with language, formally innovative without becoming pretentious. I would characterize Belz's best work as a tasty melange of John Ashbery (who wrote the blurb on the back cover of this collection) and Kay Ryan. No poetry collection is ever perfect, but I think it speaks well of Lovely, Raspberry that there are moments reading it when you will, literally, LOL.

[Scott Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you are you - - and you know you are - - then please, respect someone else's right to be someone else. We're not all you . . . Some of us are asleep - - some, half awake" (excerpt from "you are you"). I was introduced to Aaron Belz at a recent poetry reading at a local bookstore . . . I am thankful to have found his poetry! Belz combines light-hearted, even humorous lyrics with a more profound undercurrent that gets me thinking while I laugh, truly a rare combination. Highly recommended!

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes I struggle with the title of "poet" that is given to short-line writing writers. Yet with Aaron Belz, I am comfortable to look up to him as one of my most influential contemporary writers.
His short poems are simple and elementally pleasing. This book is like the perfect cloth to clean the camera lens of today's poetry. Speck-free, that lens of his captures life in this world. Every metaphor is chosen wisely. Every quirky joke is well-deliverd.

Fantastic, sir.

[Michelle Hoogterp · Rating 5 out of 5]

While I only really liked this book, I give it an amazing rating because many of the poems made me laugh aloud. Some poems seemed more like exercises to get creativity flowing rather than actual poetry. Belz clearly loves words and wordplay, though I don't understand all the games he plays with the words, I can appreciate much of it.

[Edward Nudelman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book. Belz is a great poet, a breath of fresh air, doesn't take himself too seriously, but not to the detriment of his poetry which is witty, energetic and often multi-layered. I love reading Belz when I have a twinge of melancholy, because it usually wipes it away. This is a great collection, highly recommended. Plus he's a great guy, friendly and very accessible.

[Adam P. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book that showed me just how far humorous poetry can go in the "serious" world we live in. For a more in-depth recommendation, check out my review from the Rumpus:

http://therumpus.net/2010/08/return-t...

[Robert Brewer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't only read this book for myself; I shared many of the poems with my wife, because like a good joke, I couldn't keep it to myself. For this, I consider this collection a tremendous book of social poems. Well done.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a great book, guys! Super fun! But profound too. It's like walking on clouds and then falling into a pit.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

pompous, but inspired.

[Monty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lovely raspberyy was a fav book of poetry from 2011 - playful and very funny. Mystifying and strange, too.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful collection of poems.

[Holly Cunningham · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this collection. I remember being at Left Bank Books hearing Aaron read some of these out loud and some were so funny, and many so thought-provoking.

[Abigail Danfora · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great poems--slightly more bitter undertones than the poems in The Bird Hoverer, though (or maybe it's just me?).

[Hal Bush · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE this book, and so should you! Or, as Woody Allen says in Annie Hall: I LERVE it! Seriously funny, and just delightful...

[Mar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciate the wit of these poems. Some made me laugh aloud.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

Review to come!

[Aaron Cummings · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few diamonds in the rough.

[sch · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Critique" made me laugh. "Three Things" rewarded extra thinking. I don't get most of the others.

[nate]

Exceptionally enjoyable.