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in ghostly onehead
*in ghostly onehead*, J. D. Nelson’s first full-length poetry collection, includes 75 never-before-published poems that were written between 23 July 2015 and 12 January 2021, a period of exactly 2,000 days.
The title of this collection comes from a phrase from *The Cloud of Unknowing*, an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the late 14th century. “In ghostly onehead” essentially means “in spiritual union” with the creative force of the universe. Nelson states, “I have long felt that, as a writer, I act as a conduit through which this force flows.”
Nelson’s work is influenced by the Beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac’s spontaneous prose technique, and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. His writing is also influenced by Dada and Surrealism. Most of his poetry is created through the cutting up and collaging of his own freewriting.
The title of this collection comes from a phrase from *The Cloud of Unknowing*, an anonymous work of Christian mysticism written in Middle English in the late 14th century. “In ghostly onehead” essentially means “in spiritual union” with the creative force of the universe. Nelson states, “I have long felt that, as a writer, I act as a conduit through which this force flows.”
Nelson’s work is influenced by the Beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac’s spontaneous prose technique, and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. His writing is also influenced by Dada and Surrealism. Most of his poetry is created through the cutting up and collaging of his own freewriting.
- GenresPoetry
93 pages, Paperback
Published December 25, 2022
About the author
J.D. Nelson
15 books63 followersJ. D. Nelson (b. 1971) is the author of eleven chapbooks and e-books of poetry, including purgatorio (wlovolw, 2024).
in ghostly onehead (Post-Asemic Press, 2022) is his first full-length collection.
Nelson’s poetry is greatly influenced by Dada and Surrealism, and also by the developments of the Beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac’s spontaneous prose technique and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. Most of his poems are created through the cutting up and collaging of his own freewriting. Nelson also writes haiku and senryū in English.
His poem, “to mask a little bird” was nominated for Best of the Net in 2021. Four of his haiku were nominated for The Haiku Foundation 2023 Touchstone Award for Individual Poems.
purgatorio: http://bit.ly/purgatorio_
in ghostly onehead: http://bit.ly/madverse
Haiku: http://JDNelson.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/madverse
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/madverse
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/madverse
Sound Art: http://OwlNoise.com
Video Art: http://www.youtube.com/owlnoise
Experimental Spoken Word:
https://post-asemicpress.bandcamp.com...
More: http://linktr.ee/jdnelson
in ghostly onehead (Post-Asemic Press, 2022) is his first full-length collection.
Nelson’s poetry is greatly influenced by Dada and Surrealism, and also by the developments of the Beat writers, especially Jack Kerouac’s spontaneous prose technique and the cut-up technique pioneered by William S. Burroughs. Most of his poems are created through the cutting up and collaging of his own freewriting. Nelson also writes haiku and senryū in English.
His poem, “to mask a little bird” was nominated for Best of the Net in 2021. Four of his haiku were nominated for The Haiku Foundation 2023 Touchstone Award for Individual Poems.
purgatorio: http://bit.ly/purgatorio_
in ghostly onehead: http://bit.ly/madverse
Haiku: http://JDNelson.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/madverse
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/madverse
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/madverse
Sound Art: http://OwlNoise.com
Video Art: http://www.youtube.com/owlnoise
Experimental Spoken Word:
https://post-asemicpress.bandcamp.com...
More: http://linktr.ee/jdnelson
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
January 10, 2023
** Poetry for appreciators of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, Jack Kerouac and Baudelaire!! **
If you read literary journals, chapbooks, print and digital magazines you very plausibly are no stranger to the extraordinary, inventive, captivating poetry of J.D. Nelson. A master and expert in a wide variety of forms, as comfortable in the pure and stunning nature subjects of haiku as he is with surrealist, dada, absurd, thrillingly experimental modes he is best known and revered for, I was admiring this poet’s exquisite collections (and many years of epic, fruitful publications fastidiously inventoried on his polished, immaculate website MadVerse which any aspiring publishing poet can benefit from frequently visiting) long before I dipped my toes into the writing game personally, or had the great privilege of making his kind and generous acquaintance through the wonderfully potent platform of connection and collaboration Twitter provides for likeminded, gregarious creatives!
So it was with great excitement and anticipation that I learned of this upcoming, career-defining collection “in ghostly onehead” many years in the making, laying out painstakingly in crackling glory the grandest achievements and finest examples from a career which has spanned two productive decades, includes over two thousand published poems in upwards of 300 distinct venues from a genius talent carrying the luminous torch of the Beats and French avant-garde into our singular digital era. This is J.D.’s first full length collecting of poetry (his seminal Cinderella City released by Red Ceilings ten years back, available to download at no cost, has long been regarded as downright iconic) and you don’t want to miss it. From his legendary subterranean laboratory (also renowned for its sound art, available through Bandcamp under the banner of Owl Brain Atlas) this recent Best of the Net nominee has compiled something truly special in a slick, riveting volume. From its glorious cover artwork – the mossy Gothic arche pair wonderfully, capture eponymous ‘ghostly onehead’ idea – to the intriguing and memorable title, as the poet continues his tradition of specifying the length of time the pieces within were composed over, spanning a round two thousand days from his Coloradan location, one gets an immediate sense of the enormity of the venture and its cumulative weight.
A dedication to his niece and nephews also provides readers with an immediate appreciation and understanding of what a considerate and caring person Nelson is in life, anyone who has had the great pleasure and privilege of interacting with him individually is well aware of his equal famousness as thoughtful human being, caring proponent of the vulnerable – championing both homo sapien and animal rights, laboring for and magnanimously supporting efforts for peace, economic, racial, environmental justice – and struggling populations, amazing mentor and resource to fellow aspiring poets and artists, in the writing community he has earned a well deserved reputation as elder statesman, senpai and role model, deep respect from editors and contributors alike, has made invaluable contributions to any journal big or small worth its salt invariably, recently also been dazzling the short form world with spectacular haiku with classical sensibility one would be hard pressed to observe outside of Red Moon anthologies, the collected works of English virtuosos such as Richard Wright.
And here with surrealism of the highest order J.D. similarly shines and amazes, will leave the reader absolutely astounded. There’s something so inherently enjoyable about allowing dada poetry to immerse you, like enjoying an unpredictable but fantastic dream. It’s a wondrous and stimulating experience, akin to navigating one of those immersive aquariums through a glass tunnel down the center, surrounded by marine life on all sides, floating past beside and above! Yet the flashes of humanity, joy and pain, hope and suffering that emerge, illuminate sporadically like bioluminescent fish, somehow manage then to hit harder than ever being lulled into a false sense of security once you’ve settled into the sensory freedom of surrealism and abstraction…?! It’s also astonishing to find Dada with such a meditative, Zen sensibility, there’s something beautifully Eastern and timeless energizing terrifically modern — in terms of form — poems like “the detroit rock! rock! rock! liver” with its closing line, “the faint ‘coo, coo’ of the mourning dove”. Nelson’s deep appreciation for and command of the Japanese short forms, many years of experience composing elegant, hard-hitting, top caliber haiku certainly inform and galvanize the economic, punchy, charged snippets of meaning in thrilling fashion, and the pivots at times almost resemble the classic shifts of a masterful chain poem or renga if viewed from a certain angle!
The gems of social and climate consciousness, and righteous concerns and deft critique, are also not to be overlooked or discounted, such as ‘the water water’, an urgent missive amplifying and giving voice to both a planet and the next generation fated to inhabit it (to whom this collection has been addressed explicitly), in powerful passages such as “earth is the water”… There are deep qualms but also cautious optimism balanced and moderated thoughtfully: “closing another bank account at midnight…the help is the thinking cube”.
(The suggestion, legitimate earnest brainstorm to call the aliens for help — in the first poem of the second section — is also a quite reasonable outside the box solution one can’t entirely laugh at or dismiss in these dismal, apocalyptic times… <_<)
Indeed, a leitmotif of lifesaving liquid (“what is water?”) recurs a few times throughout, is quite reasonably on the modern everyman's mind, and gets articulated here with legitimate primacy. Other striking symbols including the worm, boots, monsters, salt, pants, and the act of humming — reproducing the sound the universe makes? — recur notably and deserve attention and patient consideration. But earth, as supporting character and often protagonist, is the most omnipresent and heavily featured force and focus of these poems, and is one of the takeaways readers will no doubt retain on their minds long after concluding.
The numerous years of hard, diligent labor that went into this are appreciable, and also charmingly apparent in occasional self-reflexive asides, echoes intruding from the outside world as near the end of ‘eye milk’ a third of the way through: “are you still writing your book?” These interruptions further situate the collection in the fascinating, aware and fourth-wall-breaking traditions of confessional poets such as Hemingway and Buk’, Berryman and of course his revered Beat influences!
It’s a shame J.D. was not born in a more receptive era or anointed scion to some influential line, for he is without a doubt one of the most unified with the universe’s creative forces individual I may ever have witnessed. There is a sadness in that responsibility, a loneliness to the task and duty (or ‘dharma’ even), the thankless and at times outright self-defeating aspects of this noble calling — “a machine, alone at night” — like the nomadic sanyasin of Hindu traditions, the wandering monks of Japanese poetry’s golden age, the underappreciated geniuses of impressionism toiling in obscurity crafting the greatest masterpieces of all time, yet facing enormous difficulties in their lives from beginning to end as a rule with few exceptions…
Personally, I’d love to see posterity’s many accomplished luminaries receive more deserved recognition in their lifetimes. As readers (and many of us writers) we can help with that by supporting outstanding figures, valuing their work and celebrating it, sharing with friends and family. Can’t encourage you enough to start here, this collection is out of this world, something truly significant and mesmerizing I so hope society learns of and has opportunity to sit with, reflect upon, enjoy thoroughly. Congratulations to the author for bringing this monumental achievement to print, it makes a phenomenal testament to his prolific career and a fine introduction for fresh readers to many profound capabilities, rich materials to be unearthed in his earlier chapbooks and countless sizzling publications across the interwebs!
If you read literary journals, chapbooks, print and digital magazines you very plausibly are no stranger to the extraordinary, inventive, captivating poetry of J.D. Nelson. A master and expert in a wide variety of forms, as comfortable in the pure and stunning nature subjects of haiku as he is with surrealist, dada, absurd, thrillingly experimental modes he is best known and revered for, I was admiring this poet’s exquisite collections (and many years of epic, fruitful publications fastidiously inventoried on his polished, immaculate website MadVerse which any aspiring publishing poet can benefit from frequently visiting) long before I dipped my toes into the writing game personally, or had the great privilege of making his kind and generous acquaintance through the wonderfully potent platform of connection and collaboration Twitter provides for likeminded, gregarious creatives!
So it was with great excitement and anticipation that I learned of this upcoming, career-defining collection “in ghostly onehead” many years in the making, laying out painstakingly in crackling glory the grandest achievements and finest examples from a career which has spanned two productive decades, includes over two thousand published poems in upwards of 300 distinct venues from a genius talent carrying the luminous torch of the Beats and French avant-garde into our singular digital era. This is J.D.’s first full length collecting of poetry (his seminal Cinderella City released by Red Ceilings ten years back, available to download at no cost, has long been regarded as downright iconic) and you don’t want to miss it. From his legendary subterranean laboratory (also renowned for its sound art, available through Bandcamp under the banner of Owl Brain Atlas) this recent Best of the Net nominee has compiled something truly special in a slick, riveting volume. From its glorious cover artwork – the mossy Gothic arche pair wonderfully, capture eponymous ‘ghostly onehead’ idea – to the intriguing and memorable title, as the poet continues his tradition of specifying the length of time the pieces within were composed over, spanning a round two thousand days from his Coloradan location, one gets an immediate sense of the enormity of the venture and its cumulative weight.
A dedication to his niece and nephews also provides readers with an immediate appreciation and understanding of what a considerate and caring person Nelson is in life, anyone who has had the great pleasure and privilege of interacting with him individually is well aware of his equal famousness as thoughtful human being, caring proponent of the vulnerable – championing both homo sapien and animal rights, laboring for and magnanimously supporting efforts for peace, economic, racial, environmental justice – and struggling populations, amazing mentor and resource to fellow aspiring poets and artists, in the writing community he has earned a well deserved reputation as elder statesman, senpai and role model, deep respect from editors and contributors alike, has made invaluable contributions to any journal big or small worth its salt invariably, recently also been dazzling the short form world with spectacular haiku with classical sensibility one would be hard pressed to observe outside of Red Moon anthologies, the collected works of English virtuosos such as Richard Wright.
And here with surrealism of the highest order J.D. similarly shines and amazes, will leave the reader absolutely astounded. There’s something so inherently enjoyable about allowing dada poetry to immerse you, like enjoying an unpredictable but fantastic dream. It’s a wondrous and stimulating experience, akin to navigating one of those immersive aquariums through a glass tunnel down the center, surrounded by marine life on all sides, floating past beside and above! Yet the flashes of humanity, joy and pain, hope and suffering that emerge, illuminate sporadically like bioluminescent fish, somehow manage then to hit harder than ever being lulled into a false sense of security once you’ve settled into the sensory freedom of surrealism and abstraction…?! It’s also astonishing to find Dada with such a meditative, Zen sensibility, there’s something beautifully Eastern and timeless energizing terrifically modern — in terms of form — poems like “the detroit rock! rock! rock! liver” with its closing line, “the faint ‘coo, coo’ of the mourning dove”. Nelson’s deep appreciation for and command of the Japanese short forms, many years of experience composing elegant, hard-hitting, top caliber haiku certainly inform and galvanize the economic, punchy, charged snippets of meaning in thrilling fashion, and the pivots at times almost resemble the classic shifts of a masterful chain poem or renga if viewed from a certain angle!
The gems of social and climate consciousness, and righteous concerns and deft critique, are also not to be overlooked or discounted, such as ‘the water water’, an urgent missive amplifying and giving voice to both a planet and the next generation fated to inhabit it (to whom this collection has been addressed explicitly), in powerful passages such as “earth is the water”… There are deep qualms but also cautious optimism balanced and moderated thoughtfully: “closing another bank account at midnight…the help is the thinking cube”.
(The suggestion, legitimate earnest brainstorm to call the aliens for help — in the first poem of the second section — is also a quite reasonable outside the box solution one can’t entirely laugh at or dismiss in these dismal, apocalyptic times… <_<)
Indeed, a leitmotif of lifesaving liquid (“what is water?”) recurs a few times throughout, is quite reasonably on the modern everyman's mind, and gets articulated here with legitimate primacy. Other striking symbols including the worm, boots, monsters, salt, pants, and the act of humming — reproducing the sound the universe makes? — recur notably and deserve attention and patient consideration. But earth, as supporting character and often protagonist, is the most omnipresent and heavily featured force and focus of these poems, and is one of the takeaways readers will no doubt retain on their minds long after concluding.
The numerous years of hard, diligent labor that went into this are appreciable, and also charmingly apparent in occasional self-reflexive asides, echoes intruding from the outside world as near the end of ‘eye milk’ a third of the way through: “are you still writing your book?” These interruptions further situate the collection in the fascinating, aware and fourth-wall-breaking traditions of confessional poets such as Hemingway and Buk’, Berryman and of course his revered Beat influences!
It’s a shame J.D. was not born in a more receptive era or anointed scion to some influential line, for he is without a doubt one of the most unified with the universe’s creative forces individual I may ever have witnessed. There is a sadness in that responsibility, a loneliness to the task and duty (or ‘dharma’ even), the thankless and at times outright self-defeating aspects of this noble calling — “a machine, alone at night” — like the nomadic sanyasin of Hindu traditions, the wandering monks of Japanese poetry’s golden age, the underappreciated geniuses of impressionism toiling in obscurity crafting the greatest masterpieces of all time, yet facing enormous difficulties in their lives from beginning to end as a rule with few exceptions…
Personally, I’d love to see posterity’s many accomplished luminaries receive more deserved recognition in their lifetimes. As readers (and many of us writers) we can help with that by supporting outstanding figures, valuing their work and celebrating it, sharing with friends and family. Can’t encourage you enough to start here, this collection is out of this world, something truly significant and mesmerizing I so hope society learns of and has opportunity to sit with, reflect upon, enjoy thoroughly. Congratulations to the author for bringing this monumental achievement to print, it makes a phenomenal testament to his prolific career and a fine introduction for fresh readers to many profound capabilities, rich materials to be unearthed in his earlier chapbooks and countless sizzling publications across the interwebs!
February 13, 2023
I’ve been a huge JD Nelson fan for many years and despite the passage of years one thing remains unchanged, JD Nelson stands out from the small press pack with a unique voice that is all his own. It would be too easy to point out the influences of Dada and Surrealism, Burroughs and the cut-up, what I would rather point out is that Nelson writes poems are both deep and playful with the expert efficiency of a haiku master. They are absurdist Zen koans that pack a punch. They take place in that strange place between waking and dream. They are wonderfully weird yet down to earth and I smiled as I read the whole book. In the final poem of the collection, it squints as it sits Nelson writes:
yes, a dream
what if there were a room inside this room?
With in ghostly onehead, he doesn’t answer the question, but he supplies you with all the tools you need to ponder the question yourself.
yes, a dream
what if there were a room inside this room?
With in ghostly onehead, he doesn’t answer the question, but he supplies you with all the tools you need to ponder the question yourself.
January 17, 2023
In J. D. Nelson’s in ghostly onehead, there are spinach hats, woolen moons, and grass-eating suns. Books growl, forests are cloned, and people talk to bread. There are appearances by Johnny Carson and Paul Stanley, and Nelson himself, in the third person, as a meteorologist. These poems are hilarious yet profound, both cosmic and rooted in the material world. You just have to read his work to know what I'm talking about. (He's also a close personal friend of mine.)
March 9, 2023
Nelson’s debut is a surrealistic forte that bends the meanings of reality, then earth takes a deep breath and let’s us all enter the corridors and follow this unique language of poetic DaDa.
If you like the cut-up beat style or the works of Alfred Jarry then you’ll love this collection.
Favorites:
this is the serious pine
a daylight poem
the brain of the wild bee
eye milk
889th & wadsworth
to speak of clouds
dime or time
one mirror per level
javelin bevin bunion versa delhi
If you like the cut-up beat style or the works of Alfred Jarry then you’ll love this collection.
Favorites:
this is the serious pine
a daylight poem
the brain of the wild bee
eye milk
889th & wadsworth
to speak of clouds
dime or time
one mirror per level
javelin bevin bunion versa delhi
April 8, 2023
Review of JD Nelson’s “in ghostly onehead” by Strider Marcus Jones
I am now reading JD Nelson’s brilliant first full-length collection of poetry “in ghostly onehead” for the third time. In every poem you can appreciate the influence of his beloved Beat Poets, the French avant-garde, Bukowski and many others. Nelson’s own genius as a poet, however, is that he has exceeded their influence and found his own highly unique poetic voice, vision and language.
In these poems, Nelson challenges the accepted consensus and attitudes of contemporary society and elitism through his masterful use of Surrealist, Dadaist and experimental imagery tuned to the calming influence of Zen and Japanese Haiku forms. He uses highly inventive language and phrasing to rally this and future generations to environmentally save the planet, our societies and how we interact with each other in relationships and universal situations. Nelson’s deep concerns for these themes are balanced by astute optimism and humour. The surrealism is amazing, dreamlike and enjoyable for the reader to experience alternative realms of existence.
This superb collection of poetry is the result of two decades of writing in which Nelson has had over 2000 poems published in 300 esteemed literary publications.
I deeply respect Nelson as a man, friend and fellow humanist and admire his deserved blooming reputation as a phenomenal poet and positive force for good in the world.
I highly recommend reading “in ghostly onehead” if you like poetry with highly original language and vivid imagery that stretches the imagination to think outside the blinkered boxes of contemporary life.
Strider Marcus Jones
Editor in Chief Lothlorien Poetry Journal
http://www.madverse.com/p/in-ghostly-...
Amazon: http://bit.ly/madverse
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/.../7534253...
I am now reading JD Nelson’s brilliant first full-length collection of poetry “in ghostly onehead” for the third time. In every poem you can appreciate the influence of his beloved Beat Poets, the French avant-garde, Bukowski and many others. Nelson’s own genius as a poet, however, is that he has exceeded their influence and found his own highly unique poetic voice, vision and language.
In these poems, Nelson challenges the accepted consensus and attitudes of contemporary society and elitism through his masterful use of Surrealist, Dadaist and experimental imagery tuned to the calming influence of Zen and Japanese Haiku forms. He uses highly inventive language and phrasing to rally this and future generations to environmentally save the planet, our societies and how we interact with each other in relationships and universal situations. Nelson’s deep concerns for these themes are balanced by astute optimism and humour. The surrealism is amazing, dreamlike and enjoyable for the reader to experience alternative realms of existence.
This superb collection of poetry is the result of two decades of writing in which Nelson has had over 2000 poems published in 300 esteemed literary publications.
I deeply respect Nelson as a man, friend and fellow humanist and admire his deserved blooming reputation as a phenomenal poet and positive force for good in the world.
I highly recommend reading “in ghostly onehead” if you like poetry with highly original language and vivid imagery that stretches the imagination to think outside the blinkered boxes of contemporary life.
Strider Marcus Jones
Editor in Chief Lothlorien Poetry Journal
http://www.madverse.com/p/in-ghostly-...
Amazon: http://bit.ly/madverse
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/.../7534253...
March 16, 2023
J.D. Nelson's "in ghostly onehead" is an ethereal collection of poems. As with most of what he writes, there is a crystal quality to it which demands maximum attention. The poems gather atoms instead of dust, and there is a quiet vibrancy about this level of experimental work.
"naked in the hovercraft"
in the rolling garden
picturing pike's peak
a little of the orange fireside
don't wake the machine
descender atrophy
yes, the best cheddar
sequenced
overcharged for the light beam
everyone has the same lunch today:
peanut butter crackers."
"the lighting bug octave"
a good, blue car rolling
ninety and the night
the carpet in there was a green blowout
it was day two, and the song was stuck up there
alone or aloe
world worm three
this is the sky for now
using the last numbers for that "now"
work the sun, sunny
name something with colors and movement
this is the slight first world and enough thought
that could be the number one
earth is all right, ok?
this is the night of the other word"
A sedate, silently mystical piece, the origins of which I am not surprised by.
"naked in the hovercraft"
in the rolling garden
picturing pike's peak
a little of the orange fireside
don't wake the machine
descender atrophy
yes, the best cheddar
sequenced
overcharged for the light beam
everyone has the same lunch today:
peanut butter crackers."
"the lighting bug octave"
a good, blue car rolling
ninety and the night
the carpet in there was a green blowout
it was day two, and the song was stuck up there
alone or aloe
world worm three
this is the sky for now
using the last numbers for that "now"
work the sun, sunny
name something with colors and movement
this is the slight first world and enough thought
that could be the number one
earth is all right, ok?
this is the night of the other word"
A sedate, silently mystical piece, the origins of which I am not surprised by.
July 17, 2023
In J.D. Nelson’t book, “in ghostly onehead,” the language is so minimalist that encounters of orphaned or freed words on a page seem to start something in the reader’s mind: a different way of seeing? A force, absently there? The term, “in ghostly onehead” was a medieval way of saying a state of hubris-free, distraction-free union with what the universe wanted. Contemplatives and mystics sought this state by freeing themselves from worldly agendas. If you try too hard, the state of enlightment becomes a goal or a prize: or in other words, a thing. You need to joke, and that’s what JD does throughout the book. The result is a book that you (the reader) return to often. When I say there’s a feeling of levity, I don’t mean insubstantiality. What the word-recircuiting does is to increase the feeling of realness of the sentences & phrases. They seem more than real, or beyond reality, something one might find in surrealist prose/poetry.
March 18, 2023
J. D. Nelson is one of the most prolific poets that I know or know of. He produces poems as if possessed; and in a way he is – channeling the “ghostly onehead” or as Gysin and Burroughs called it, the Third Mind. In the blank spaces between lines and stanzas are spiritual connections, bringing together the seemingly random images and narratives. The lines, even when juxtaposing Dadaistic imagery have a lyrical resonance. “would you prefer the jazz station / or the lark of the wind? / stare at the sun with me / the lone merit and sleep for coal eyes” These poems ask the reader to be engaged and explore the poetic spirit. This collection of poems awaits, et cum spiritu tuo.
March 5, 2023
“alone or aloe
world worm three”
and
“a pile of pie!
noon in on it”
are two of my favorite couplets in "in ghostly onehead," a book of extraordinary poetry by J.D. Nelson.
It’s a volume meant to be absorbed through one’s pores, rather than decoded, a shapeshifting expression of words in combinations that startle, interrogate, and ultimately liberate the reader to explore its poetry with a profoundly luxurious, sanctioned subjectivity.
I love this collection. It makes me question the limits of words to contain the ineffable, which, I think, is pretty amazing.
world worm three”
and
“a pile of pie!
noon in on it”
are two of my favorite couplets in "in ghostly onehead," a book of extraordinary poetry by J.D. Nelson.
It’s a volume meant to be absorbed through one’s pores, rather than decoded, a shapeshifting expression of words in combinations that startle, interrogate, and ultimately liberate the reader to explore its poetry with a profoundly luxurious, sanctioned subjectivity.
I love this collection. It makes me question the limits of words to contain the ineffable, which, I think, is pretty amazing.
March 29, 2023
J.D. Nelson's writing style in this book reminded me of a combination of Emily Dickinson and ee cummings. The title seems very fitting, too, as the author of this poems seems haunted by their own curiosities and observations. A very interesting collection, indeed!
February 28, 2023
Nelson makes use of spontaneity, surrealism, the cut-up method, and disparate influences literary and life-based (the title is taken from a phrase in "The Cloud of Unknowing," a very old anonymously-authored document of Christian mysticism but the first couplet involves "tv ammonia" giving evidence of postmodern experience, and "now is the ugly time for game shows/mr. pizza machine"). in ghostly onehead is a fine collection of short, deep poems like magic stones polished for a long time, all words with good mouth-sound to quote Ed Sanders in the non-identical if essentially alike traditions of Andre Breton, Gregory Corso, Wm.S. Burroughs, Kenneth Patchen, and more modernly, Janaka Stucky. "the spaced-out cop/the soul cop". Surreal meaning super-real, realer than real. I'll get back to you once I'm further in.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews