ANIMALSMore about Frank O'Hara here.
Have you forgotten what we were like then
when we were still first rate
and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth
it's no use worrying about Time
but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves
and turned some sharp corners
the whole pasture looked like our meal
we didn't need speedometers
we could manage cocktails out of ice and water
I wouldn't want to be faster
or greener than now if you were with me O you
were the best of all my days
The Dream Suite was deeply influenced by Neil Gaiman's The Sandman comic book series. There are so many ways to describe this series, and none that I can think of do it justice, so I think I'll use a quote from Gaiman himself."Could I do another five issues of Sandman? Well, damn right. And would I be able to look at myself in the mirror happily? No. Is it time to stop because I've reached the end, yes, and I think I'd rather leave while I'm in love."
I also dearly love Lucifer from Mike Carey
and Fables by Bill Willingham
I don't like old stuff. I didn't like it in school, I don't like it now. The poetry inflicted upon us in high school? In college? Old stuff. That's too bad, because there is a lot of good new stuff out there.
One of the first post-modern poets was Frank O'Hara. New stuff. So I like it. He was also a curator at the MOMA and brought a visual artist's sensibility to poetry. Well, at least that's what I think.
If you want to get started reading contemporary poetry I heartily recommend the following books:
Which is an offshoot of a web-based project called Poetry 180 that he did to introduce high school students to modern, accessible poetry.
William Vollmann recently contributed to a book called Avant Porn [edited by Michael Hemmingson}, and I guess that's one way to describe his work, although it ranges wildly.
The Rainbow Stories
His first novel, You Bright and Risen Angels, I found impossible to get through though.
