Opt Out, Tune In
by Kevin Thurston
Buffalo is in for a treat at the final installment of the Small Press sub-series, a part of Just Buffalo’s Orbital series, as Washington, DC’s Buck Downs and Philadelphia’s CA Conrad come to town. Both poets are remarkable in their commitment to a set of ethics and in their ability to convert their ethics into poems that retain their sense of humor and avoid heavyhandedness. And, indeed, with the state of (poetry in) America, who wants to be lectured to?
Buck Downs virtually dropped out of the trade-publishing world after his first book, Marijuana Soft Drink, was published by Aerial/Edge books—which is a bit strange, as he himself publishes books under the eponymous Buck Downs Books. In a world wherein people can constantly “opt out” of receiving unsolicited marketing, Downs has managed to create a growing list of people who wish to “opt in.” A series of postcard poems and small booklets simply arrive in the mailboxes of those who have asked Downs to send them his poems.
By this means, he has managed to dodge the back-door politics that often dominate who is published by whom. Beyond the occasional time when an editor of a magazine solicits him, Downs is completely content with his decision. “I’m sure that my opinion gets read as some kind of sour grapes and/or blithering contrariness,” he says. “But I would put it to anybody who writes poetry and is baffled or unhappy: Stop sending poems to strangers who edit magazines; make a list of the friends and fellow poets you want to share with; send those people your poems and expect nothing. If the results you get are half as gratifying as mine, you’ll never go back.”
Downs is known to twist the traditional reading a bit, treating it more like a conversation with the audience, mixing poems and thoughts together into a stew that leaves people wanting more. Mike Basinski, head curator of the University at Buffalo’s Poetry and Rare Books Library, has described Down’s reading in Buffalo as “an important event.” Look forward to poems such as “pontiac fever” on Thursday:
drive off the side
of the driveway.
high off the side
of the highway.
punch a walking
set of quotation-
marks to make
the case complete
only got jerked
half off
so much for an
uncloudy day
CA Conrad is committed to numerous political issues, most notably economic disparity and gay rights. His first collection of poems, Deviant Propulsion (Soft Skull Press), has Publishers’ Weekly comparing him to Allen Ginsberg. Indeed, Conrad’s poems have that sexy playfulness and the willingness to expose hypocrisy that leads through Ginsberg back to Walt Whitman, with a bit of the New York Schools (Frank O’Hara and Ted Berrigan in particular) thrown in to keep it humorous. He has two books forthcoming, The Frank Poems (Jargon Society) and advanced ELVIS course (Buck Downs Books). These snippets are from the title poem of Deviant Propulsion:
she won’t
drive down
Bush Street
because of the
president not
the genitalia
“i want to
rub my titties
all over this
city” she says
“me too!” i say
today’s inner child
a sexy old whore
This reading may not fit everyone’s politics, but it will get you engaged with the work and, through the work, with the world around you. If art is supposed to do something else, somebody let me know.
Buck Downs and CA Conrad will read their work on Thursday (April 20) at Big Orbit Gallery, 33d Essex Street (883-3209). Free.
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