I & We, Poems by Joseph Wood
The poems of Joseph Wood’s I & We have a casual brutality about them that is unsettling; these poems, at home in the world and not shying away such brutal scenes as a beheaded corpse, a snapped spine, yearn for—and find—grace.
“Joseph Wood’s poems and performances are sublimity centrale. Fragile, effulgent, violent, violet, toothsome, and trembling. These poems are diadems in the shapes of pulled teeth you’ll want to read, you’ll read, you’ll read while sort of looking away, you’ll stare at, you’ll rubberneck at, you’ll push away, you’ll return to, you’ll read again, you’ll worry about, you’ll make a wool of, you’ll warm yourself by. These poems are iced rivers cracking to viscous licorices. Licked and licked. As in a switch from a tree and switch to a light. Snap. Smack. Sap. God. Fire. Syrup. I think it’s time to shift this volume to your non-dominant hand, to produce your monetary tender, and then to spirit this terror/wonder junction home. Trust me: You will be hushed and lifted herein.”—Abraham Smith
“Joseph Wood is a photographer of the American Word, as well as a totally unboring poet saxophoning syllables and provoking vivid images of sharp winter stars and anemic light. In an age when blah blah blah fills the air, Wood’s work pulses erect, truly innovative, truly colorful, truly genuine, and absolutely worth digging into. Political at points, surreal when it counts, strategically personal, and reverent of horses, nipples, and the chlorinated calm, this stuff is beautiful, masterful, virtual (and literal) caffeine!”—Mark Spitzer
Joseph P. Wood is the author of five chapbooks and another forthcoming collection of poetry, Fold of the Map (Salmon Poetry Ltd.) He has published in a variety of journals that include BOMB, Boston Review, Gulf Coast, Hunger Mountain, Indiana Review, Prairie Schooner, Verse, and West Branch, among others. He is co-founder of Slash Pine Press and director of the Slash Pine Poetry Festival. He, his wife, and daughter live in Tuscaloosa, AL.
ISBN 978-1936370115 80 pages, $18.00