Review by David McLean | Ten Poems about East Asia & Kitsch Nebula Ampersands And

Digital age poetry? | Ten Poems about East Asia & Kitsch Nebula Ampersands And | Ralph-Michael Chiaia

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	• Ten Poems about East Asia & Kitsch Nebula Ampersands And Ralph-Michael Chiaia Coatlism Press, 2007 - 47 pages average customer review:based on 4 reviews view larger image
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Ten Poems about East Asia & Kitsch Nebula Ampersands

Wonderful, different and pushes the limits with energy but not just volume! A new writer on the landscape to look forward to hearing more from in the near future! A wonderful and different lens to understand the world we live in today.

Review by David McLean

Ten Poems about East Asia and Kitsch Nebula Ampersands and
Ralph-Michael Chiaia
Coatalism Press 2008

Though Chiaia is an experimental writer, some of the work here seems timeless, the poems about East Asia, like Lian Penang, ending with the separate observation "An old Malay, he fishes" and Kula Lumpur with the presence of religion in the two short verses both ending "The Imam sings." They are full of observation that lets you feel the essence of the place, and a regret too, for the violence and the decay of the ancient, the escape of traditional values "How could Malaysia let it get away?" I can read poems about the UK, where i lived the first 27 years of my life and think, "Where is this place? Who are these people?." But in Chiaia's East Asia poems one believes one knows. The language is elegant and English but smells like Asia.

The second half, "Kitsch Nebula Ampersands and" is much weirder and heavier, it includes several conversations between a person and a mushroom about access to said person's Central Nervous System, and this is appropriate, these are hallucinatory poems but full of acerbic wit, broad humor, and a certain exile's nostalgia for the homeland that may or may not exist. There's a rude Ode to Americans, an exquisite Ode to Ampersands, and, my favorite in this second part, a brilliant two part Daiku (death haiku) that ends

butterfly slain here
beside raped caterpillar
commiserating

This is a book you need, it's great poetry, it's very worth reading.

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Digital age poetry?

Lack of craft in poetry distresses
Exotic locals notwithstanding

Shock words no longer shock
Buddhists sipping tea
Internet jargon bores like insincere tears
For fears

Lack of rhythm and rhyme
No crime but please say something clever
At least

But I did like his "Ode to Americans":

"They are always fat and unfit
they go around shouting anywhere
they throw their garbage on the floor."

So, so true, and I liked the "anywhere"
But the Ugly American is passe
Like Kipling's Mandalay
Or Orwell's poor plugged elephant

Not bad was:

"MUSHROOM: Can I borrow your Central Nervous System?
PERSON: Why?
MUSHROOM: I gotta phone the boss."

Corny like Joyce Kilmer
In digital space
Or a Spielberg movie

More visual is "Bangkok" (sans Murray Head, but I think we needed him):

"It's moving like its set to bhangra music:
all the massage parlors, clothing stores,
schoolgirls in uniform, perverts.

It's seething like a flu patient
yet calm as a Buddhist in prayer
wearing his shaved head and saffron robe."

The apostrophe fault here and on page 20, not a BFD, yet neither is edited out or in. One wonders why.

The band has a set
It's "its set"
The mathematical model has a set
It's "its set"
The stage is ready: "it's set."

Schoolgirls and perverts
And Buddhists in prayer...
A nice image or two.

I would prefer however
Some play with
Sound and rhythm as in that
"Ode to Kitsch Technology":

"Peeing now I see a big cabbage in the lines
of water sprinkle, wake, and ripple
a mid-bowl tsunami
oceans of notions, Rushdie?
or at least just a sea of pee,
...

Ads by Goodle, Dooble, Kabooble..."

But one wonders
Could a "Goodle" be a "Google"
And where's the "kitsch"?

And how about this "poem" entitled "Ode to Bushes":

"They eat garbage and throw plastic cups"

The Bushes or the bushes? one wonders which.

eof

--a review by Dennis Littrell, bad-eared poet

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A new favorite

Interesting stuff. This book of poetry explores East Asia and a little bit of everything. The book is like a camera that zooms in with hypersensitive detail and pans out with an overall impression of the world. It is hard for Westerners to visit East Asia and write about it thoroughly yet clear and simple.

I really enjoyed part 1 of the book, the Ten Poems about East Asia section. They are each short, unique, snapshots of ten different locations. I liked it because I have traveled extensively in Southeast Asia and many of these poems take place in that lovely region. The author subtly talks about the histories and politics of each place while focusing on the scenery and everyday routines.

I love the title of part 2 of the book: Kitsch Nebula Ampersands And. It matches the cover and is very witty. Here the author is experimental because with every poem he tries something different, which I found very exciting. In one part he catalogues conversations between a mushroom and a person. In one poem he considers typesetting as painting. In another he writes the poem like it is HTML code--a new common language in out generation. In one of my favorites, he writes a haiku about death. He calls it a "Daiku" which made me laugh out loud.

Afterward, I had the sensation of having traveled when actually I hadn't moved anything but my eyes, imagination, and fingers.

Great read. The poems blend many things together.

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Ten Poems about East Asia and Kitsch Nebula Ampersands And by Ralph-Michael Chiaia is a book of experimental poems, some of which were published online. Many are brand new. This book has the simple charm of a haiku mixed with the rant of a Ginsberg poem. Those familiar with Chiaia s work know that his minimal approach speaks in loud primal bass notes. In his first collection of poetry he has sat in with a string quartet and rocked it through stacked Bose speakers.