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STAPLEGUN #16 / Summer 2003
Scott Gordon / Editor, POB 190184,
Birmingham, AL 35219
www.staplegunpress.com
A zine that subtitles itself "Poetry that humps your leg" & headlines such
works as "How to shave your balls", "Cloning made simple" ..."and other things
that burn when swallowed", alongside a front cover photo of 4 spiffy looking
dudes is, right off, A-OK w/me. The editor "foreplay's" us w/news of his new
daughter (w/photos.. and no, this is NOT the prelude to sappy, yappy poetry)
and dives right in w/a Todd Moore poems. Also within is a humorous (tribute)? to
Robert Pinsky by Nathan Graziano, referring to a reading he attended wherein
Pinsky shares his poetic creations through everyday touch, leaving Graziano to
ponder "if there was a poem / in his new collection called "Nutsack." / Does
Robert Pinksky touch / his nutsack while writing poems? // I often do." Some
kick-ass work by Charles P. Ries. Alan Catlin's bar scenes always amuse.. one
having a "self-inflicted / alcoholic satori-a place / of nebulous dreaming -"
and Christopher Cunningham packs a wallop w/his short verse ""Punch" .. and
there is also artwork, reviews & listings. Nice, clean & well laid. $3.00. It's
a steal!
MAIN STREET RAG, Volume 8, Number 2, Summer '03
M. Scott Douglass
4416 Shea Lane, Charlotte, N.C. 28227
96pps perfectbound
Opens w/a shaking. Douglass' editorial "The Gulf Between Us" is right on
target, tsk-tsking the "Christian American Chauvinism" that is shoved down our
throats (and in our pockets, public restrooms, local bookstores, etc. .. Oh
wait, that's the Mormons!) But it sings our own Super Star Complex - or, as
Michael Jackson (& friends) once sang.. "We Are The World" - NOT! Look around.
Religion is not the answer, it's the cause! It's like Earth is just one big
arena and we're all on teams. Our Captain? God, (under his many aliases) and
we're all out to win for the gipper. Anyway, read his. I'm just commenting.
There's interviews (David Slavitt by Okla Elliott), photography (and great
cover art by Michael Swisher). essays, fiction, and poetry. First by Slavitt,
following suit w/his anti-state idealism "Prologue To A Play". Samuel speaks
"By politics do all men become strangers." His poem "Cain" is a plea for
defense w/an interesting view.
Further in, Janis Greve relates early libido escapades w/"hips jutting
sideways in a sulk," waiting for the bad boyz of night. Karen Lodge gives a slick
kiss-off in "See Ya" and Sampson Starweather writes the most beautiful poem
about price tag sex I've ever read, picking up a woman who "looked like
the/reason I was born.". They "made love to the Coltrane in my head" and he "felt
two bumps/Which might have been the beginning of wings." on her back and
finally, dispelling her her statement (and poem title) "Whores don't kiss".
There's reviews and contributor notes to finish off this masterful publication.
$7.00 sample. $20/4 issue subscription
-Cheryl A Townsend
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