What I\u2019ve Been Reading This Week: <\/strong><\/p> Two books that really made me consider a strange version of a younger USian landscape. One explicitly dealing with settlers looking at \u201cnew\u201d land and trying to make paradise out of it. Another set in Arkansas, one of the more dire outcomes of the USian project. I\u2019m talking, of course, about Utopians In Love<\/em> by Bob Sykora and pages 102-201 (lines 4041-8040) of The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You <\/em>by Frank Stanford. <\/p> Utopians In Love<\/strong><\/em> by Bob Sykora: <\/strong> it\u2019s impossible to be objective about this book. Shall I refer to my comrade-in-podcasting-not-to-mention-the-screen-and-roll as a book reviewer would, casually referring to him as \u201cSykora?\u201d When I really mean my BELOVED BOB<\/a><\/em>??! FINE, let\u2019s be objective. Bob writes poetry on an emotional level that I can\u2019t emulate. Like, when I read You Were Talking About Love, I Was Talking About Geography<\/em>, it resonated on such an emotional level that it changed the way I approach my writing. \u201cHowevah,\u201d I thought, possibly as a self-defense mechanism, \u201cwhat happens when Bob gets outside his feelings?\u201d The answer, of course, is a decade-long research dive into utopia. The end result is a book with resonance for both the current political moment (some of these utopian communities are, like, Shakers, and some are the predecessors to any cult you\u2019d hear about on a Behind The Bastards<\/em> episode) and for anyone who has just wanted life to be a little bit easier, to build something better than your current circumstances for your partner, your family, or just yourself. There\u2019s a wandering spirit here, a theme of obsessive searching for something in both Big Questions and everyday micro-concerns. I adore research poetry books like this very much, and every time I try to think of a way to describe how cool it is that my wonderful friend wrote one, there\u2019s a catch in my throat.<\/p> The Battlefield Where The Moon Says I Love You<\/strong><\/em> by Frank Stanford, pages 102-201, lines 4041-8040): <\/strong>definitely entered a stage with this poem where I am trying to understand a little less and am clinging to the sides of the roller coaster. My life is divided into two universes: everything else, and the chunks of time when I hop into Battlefield<\/em>. The endless stream of lines, like a river of streaming shoals of alligator gar, mean that I\u2019m reading at least two pages at a time, starting on the left side. If you\u2019re wondering, I read some of this under the moon on one of the warm nights. I\u2019ve read some while on my stationary bike. I\u2019ve set timers for 10 and 15 minutes and read continuously until the timers go off. So many strange things happen in this poem, made all the stranger by how you can hardly ever tell who is talking, if they\u2019re telling the truth, if they\u2019re drunk or recently hit their head. It\u2019s really funny every time he talks about some ancient hero like Unferth or a knight of the Round Table and then starts cussing. <\/p> BONUS FRANK EPIGRAPH<\/p> but colder than that since it ain\u2019t summer yet by golly you can get<\/p> lonesome when it\u2019s cold when you look way off and the only light<\/p> you see is in a house of folks for some reason you not allowed to mix with<\/p> it is something strange where you are cause you don\u2019t know how you got there<\/p><\/blockquote> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Something to listen to while you browse? We had some great podcasts this week. One The Line Break<\/em>, Bob and I go live in a hotel room (apologies for the weird audio) and talk our experiences at AWP and Bob\u2019s experience with his book coming out (Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>). Over on The Lazy & Entitled Podcast<\/em>, I was lucky enough to talk to the artist Julian Edward Williams<\/a> about how he paints while also holding down a 9-5. Plus, Brendan and I talk about art restorers and preservationists (Apple<\/a> | Spotty<\/a> | SoundCloud<\/a>). For music, how about a little LA-Chicago connection, with the Los Angeles League Of Musicians (LA LOM) jamming in Thalia Hall? <\/p>![\"Utopians](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/a256e298-6142-4219-b383-443bb31337a9_4030x2541.heic\")
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