Merry Christmas. Chappy Chanukah. Kool Kwanzaa. . .
This year, why not give the gift of poetry?

To discover the hidden meaning of words, close your eyes, listen in.

Real hard.

K chh k. Hard. Hard. Hard.

Open your eyes and look at the text and let those letters recombine into visualizations of sound, pictographs of meaning.

Merry Christmas. Chappy Chanukah. Kool Kwanzaa.

The sounds of the celebrations of this season are hard hard hard, trying to ease, but believe me, there’s a reason why this is the Darkest Blues of the Year, un lack = faux celebration. May You All Be Reasonably Happy.

. . . or, as my Xmasanukanzaa Kards read:

Yes, 'tis the season to try to figure out what to buy for everybody. We must all do our part. So, this year, why not give the gift of poetry?

The Best of William Burroughs (Mouth Almighty/Mercury): This 4-CD set is sure to warm the cockles of every cynic. Inside: a sensational oversize book filled with new photos and great writing, lush booklets in each jewel case. Burroughs is the Twain of our time, the greatest story-teller you’ll ever hear, and this box is the bomb.

Monster, David Thomas (Tim/Kerr): If you know Pere Ubu then this stripped-back warp will unshrink you and push you back on the trolley. Monster reveals David Thomas, poet, who uses all the rock’n’roil skills of his seminal Cleveland punk band to shape his brilliant tales and verses. This box collects all his solo work, and the live fifth CD, Meadville, with music by the Two Pale Boys, sounds like the twilight of civilization.

Patti Smith Complete: This book is the key to the gate of time. Patti’s lyrics sit smooth in context: photos and reminiscences and observations. Maybe you can’t tell where poems begin and life begins? Maybe that’s the point, to go on and on with, waltz with. Ms. Smith’s open-hearted surgery on the crowd at the San Francisco Bay Area, which celebrated this book, was the reading of the year.

Independant Intavenshan, Linton Kwesi Johnson (Island): The Father of Dub is a mother, and this double CD is so smart and sharp you can’t help getting cut up. LKJ is our nomination for Britain’s Poet Laureate, and this anthology tells you Why (he blends the spoken and the written into poetry that dances) and Why Not (too much truth). This one will not leave the changer unchanged, and it’s nearly 2-1/2 hours!

Valley of Christmas, Andrei Codrescu (Gert Town Records): A fable to put on after the family’s stuffed the stuffing and lit tongues with cognac and the fireplace has burned the cabin down. “Hey, I’ve got this great new Xmasanukanzaa fable!” and toss Valley on, and let the children hear the Master of the Glottal Grouch spin a yarn that will keep you in stitches.

The Sounds of Poetry, Robert Pinsky (Farrar, Straus & Giroux): A slender volume, a stocking-stuffer. Pinsky begins “There are no rules” and then proceeds to lay them out. A quilt of angles, his book careens from broad swaths to details of details, and, guess what, it’s a wild and wooly wonder ride. You’ll never hear the same again as he digs into “Howl” looking for pentameter, and honing in on the “omitted syllable. . . at the beginning of the line, creating the double stress between the last syllable in one line and the first in the next.” The examples can be strikingly boring; his exegesis uproots them with a telescope.

Making Your Own Days: The Pleasures of Reading & Writing Poetry, Kenneth Koch (Scribner’s): For she who is considering the poet’s task, for he who is a poet needing good kick in the ass. This book is a box of goodies, a chat with a guy who surprises himself constantly, and you feel privileged to watch. The nuggets of poems span the globe and history, and Koch’s great love for the totality is the best expression of what this Joyous Holiday Season could mean if we weren’t oppressed beneath the Big Black Boot of Triumphant Capitalism. Buy this one for yourself, Poet.

List Poems:

• Mysteries of Small Houses, Alice Notley (Penguin)
• The Forgiveness Parade, Jeffrey McDaniel (Manic D Press) and My Tongue is a Red Carpet / I Only Roll Out for You, various artists (Alibi 13, 4470 Sunset Blvd. #736, Los Angeles, CA 90027)
• Slam: The Book of the Movie (Grove Press)
• Fernando Pessoa and Co., trans. Richard Zenith (Grove Press)
• A Night Without Armor II: The Revenge, Beau Sia (Mouth Almighty Books)
• Beaver Dam Rocking Chair Marathon, Ron Whitehead (Tilt-A-Whirl)
• Clinch, Michael Scholnick (Coffee House)
• Does It Swing?, Elliott Levin (Heat Press)
• Revolution of the Word: A Gathering of American Avant Garde Poetry, 1914-1945, ed. Jerome Rothenberg (Exact Change)
• Lizard King of the Laundromat, Rick Lupert (Laguna Poets)
• Endbeginnings, Lesego Rampolokeng (Marino-Verlag)

A final wish:

Write the poem
Give it away

MC, CC, KK!

Bob Holman

Still haven't found the perfect poetry gift for everybody on your list? Here are some other folks' poetry gift suggestions:

• “Visions of Life,” Graham Christian's list from the Boston Phoenix
• “Notable Books of the Year,” the New York Times' annual list, in which poetry & fiction are interspersed

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