I reMEmber petrOLeum by Jim Leftwich

I reMEmber petrOLeum

Jim Leftwich

242 pp., $18.00, ISBN 9781938521522

I reMEmber petrOLeum is a single long poem of 391 cantos or a series of 391 poems, both structures are valid, that can be read or experienced as a vast mirror in which you will see yourself and the world which is your matrix. When you read it again or look again into its pages, you and the world you see will be different. This is not “confessional” poetry, nor cultural critique, nor political posturing, but something quite different: it is an authentic immersion into a self through the medium of written language. And because it is so complete and fearless in that immersion, in its unflinching consciousness and unconsciousness, a self, or all selves, are revealed. This is why you will see your own unique beings and worlds in this book. Leftwich writes passages of both apparently clear diction (again the road,/what it wants is always in/ruin, opening/like a lip), and passages of apparent ambiguity or aleatoric syntax (I & Yes/I/less & less/a guest inside a guess); he uses word play to indicate the shifting nature of “reality” (feELeRs gRiPping/fiLTeRs gripPing); there are passages and moments of beautiful surrealism (I LiKe the uMBrella/Flying in the underworld); in short, his skill with written language is such that there seems to be no barrier, no hesitation, between his intention or experience and his writing of it. It is remarkable that this entire book was written in less than three weeks. His is an authentic and powerful human voice speaking thinking mumbling explaining stumbling being blindingly clear. -John M. Bennett

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