OCHO #12

Disclaimer: This isn't a review.
I'm not trying tosell you a clapping activated
light fixture. The voices in my head are not
telling me to do this.

I just finished OCHO #12, guest edited by
Grace Cavalieri and, well, uh, wow.
This book was good enough to get me out of that
dark corner I've been hiding in and back over to
my computer to to send fifteen requests for
passwords that I have long forgotten just so I
could get back here and write about it. It was
good enough to make me say
"Shit, I need to go and write poetry, too."

I don't order books online very often. Maybe it
was the fact that Grace C. was the guest editor,
I've long been huge fan of her podcasts and her
work. Or maybe it was the cover art, which
reminded me of my favorite pop icon,
Madonna (with a twist of Warhol). It's true,
I'm just shallow enough to buy a book for
the cover. Whatever the reason, I'm glad I did.
It's going to stick to my ribs for a long time.

In the introduction Grace writes:
"...Ocho #12 presents poets who create
complexities of culture, made revelatory.
What is a poem but individual revelation?
Here are self made dreams.They open us up
-- dispelling the idea that we make art
because life is not enough."

I'll be perfectly honest when I say I only
recognized the names of two poets, Billy
Collins & Ted Kooser when I first saw the issue.
I know both by name but have never
read large quantities of their work. But,
it was mostly the poets whom I've never read
that really made this book fly for me.

There are poems that will push you in the
chest. There are clever moments that will
make you stop reading long enough to think
a new way. There are poems that will make
you cry. There are poems that will make you
wish you wrote them.

I loved this issue of OCHO.
Congratulations Grace Cavalieri,
job well done.