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POEMS by

POEMS

(without titles)

Pub Date: Aug. 22nd, 2010
ISBN: 978-1453762837
Publisher: CreateSpace

A loose collection of energetic poems.

Nero’s (Stories, Poems, & Other Stuff, 2010, etc.) poems have no titles, so it’s often hard to tell where one piece ends and another begins. They focus on a number of different themes and employ a range of different forms. One begins “I tell you I’m happy / I tell you I’m gay / it’s not what you’re all thinking / I’m just not that way”; midway through, the author writes: “chorus: ’cause I’m happy / so happy / I’m happy / in my waaaaaaaaaaaay.” In “I had a girl she was sweet,” Nero relates his heartbreak and again inserts what seems like musical directions—“(quickly into:),” “(change of beat)”—and then declares “she took my stash / she took my CD-s / she took my cash / she took my Visa.”  However, the poems don’t just focus on love and happiness. For example, in one instance, the author examines the writing process: “I had this dream / The other night / Is a great way to start / a poem / ’cause then you can blame it on the dream / if anything goes wrong.” He also gets playful elsewhere: “there is this guy / you see / who has a nose / where his banana / should be.” In “outside the window,” the narrator asks, “If a bad poem is excellently bad is it excellent?” This collection is in many ways a mess—it isn’t cohesive, and there doesn’t seem to be an overall point to it all. However, if this is bad poetry, it’s “excellently bad,” as there’s an energy in Nero’s work that will hook readers. Traditionalists might scoff at this work, but readers looking for a place to just have fun will find it here—all the while wondering whether Nero is pulling off a brilliant joke.

Poems that may or may not be marvelously ahead of their time—but they’re intriguing to watch unfold either way.