Five out of five quills ~~~ A Review
Cocktails with a Dead Man (a book of poetry) is honest, hard hitting, marvelous and humorously clever.
With other poems in this book, the laughs are nonexistent. Albanese’s writing reflects situations (Anniversary Dinner) too painful to face head on. Love torn asunder. (We Need To Talk) Loss and heartbreak we mortals think we cannot survive. A nice mix of despair and irony; my perfect cup of tea. Later in the book is a poem about our dreams of fame as writers. What writers will ‘settle for’ so we can continue to write. (Moonlight Serenade)
If Albanese keeps writing poetry, we just might have another Charles Bukowski on our hands. This reviewer certainly hopes so.
Writers will smile and groan as I did, when reading Sensory Adaptation. When the writing stalls (‘writer’s block’ are words not allowed in this household) and the page remains blank this excerpt of poetry rings with all the frustration and truth we writers feel at times.
Sensory Adaptation ©
Tick-tock, tick-tock
The page is still blank
Writing at the dining room
table
I hear the clock in the family
room to my left
Tick-tock, tick-tock
I hear the clock in the living
room to my right
I hear the clock in the family
room to my left, ticking
at opposing half-seconds
Tick-tick, tock-tock
Tick-tick, tock-tock
120 per minute
30 minutes
3,600 ticks
All I see is white
The cursor blinks
Tick-blink-tick
Tock-blink-tock…
Joe told me, “I allow myself to write shit, then come back and rewrite slightly less shit. Repeat until not shit.” In my opinion, he doesn’t publish work that still contains shit, only distilled…wonderful…poetry.
I am looking forward to interviewing Joe soon.
To Purchase
Release date, January 15th
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MY BLOG features INTERVIEWS with best-selling AUTHORS! December: Jayne Ann Krentz (Amanda Quick) January: Molly Gloss February: Rick Lenz, March: Patrick Canning and April: Poet, Joe Albanese
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