Monday, December 22, 2008

Damaged mentioned on wikinews.

JD Nelson's blurb about Damaged

DAMAGED is a document of Andy Riverbed's trip through time.

Luckily for us, he's got his notebook
I can picture its stained pages
his pluma
property of ____________

He's dealing with it as he gets it all down in DAMAGED, his new chapbook of poetry from Coatlism Press.

He's taking good notes and writing great poems.

He knows where the beauty hides.

- J. D. Nelson

poet/editor

Joseph Veronneau reviews Damaged by Andy Riverbed

Andy Riverbed's poems are diverse, sometimes entering into a fantasy landscape of the imagination, and at other times mostly straightforward musings of the mundane, sometimes detailing how to detail. As given in the poem "The Lost art of Visualization": Think of it as cleaning/your room; all the shit/comes out of dirty closets and it's on the floor. Little by little we/all join and clean; eventually, the room looks good. Conversations take place with Mr. Riverbed's work that is concrete one minute, and jumbled the next into a ramble. Some poems serve as follow-ups to others, some offer somewhat obscure advice measures. From "Nothing": sucks/creativity/more than drugs./let's/waste your time./let's hang/with shady/people./learn this/when you're/young;/it's why/they're/old./seperate/completely/to use/successfully./you must isolate./there is no other/way.
The book is handsomely designed, small enough to cradle like a hot dog, but more appeasing in the end, and without the indigestion. You'll mostly laugh, but will have it followed up by a humbling piece on the page to follow. Read without expecting one thing or another on this one, and you'll do just fine.
-Joseph Veronneau
Poet/Editor, Scintillating Publications