February reads

Matthew Thorburn's Subject to Change moves naturally (even in its more formal moments) and is frankly sensuous in a really appealing way. (And if I ever did edit an anthology of food poems, M would surely make that assortment.) M was a year ahead of me at the New School so it's the first book by a classmate I've had the chance to read, which added another level of pleasure to the experience. After reading Cynthia Sailers & Chris Stroffolino (and thinking back to Noah Eli Gordon's The Frequencies), I am telling everybody about James Meete's Tougher Disguises Press. This shit is hot, yo (both the poets and the design). I can hardly wait for Stephanie Young's. The revelations this month were (probably obviously) Pound and Stein. I've read lots by each, but neither of these. Not sure why I wasn't assigned ABC of Reading instead of a Blahton Anthology for the fortieth time at any point in any class. And I somehow skipped in when "on my serious Pound kick" as an undergraduate. I think what happened is after reading the Humphrey Carpenter bio and so much of the poetry I just got kind of sick of Pound. Pound saturation. And he can still annoy me, but I tended to read his bluster this time around as somewhat amusing and thus was able to appreciate the soundess of (most) of the didacticism. After reading The World Is Round: Dear Gertrude Stein, I love you. As ever, Shanna.