'i am going to hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil // bitches…' (castro)
think tank for human beings in general is a self-published chapbook (2009) broken into a section of jordan castro's poems and a section of richard wehrenberg jr.'s poems
earlier today i read a review of this chapbook by brett gallagher. a lot of the things i would type about the subject matter and tone have already been typed by him, so maybe read that
brett noted the repeated mention of animal rights and opposition to oppressive ideologies in ttfhbig. the following lines are from wehrenberg jr.
responding with violenceto a violent world does notfeel ok to me
the poems are a little hesitant about how they address these things, not really confident or bold
this excerpt is from 'victory' by jordan castro
is subjecting millions of people to starvation and povertyan okay method of dealing with personal insecurities
i want to lie down
under 50,000 blankets and 2,000,000 pillows
i 'just' want to 'lie the fuck' 'down'
this excerpt is from 'think tank for human beings in general' by richard wehrenberg jr.
this poem is an extinct volcano
onceit exploded with lava-powernow it does not want to
it is tired
it sits stillwanting nothing really
just kind of there
the speaker(s) responds to oppression and suffering with imagery of being 'tired' and wanting to 'lie down'
the aesthetic is not like a manifesto calling for 'revolution!' but an individual saying 'damn' or 'wtf' repeatedly in response to mainstream society and corporations, expressing burn-out and hopelessness
the tone in the poems seems sometimes ironic or clever and other times direct and honest, for both castro and wehrenberg
you can buy ttfhbig here
