Steve Potter reviews Larry Laurence's THOUGHT DESPAIRIMENTS
thought despairiments, by larry laurence
A Review by steve potter
If one were to devise a big feels vs. deep thoughts metric for works of literature, one might be tempted to place Larry Laurence's collection Thought Despairiments on the deep thoughts end of the spectrum, but it actually straddles the entire range. The third short stanza of "Words, Words, Words¹” reads:
enigmatically
(footnotes²)
The poem's footnotes are:
1 Some in the poem's body are sampled from Spring and All, XXII (aka The Red Wheelbarrow), W. C. Williams, and from The Man on the Dump, Wallace Stevens.
2 Footnotes: Risings, fallings. Cognitive yo-yos.
3 Xeroform®: Petrolatum gauze patch constructed of a non-adherent dressing with added medicating components to protect and promote healing.
Yes, on first reading, this book appears to be full of playful, brainy writing with intellectual vibes more so than emotional ones. On further inspection, however, one finds it suffused with emotion surging beneath the surface. That neologism of Laurence's, despairiments, holds as much heft in the title as thought. The collection does not lack moments of sentiment, lyricism, and beauty. Here is a section from "I AM AFRAID TO BE DEAD AND WILL MISS MY LIFE TERRIBLY:"
To live where poplars are
nearly bare now & nearly dusk
roosts for cormorants with more coming
arriving at treetop to choose one tree (How do
cormorants
choose) dropping then climbing abruptly to a stall
to land on branches so slim a branch will bend almost
in two before springing up
To live where cormorants are
dead still at dusk Dead still unless another settles
too close then more wing-flapping & the newcomer
rises banks begins again the approach
at the beginning of evening rough & ill-tempered
& unfriendly Questionable togetherness Questionable
solitude (Had the one been dreaming)
Thought Despairiments is a collection both thoughtful and despairing, full of experiments and explorations that will reward you with thoughts of your own.
The collection is divided into two sections. The first is called ZIGS AND ZAGS, and the second is titled SUCCESSIONS OF WORDS ARE SO and subtitled A Sequence of Codas With Endnotes. On the introductory page to SUCCESSIONS OF WORDS ARE SO, Laurence explains that, "The title is a partial quotation from Gertrude Stein's essay, ‘Arthur a Grammar,’ How To Write, Paris: Plain Edition, 1931. The entire quotation is, 'Successions of words are so agreeable.' ” He goes on to describe the relationship between the codas and their corresponding endnotes and his process of composition.
Like Stein's "Arthur a Grammar," Laurence's codas exult in the agreeability of successions of words. Each coda is composed from the words used in its corresponding endnote and arranged alphabetically. Although they are not, strictly speaking, abecedarians, they are near cousins of the various forms that make up that ancient tradition that dates back to biblical times.
Many readers, finding themselves confronted by a page of text that does not present standard subject-verb-object sentence structure, nor perform any of language's usual dances, can become frustrated, even infuriated. Others, though, find it refreshing to read writing that refuses to do the things one is accustomed to seeing language do. The consciousness-cleansing effects that come about can be invigorating. As poet Michael Daley puts it in his foreword to Thought Despairiments, "Such poetry can be for some a kind of revelation while for others an exasperation—which is also a gift." Later, he writes, "I suppose comprehension with Laurence's poems, especially ‘BAKED IN: AN ANTICAPITALIST, ANTI-MILITARIST ANTI-POEM SEQUENCE,’ is not the point."
I don't find “BAKED IN: An Anticapitalist Antimilitarist Anti-poem Sequence” incomprehensible, but it is a puzzle that requires decoding and some translation. The poem, or rather anti-poem, is written using the International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, more commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, used by military organizations for clarity when communicating by radio or phone: A = Alpha, B = Bravo, C = Charlie, etc. You can imagine you're the pilot of a doomed, burning fighter plane speaking into a two-way radio while spiraling toward your death in an old World War II movie as you read it. Here is how it begins:
mIKEeCHOmIKEeCHOnOVEMBERtANGOoSCAR
mIKEoSCARrOMEOiNDIA:
Decoded: memento mori. Translated: remember, you must die.
Thought Despairiments is a collection both thoughtful and despairing, full of experiments and explorations that will reward you with thoughts of your own.
Steve Potter is the author of the novel Gangs With Greek Names, a short fiction collection called Easy Money & Other Stories, and two poetry collections: Mendacity Quirk Slipstream Snafu and Social Distance Sing. His poems, stories, and reviews have appeared in publications such as E·Ratio, Otoliths, Parole, and Word For/Word. Real Stand-Up Guys, the sequel to Gangs With Greek Names, is forthcoming.
Thought Despairments
By Larry Laurence
ISBN 978-1-953252-73-9
Dos Madres Press, P. O. Box 294, Loveland, OH 45140
https://www.dosmadres.com/shop/thought-despairiments-by-larry-laurence/
2023, paperback, 98 pages, $20.00