Cut Up Apologetic. Jamie Sharpe. ECW Press/A Misfit Book. Toronto, Ontario. 2015.
Today's book of poetry gets the impression that Jamie Sharpe may not be wired like the rest of us. His ideas come faster than a twenty person snowball fight with nineteen people on the other team.
Most of us think "light-bulb" ideas. Sharpe comes up with "mirror-ball" ideas. The inside of his head is like a ballroom with shards of light constantly spiking into new corners of the room, then like the wizard sorceror he appears to be, Sharpe spews light into the corners of our minds, corners that were previously dark.
Back in July, 2013, Today's book of poetry had the pleasure of reading/blogging about Sharpe's Animal Husbandry Today, his excellent first book. Cut Up Apologetic is more of the same brilliant lunatic assemblage. Except that these poems are tighter, just slightly more crisp, and that is an unexpected delight.
then fatten with foreign nectar.
One of the things my minions like to see is me in a good mood. Jamie Sharpe poems are a great step in that general direction so things are smooth in the office this morning. I haven't had to rip a yard off of anyone yet.
Reading Cut Up Apologetic is like watching television while someone else has the remote -- and they are skipping through channels with glee and somehow it turns into an orchestrated concert with a start, middle and ending, coda included. Just when you recognize the road you are on Sharpe changes the channel so that you arrive at a totally unexpected yet appropriate destination.
This is a good trick to know.
in painting not readily found in poetry.
Monet's lily pads were glorious.
Cut Up Apologetic is cherse.
We can't wait to see what he gets up to next.
can suspend itself in mid-air.
where one activity is go-karting.
Let's make some poetry out there.
Jamie Sharpe has very quickly become one of Today's book of poetry's favourite poets to pull out of a hat, "Here! Read this!" I say, grinning like Hell.
Jamie Sharpe is the author of Animal Husbandry Today (ECW, 2012). He lives in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory.