STEVE KLEPETAR Reviews
(Moria Books’ Locofo Chaps, Chicago, 2017)
I can only
write a very brief review of this brilliant chap, because its very nature precludes discussion of particular “poems,”
and makes quoting out of context difficult. Marthe Reed literally fashions
poetry from data about climate change, taking the language of a scientific
report, “Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report Summary for Policymakers (IPCC),”
and arranging it as lines of poetry in ways that make the words and phrases
jagged and emotionally powerful. Here is the summary of the summary:
without
additional
efforts
beyond
those
in
place
today
warming
end
21st
century
high
to
very
high
risk
severe
wide-spread
irreversible
global
impacts
It’s easy to
see the impact – to use a word right from the report – of this highly
compressed language arranged to emphasize, emphasize, emphasize every key word
and concept. It’s a conclusion gleefully and publicly rejected by climate
change deniers like Scott Pruitt, head of the EPA. Reed leaps out of the
scientific voice into something much more colloquial and confrontational:
“Science
works, bitches”
What more is
there to say?
*****
Steve
Klepetar’s work has appeared in nine countries, in such journals as Boston Literary
Magazine, Deep Water, Antiphon, Red River Review, Snakeskin, Ygdrasil, and many others. Several of his poems have
been nominated for the Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net, including four in
2016. He has published 12 collections, the most recent of which include "A Landscape
in Hell" (Flutter Press); "Family
Reunion" (Big Table Publishing); and
"How
Fascism Comes to America" (Locofo
Chaps).
Thank you, Steve, Eileen, and Bill.
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