Spiritus Pizza & Other Poems by Dennis Rhodes (Vital Links Media PoBox 456 Provincetown, Ma. 02657) $14. info.nowvoyager.com
This collection of poetry by Provincetown, Ma. poet and host of THE POET'S Corner( WOMR-FM-Provincetown) is a tribute to that artistic, gaycentric, and "anything goes" burg at the tip of Cape Cod. Dennis Rhodes has gathered an admirable cast of characters and memories that habitate the streets of P-town, and has created a flippant and compelling work of art. There is a wonderfully wistful poem that leads off, SPIRITUS PIZZA 2AM that conveys a sad, ephemeral beauty. Here the poet describes a nocturnal wind that serves as a conduit for the memories of his past and its loss: " I think more keenly of the dead,/when the moon is full-don't know why/ tonight is thick with ashes./ Of five thousand spirited
young men.../I recognize a friend in the warm and peppery breeze/toying with my ear/mocking me for standing among the living./ And then there is this tongue in cheek (pardon the pun) advisory to hetero women: "Never, ever gentle lass/ place your finger in your man's ass.../ he may qickly come to treasure/illicit forms of sexual pleasure./ Rhodes gives the reader equal doses of levity and profundity in this excellent book.
Doug Holder/ Ibbetson Update/ Somerville, Ma. July 2002
*** published in the Ibbetson Street Press Update.
