Once a year, when I walk into the poetry room at Harvard's Lamont Library, I find a stack of Bill Knott's latest poetry chaps. They are cheaply produced, and are offered free to any person who visits the room. I have been told that Knott( a professor at Emerson College in Boston) has quite a cult following.
The poems in this collection and others that I have read have a quirky-subversive quality that keeps the reader guessing and at times laughing. Knott's poem,
ON THE ROAD (Kerouac) takes that icon of rebellious youth to task( with tongue firmly planted in cheek), for of all things, ecocide:
" Jump in the car and drive
anywhere though West is best
burn that octane burn and live,
don't question this quest.
Go man you gotta go
you too must take that ride
faster faster never slow
on the road to ecocide."
I guess you can call that poem a "gas" Another thing interesting about this chap is that there are more blurbs on the covers than any book I have seen. As always, Knott is an original read.
