So Much is Burning. William Taylor, Jr. (www.sunnyoutside.com POBOX 441429 Somerville, Mass. 02144) $10. 44 pages.
David McNamara, the founder of “sunnyoutside”, the independent Somerville literary press, gave me a copy of their latest poetry book release: “ So Much Is Burning,” by William Taylor, Jr. McNamara told me in an interview that what attracts him to Taylor’s work is his accessible but layered work that deals with the dichotomy of beauty and ugliness. In this new collection Taylor writes of his hometown of San Francisco and in the tradition of Winans and Bukowski he covers the “waterfront,” with all its downtrodden denizens and their gone-to-seed milieu. The production of the book is quite winning. McNamara told me he used the black and white style of “City Lights,” editions as his role model.
In Taylor’s poem “This Side,” he skillfully explores the narrow divide between slumming and actually being part of the slum:
3 A.M. in the Tenderloin
and outside my window
it’s a strange parade…
the sellers of
bodies and souls
the homeless
and the lost
sing their broken songs
it’s quite a show
and it’s always free
as long as you stay
on this side
of the window.
And in the poem “Chinatown,” the poet tries to lose himself in this enigmatic section of the city:
and the city night
comes down
with a loneliness
that aches like nothing else
it fills your blood
as you wander through
the streets and alleys
of Chinatown
trying to find some new way
to get lost
the buildings are colorful
and strange
and the people speak in languages
you don’t understand
here it is easy to dream
you are someplace else…
and if you drink enough
whiskey
you might cease to exist
for a little while
and everything
will be beautiful again.
Taylor has an engaging, dreamy aspect to his work. It is infused with a sweet melancholy. He is obviously influenced by the “Buk,” and Winans, but still has his own unique style. It will be interesting to see how his work develops over the years.
Doug Holder/ Ibbetson Update
