Author archives for Peter Moysaenko

“No Science” by Weston Cutter

Peter Hildebrand; WARP AND WEFT; Gouache on paper; 22 x 30 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Pierogi Flat Files.
Weston Cutter turns his regard to the rare enigma of the quotidian: shunning any suggestion of pretension in favor of an Ammonsian phrasing, “No Science” mulls over clues pulled from their contexts, tapping into questions of exclusion and intrusion, the thin distinction between durability and stability.

“Midday” by Yael Shinar

R.D. Gluibizzi; ROOT COUPLE; Ink on paper; 12 x 9 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Pierogi Flat Files.
Yael Shinar plots the fleeting moment of one life’s unraveling with a plaintive reverence for the often forgotten detail of qualia, the dull madness of life unto death and vice versa. Not exactly elegiac, by its meditative clinic “Midday” nonetheless gives the reader pause.

Think Back, Pilgrim: Rick Snyder’s ESCAPE FROM COMBRAY

combray_color

Before we even crack its cover, Rick Snyder’s first full-length, Escape from Combray, promises action. As the title references the hometown of Proust’s memorable, nameless front man, so does it hint at themes of origin and transience. Over the course of nearly 40 lean poems Snyder positions his voice as one at the stitch of our collar.

“At the Savoy” by Joseph Chapman

Makoto Take, UNTITLED FROM SUBCULTURE SERIES; Gelatin silver print; 20 x 16 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Pierogi Flat Files.
There’s an argument to be made for poetry speaking spirit in terms of form and form in terms of spirit. With grace and restraint, Joseph Chapman’s “At the Savoy” channels ghosts and taps into a music of longing, offering up a penumbral portrait of human frailty and endurance.

“Balloons the Shape of Manhattan” by John Randolph Carter

Mark Miller, RISING SON (FLAG#6); Gouache, glitter, collage; 9 x 11 inches. Courtesy of the artist and Pierogi Flat Files.
John Randolph Carter’s taut but rangy take on Americana merges familiar subjects and settings to a satisfyingly bizarre effect. His verse strikes a difficult balance between originality and appeal, luring in the audience with its tidy structure, friendly diction, and tasteful embellishment, only in the end to reveal its surprise as omen.

“THE PAINTED ROOM” BY HOWARD ALTMANN

Kry Bastian, STANDING WATER SERIES #8; Oil pastel on paper; 11 x 8.5 inches. Courtesy of the artist and PIerogi Flat Files.
“Though there is an elegiac tone in the poem that cannot be denied, the lyric repetition is less about the futility in the world, than it is about the human spirit’s desire to trump it—to live, to live, to live.”

“FACTICITIES, ETC.” by Renée Ashley

Simona Frillici, SALUTI AFFETUOSI; Sewing thread, photocopy, colored tracing paper; 15.75 x 15.75 inches.

Refusing sentimentality and Byzantine turns of phrase, Renée Ashley’s “Facticities, Etc.” approaches the submerged body of the past not as a volume to be mined for final answers but as a load to take for granted.