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Seven
Beats A Second:
Texan Style
Three things I like about Texas: —Tommy Smith, one of my best friends, lives there —The Austin International Poetry Festival* —Allen Itz Three things I like about Allen Itz’s project, Seven Beats A Second: —The poetry —The art —The music Itz has collaborated with artist, Vincent Martinez, and the musical ensemble, The Ray-Ghun Show Choir, in this project which aims big, like Texas, and has a lot of sass. You will find Itz, a self-proclaimed cowboy poet, to be a welcome antidote to the poisonous cliché of the Texan redneck rattling on about nothing and pitching hissing hissy fits. You’ll find him to be plainspoken – but with the right words. His gaze, on any given Texan night, will be fixed up and out – not just looking at the stars but trying to pierce with his poetic vision, that which lurks behind/within the stars. The words In fact, astronomical thoughts abound, linking three significant themes in this collection: love/lust, youth/age and god/godless. One example: from the book – fleshware blood and gristle forged from trash of exploding stars, fragile, short-lived, prone to sag and corruption, helpless at birth, pitiful in unremitting decay such poor use our body seems for the eternal elements of creation but lightening strikes within tiny electric jabs that jump from receptor to receptor creating art, imagining love, finding courage, honor theories of our own origin, joy and laughter to mock the truth of our condition so much more than we appear to be star dust offspring of unimaginable light seeking an antidote to dark Many of the pieces have humor to them: from the book – life
is life is like a duck hunt every time you really start to fly some asshole in the weeds shoots your feathered butt right out of the sky And yet others have a sweet romanticism – almost innocence – to them: from the book – photo
album I’d give a year of my life to have that day again not that last awful year we all face, the drooling-in-the-oatmeal year, not that mind-blank-body-broke-spirit-gone year I’ll give that one away for free no, I’m talking about next year, while I still have prospects, next year, when there might still be time for a little more rock and roll under a summer moon, a little more time for snuggling on the back porch, watching a winter storm blow through leafless trees, listening to the clickety clatter of dry branches, time for a weekend at the beach, time to read, time to write, time for all those things I know will some day slip away that’s the year I would give up to live that day again And not-so-innocence: from the book – about sex sex is about the heat of rubbing parts together passion a function for finely calibrated friction some will say it makes a big difference which parts do what to who nonsense I say it’s a lot like chicken fingers in the dark parts is parts you rub mine and I’ll rub yours and we’ll sort it out in the morning But the ones that I like the best are the ones in which he uses the authenticity of his South-Texan voice to turn our preconceptions, about what that voice might say, on their ear and to mock the thing we might expect him to be: from the book – what
God don’t
like I was seeing this preacher fella on tv the other day and he was saying that God don’t like men fucking men I don’t know how in the world he would know that, except maybe he was talking to God and just straight out asked him, like hey, God, what do you think about this men fucking men thing I’d be really afraid to do that, but maybe it’s ok for preachers, especially this particular preacher fella since it seems like he’s pretty close to God and like he must talk to him about all sorts of things because he’s all the time on tv talking about what God likes and don’t like (mostly about what he don’t like, from what I’ve seen) not just about fucking, but about all sorts of things God don’t like, you know, treehuggers and feminazies and Democrats and evolutionists and poor people and those wussy-pussy perverts who think we ought not be killing raghead foreigners without some kind of pretty good reason but, mostly what I get from listening to the tv fella is that mainly what God most often don’t like are people who aren’t exactly like that same tv fella so I’m thinking maybe I ought to study that fella real good and try real hard to be as much like he is as I can then maybe God won’t don’t like me, too The art The book is one hundred sixty pages – and there is art on every page. Paired with his poems, the paintings by Vincent Martinez add visual exclamation points – in some cases. In other cases the artwork really looks like a vital part of the poem. And in a few places the art stands alone on the page – no poem to stand shoulder to shoulder to – just a work of art standing up and having its say in a way that reminds me of an extemporaneous speaker. In fact the art reminds me of jazz, having a lot of colorful “sound” to it. It looks improvisational, like jazz, and has, in many cases, been collaborated on. Pieces like “Breath Felt” and ”Myth Melt” and “Chicken Wings & Pretty Things” and “Words Like Birds” show a vibrant and exciting sense of form and color while “Predictable Patterns” and “Abuelo” have darker, more complex patterns and evocations. The collaborative pieces, Like White Furry Cat (a collaboration with Mark Taylor, and one of my favorite pieces) and Barbacoa (a collaboration with Dennis Hodges), have the vibrant energy of graffiti art. The music The CD, chimeras, ideals, errors!, recorded by The Ray-Ghun Show Choir, is a nine track instrumental CD of musical improvisation. Play list: —1- so much the worse for the wood that discovers it’s a violin —2- we have faith in the poison —3- the predatory power of the intestinal apparatus —4- it’s nice to be a champion, it’s nice to trust your moves —5- now is the time of the assassins —6- I’ll throw myself under the horses hooves —7- run fast, but do not move in a straight line —8-move toward the blow, not away from it —9- … it ends in a riot of perfumes The verdict I came for the poetry; I stayed for the art and the music. Allen Itz has shown, with his collaborative effort, Seven Beats A Second, that as it is with food for the body, so it is with food for the soul. Why just have a meal when you can also have drink? Why just have a meal and drink, when you can also have dessert? Don’t you want everything that’s on the menu: meal, beverage, and dessert? And don’t you just want it, need it, have to have it, in this instance, Texas style? Seven Beats A Second, a collection of poems, by Allen Itz, and art, by Vincent Martinez, (the companion CD, chimeras, ideals, errors!, by The Ray-Ghun Show Choir included) is available through www.7beats.com for US $25.00 postpaid. * The Austin International Poetry Festival, a sprawling (it takes place in multiple venues all over the —quirky city of Austin – with its white limestone cliffs, sparkling blue lakes – where tattooed —wonders and independent thinkers mix it up with flamboyant stage poets and quieter page poets at —readings, competitions and workshops) event, held annually and boasting international attendance —and major “pomojo” street cred http://www.aipf.org/home.html Copyright 2006 Annette Marie Hyder |
| Annette Marie Hyder is a contributing editor for Poems Niederngasse |