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Another Rarity
Nov. 5th, 2024 04:16 pmCardinal Cox, 2010, Black Sands/White Rock, pamphlet given away at NewCon 5. For information e-mail cardinalcox1@yahoo.co.uk. White paper, saddle stitched with a single staple.
I'm not sure why I was sent this small chapbook. Since it is not for sale a review doesn't seem all that important. I am reviewing it because it may still be available and I like it very much. 100 numbered copies were printed. If they were not all given away at the convention I assume you can get them from the author at the above e-mail address.
What I like best about this chapbook is that for many of the poems there is a note from the author at the bottom of the page. In some cases Cox tells us why or when he wrote the poem. In other cases it's just something autobiographical that may be related to the poem somehow. There are 12 poems total.
Here is an excerpt from "21st Century Centaurs"
The fillies?
Find 'em selling their tails
On the black back streets
Sure, they'll tell you that
You're hung like a stallion
The juxtaposition of a high-fantasy creature with backstreet city life is masterfully done. It works well on several levels, ranging from shock to pity to outrage.
From "Thursday night shift"
Writing history books to
Make sure people believed we won
No, he'd been with the Resistance
Supplying M60's to Attila
Don't we do this anyway? Science fiction allows one to be literal about the metaphoric, while retaining, implicitly, all the complexity of the treatment of, say, the politics of war, that is commonly found in mainstream literature.
There is plenty more, but I'm confidently assuming you can track the book down. Other poems investigate cloning, becoming lost in space, Martian flora, children, and more.
Cox's poetry investigates well-known science-fiction tropes, but lyrically. Familiar ideas are expressed with innovation and creativity, but they are still familiar. It's like reading the science-fiction novels of our childhood again for the first time. I don't think I've read anything by Cardinal Cox before, but now I see why British fans are always praising his ability. If you can get this or any other chapbook by Cardinal Cox, do so.
I'm not sure why I was sent this small chapbook. Since it is not for sale a review doesn't seem all that important. I am reviewing it because it may still be available and I like it very much. 100 numbered copies were printed. If they were not all given away at the convention I assume you can get them from the author at the above e-mail address.
What I like best about this chapbook is that for many of the poems there is a note from the author at the bottom of the page. In some cases Cox tells us why or when he wrote the poem. In other cases it's just something autobiographical that may be related to the poem somehow. There are 12 poems total.
Here is an excerpt from "21st Century Centaurs"
The fillies?
Find 'em selling their tails
On the black back streets
Sure, they'll tell you that
You're hung like a stallion
The juxtaposition of a high-fantasy creature with backstreet city life is masterfully done. It works well on several levels, ranging from shock to pity to outrage.
From "Thursday night shift"
Writing history books to
Make sure people believed we won
No, he'd been with the Resistance
Supplying M60's to Attila
Don't we do this anyway? Science fiction allows one to be literal about the metaphoric, while retaining, implicitly, all the complexity of the treatment of, say, the politics of war, that is commonly found in mainstream literature.
There is plenty more, but I'm confidently assuming you can track the book down. Other poems investigate cloning, becoming lost in space, Martian flora, children, and more.
Cox's poetry investigates well-known science-fiction tropes, but lyrically. Familiar ideas are expressed with innovation and creativity, but they are still familiar. It's like reading the science-fiction novels of our childhood again for the first time. I don't think I've read anything by Cardinal Cox before, but now I see why British fans are always praising his ability. If you can get this or any other chapbook by Cardinal Cox, do so.
