Balanced Diet
Oct. 31st, 2024 04:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
davidkmClark, G. O., 2009, Strange Vegetables, Dark Regions Press, Box 1264, Colusa CA 95932, www.darkregions.com, cover by M. Wayne Miller, interior art by G. O. Clark, $7.95, perfect-bound pb, ISBN-10 1-888993-67-7, 1SBN-13 978-1-888993,-67-7, 53 p.
Dark Regions Press has been publishing poetry chapbooks since the early 90s at least. The early ones, all out of print, had black-and-white covers, but they included remarkable work from some of the best science fiction, fantasy, horror poets then writing. I don't remember whether G. O. Clark was in that lineup, but I would not be surprised. Like Dark Regions, he has been around for a while. This new offering, Strange Vegetables, bears a nice colorful cover. The produce inside is black and white of course, but crisp and tasty.
Strange Vegetables contains 31 poems, many previously published in various periodicals. I published one in Dreams and Nightmares. The cover is an amusing tribute to "American Gothic." Interior art; that's a bit of lagniappe. Oh, and I didn't know Clark could draw. He is pretty good. Alas, he doesn't draw for the small press as far as I know, except here.
Clark frequently uses a deadpan style when describing far out situations, as in the title poem, or "Unusual employment opportunities."
Balloon artist needed for the
Annual Miskatonic Faire. Must have
own equipment, be open-minded,
and agree to sign waiver.
The style is well suited to dry humor, and the poems almost feel like that even when they really aren't funny. For example, "As if we could change anything."
As if Frankenstein could find a happy balance
between the sum of his parts.
Clark never seems to run out of this kind of zinger. Poems range from the silly, to serious with and without puns, to sharp as knives. Whether making an analogy between the life of a snail and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ("In the shadow of Aricebo"), or comparing the movement of galaxies to human interactions ("Shiner"), Clark's observations are right on the money.
Most of these poems are science fiction, sensu stricto. Even when looking at concepts invented by H. P. Lovecraft or Mary Shelley, Clark tends to look at them with a precise and naturalistic eye. I love this cross-genre use of the authorial lens. Whether you pick up a pair of science-fiction spectacles or another it makes no difference. Previously neglected aspects of old works are examined or displayed. For me, this only adds to the beauty that was already there. Then again, most of these poems are science fiction, but not all. "Naked angel" includes these lines:
My body is of
two minds, one pulsing
with the blood of unreason,
the other, thoughts impure.
There is more, much more: a tale of a considerate and most unusual hourly companion, a steampunk robot, artificial poets, religious dystopias, excommunicated deities, imprisoned rulers, monsters, and so on. I think I let slip that I like this book. Enough said.
Dark Regions Press has been publishing poetry chapbooks since the early 90s at least. The early ones, all out of print, had black-and-white covers, but they included remarkable work from some of the best science fiction, fantasy, horror poets then writing. I don't remember whether G. O. Clark was in that lineup, but I would not be surprised. Like Dark Regions, he has been around for a while. This new offering, Strange Vegetables, bears a nice colorful cover. The produce inside is black and white of course, but crisp and tasty.
Strange Vegetables contains 31 poems, many previously published in various periodicals. I published one in Dreams and Nightmares. The cover is an amusing tribute to "American Gothic." Interior art; that's a bit of lagniappe. Oh, and I didn't know Clark could draw. He is pretty good. Alas, he doesn't draw for the small press as far as I know, except here.
Clark frequently uses a deadpan style when describing far out situations, as in the title poem, or "Unusual employment opportunities."
Balloon artist needed for the
Annual Miskatonic Faire. Must have
own equipment, be open-minded,
and agree to sign waiver.
The style is well suited to dry humor, and the poems almost feel like that even when they really aren't funny. For example, "As if we could change anything."
As if Frankenstein could find a happy balance
between the sum of his parts.
Clark never seems to run out of this kind of zinger. Poems range from the silly, to serious with and without puns, to sharp as knives. Whether making an analogy between the life of a snail and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence ("In the shadow of Aricebo"), or comparing the movement of galaxies to human interactions ("Shiner"), Clark's observations are right on the money.
Most of these poems are science fiction, sensu stricto. Even when looking at concepts invented by H. P. Lovecraft or Mary Shelley, Clark tends to look at them with a precise and naturalistic eye. I love this cross-genre use of the authorial lens. Whether you pick up a pair of science-fiction spectacles or another it makes no difference. Previously neglected aspects of old works are examined or displayed. For me, this only adds to the beauty that was already there. Then again, most of these poems are science fiction, but not all. "Naked angel" includes these lines:
My body is of
two minds, one pulsing
with the blood of unreason,
the other, thoughts impure.
There is more, much more: a tale of a considerate and most unusual hourly companion, a steampunk robot, artificial poets, religious dystopias, excommunicated deities, imprisoned rulers, monsters, and so on. I think I let slip that I like this book. Enough said.
