Bøger af Kirby Wright

Travel with Gonzo poet and flash writer KIRBY WRIGHT as he negotiates the terrain from Helsinki to the Finnish Archipelago to Stockholm, writing verse along the way. This book captures both the cityscapes of Finland and Sweden as well as the countryside of remote Aland Island, providing the reader glimpses of Scandinavia rarely seen by the average tourist. Some of the work takes on fantastical Kafkaesque dimensions and there are dealings with sensual ghosts in saunas and spirits who dine on purple mushrooms by day. A trip to a 400 BC burial ground adds more excitement. A must read for any traveler who wants a different take on Finland and Sweden, including the writer's story behind one of Picasso's most famous paintings.

Paris Hilton and Lady Gaga are dead. So is the President. Psytrance parties rage as Palm Springs burns. Police and fire departments are gone. Martial law is imposed to deal with the riots but the military is overwhelmed when Mexicans storm the border to fly their flag over Imperial Beach. Warlords battle private security forces for control of coastal towns. Power, gas, and water are luxuries. Hummers and motor coaches are obsolete. The internet and cells are inoperative. Wi-Fi is history. Stores have been ransacked. The black market thrives. Teenage gangs go door-to-door looting and killing. Suburbanites must either leave or risk getting slaughtered. Tent cities sprout like mushrooms from the beach into the desert. Welcome to the Prelude to the Apocalypse. Journey with Tony and Evo into the heart of the American Nightmare as they search for safe haven in a world that knows no rules.

The poems in NOTES ABOVE WATER are concerned with the lives of suburbanites and their secret sufferings-alienation, boredom, infertility, and infidelity. Reoccurring family members are threaded through the book, particularly dysfunctional parents who seem oblivious to the pain they're inflicting on their kids. There's excruciating conflict between the narrator and June Spoon, an ice queen narcissist jealous of her children's relationships and marriages. And Dadio, who rarely spares the rod, uses his offspring to vent his frustrations as a high-powered attorney. The abusive past haunts the narrator as an adult, where he struggles with self-flagellation trying to make his marriage work. There's beach poetry set in Hawaii and the coastal city of Oceanside, California. The alienation theme continues on the sand and beachfront parking lots, where surfers molest underage girls in vans and beachgoers kill boredom with booze and music. In the end, after a long day of sun, west coasters return to their cars and trucks feeling as isolated and alone as when they first sunk their beach umbrellas into the sand. Dark humor abounds, such as the narrator trying to coax his sister out of isolation by insisting there's no reason why she can't maintain her reclusive lifestyle even while be hitched; he points out the bonus of catered meals whipped up by her chef of a husband. There's hope too in these poems-the narrator gets a crush on the girl with the green violin and fantasizes about living with this sexy fiddler in an Irish cottage overlooking the sea. Wright gives his poems plenty of space on the pages, allowing them room to breath. This creates a more intimate space between reader and poet, as if you're reading intimate notes scrawled in a journal. Lots of experimentation with form in this book, including pantoums, flash, prose poetry, couplets, and quatrains. A great read for the poet in us all.

This collection of Kafkaesque miniatures offers a terrifying vision of the Worcester asylum where the writer's uncle spent most of his adult life. The asylum theme zips into overdrive in a series of sometimes darkly comic flashes threaded throughout the book. Dadio and June Spoon have created their own asylum in the burbs, one in which they 'incarcerate' their children within the confines of the home through guilt control, paternal manipulation, money, and demands bordering on the insane.

Julia Daniels, a Moloka'i pioneer woman of mixed blood, invites her grandsons Jeff and Ben to spend summers with her at her ranch on the east end. She shares the ranch with Chipper, an alcoholic war hero with a life estate bordering the swamp. The brothers roam a paradise of fishponds, waterfalls, pristine valleys, and mountains with herds of deer. Jeff meets the Kahuna Woman who freezes pictures of her enemies, the TS who seduces the Chief of Police, the man who refs cock fights in Kaunakakai, the sexy divorcee who lives in the Saddle Room, and the prodigal grandfather who returns to woo Julia. These characters help shape Jeff's sensibilities as he discovers the secrets of his grandmother's wild past in Honolulu and the intensity of her struggles on the Lonely Isle.

Growing up in Honolulu isn't all it's cracked up to be for Jeffrey Gill. After he gets into prestigious Punahou School, his rite of passage includes losing the babe of his dreams to a creep, surviving Killahaole Day, and getting pushed around by the school bully. In the world of academics, Jeff knows he's hardly Stanford material. Uncle Sharkey teaches Jeff the sweet science and he beefs his arch enemy at Waialae Golf Course. He salvages his senior year by getting into a mainland college and taking a foxy girl to the Senior Prom. But he must wait until graduation night to find out if the feelings he has for her are mutual.

"I recognize Kirby Wright as one of my own people, the citizens of the Pacific Rim. His heart is in Hawaii and California, aina and querencia. His fresh new voice sings love and concern for the beings along the shores and in the parks and gardens-and in the cities."-Maxine Hong Kingston

Growing up in Honolulu isn't all it's cracked up to be for Jeffrey Gill. After he gets into prestigious Punahou School, his rite of passage includes losing the babe of his dreams to a creep, surviving Killahaole Day, and getting pushed around by the school bully. In the world of academics, Jeff knows he's hardly Stanford material. Uncle Sharkey teaches Jeff the sweet science and he beefs his arch enemy at Waialae Golf Course. He salvages his senior year by getting into a mainland college and taking a foxy girl to the Senior Prom. But he must wait until graduation night to find out if the feelings he has for her are mutual.

This collection of flash and poetry explores the secret interior worlds of characters dealing with intense emotional landscapes. Some of the pieces flash back in time to reveal the underpinnings of feelings of inadequacy, such as the narrator in "Butterfly Season," who recalls a lost love in high school and beatings as a boy. The flashes drive this book foward with intense relationship moments as couples either battle the odds to stay together or throw in the towel. There's even a flash ballad to the Beat Poets during their early days in New York.