Title: Zues and the Giant Iced Tea
Length: 129 pages (but that's with lots of page breaks - they are poems, after all)
# of poems in the collection: 48
Longest Narrative: The Sultan Poems
Most Controversial poem: A Brief History of Gandhi
# of poems about luchadores: 1
# of poems about arms dealing: 2
# of poems about Mexicans: 3
# of poems about robots: 3
# of poems with an Asian or Middle Eastern flavour: 27
The Artist Worries about the Quality of his work!
As a perfectionist, this was difficult because I felt I could still review, tighten and improve some of the work included, particularly the Sultan Poems, which started off as 3 poems and I hoped to merge into a complete 'story' of about 6 poems. When I submitted it it was 19 poems!! Yikes. Ideally I could put them aside for a month and then come back to do some final tightening up...but at some point you just have to submit, and I was months behind. If they like the manuscript, I'll get the chance to tighten those up at that point.
The Artist worries his manuscript will be a Comedy at the Oscars!
As a worrier, I'm not entirely sure, at the end of this very long journey, that I have put together a manuscript that is right for the poetry series the press is creating. That's probably just me worrying. I really like the concept of the collection - they are narrative poems and I'm very pleased with the quality of all of them. But as such, they are much less personal than those in my last collection and, as most critics and reviewers are want to do, could be considered 'lighter, less serious fare' (although I think that's unjust.) I think I also consciously stayed away from the darker stuff this time around, because I have more range than that and wanted to explore these narrative type works. However, the ultra personal, dark poetry of Poetaster is what made them ask me to submit something. So, essentially, I worry that this is going to be like submitting a comedy for an oscar nod. It could be the most brilliant film ever made...but if it's funny then it doesn't deserve any awards. On the other hand, comedy's are watched by way more people.
The Artist posts a poem from the collection in celebration of its completion!
The Two Xs
Dos Equis
The two exxes
The dirtiest man
South of Al Hambra
And North of it too
He was born
in the desert dust.
No woman’s son
He was foreign to the ways of women
No man’s son
He was lost amongst his brothers
They called him Dos Equis
The two exxes
Nobody ever saw his eyes
under the wide brim of his black hat
His skin was cold to the touch
beneath his black vest
and jeans
and snake black boots
Dos Equis
He was given a life
without direction
without answers
When he signed his name
he signed an X.
Twice.
He was given a life
without direction
without answers
He was only given
Two Exxes.
Posts
, 
, 
and a poetry collection, 
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