a review...

the new Naked Knuckle is out and they've a review of my latest book. I reprint it here for any who would like to support Joe and Jerry at Nerve Cowboy and in so doing, support the small press where art goes to LIVE.

Nothing comes easily in Christopher Cunningham's Thru the Heart of This Animal Life, A measure of Impossible Humor. This is a world where "we are/all damned/to this same/hell," but also where life's small joys and victories teach us to "celebrate" our daily struggles. In "it gets too cold," Cunnngham writes, "I am/satisfied/with/this fabric/I have/woven," and well he should be.
Thru the Heart is a very fine, cohesive collection of accessible, compelling poems that deserves a wide readership.

The poems here are peopled with "the/ones who've/come just short," the kid on the Little League bench, "a bum/in dirty grey pants/and sweat ringed tshirt," and the "old divorced mini skirt" who all, Cunningham explains, are "laboring/under/the/best/of/delusions." However, even in the rather bleak existence of these characters, the poet offers moments of tantalizing redemption. The early morning "man/in a wheelchair" is "rolling the hell/out of his chair" and, most importantly, "smiling." A dead spider helps a couple understand the nature of their "love" in a poem called "how it is." We see in these poems that "it is up to us to make our colors/dance/in this bright grey world," and that there is "no absolution/except that which/we give ourselves."

My favorite poem in this collection is entitled "the lateness of the hour." After seeing some teenagers turned down attempting to buy a bottle of wine in a typical grocery store, we read that "nothing/is/going/to go/exactly/as/you'd like," but even in this world of thwarted desire, the poem ends by noting "the limes/were/beautiful in the light." Herein lies the "measure/of/impossible/humor" that Cunningham reminds us always to maintain.

Thru the Heart concludes appropriately with the existential "the hours that matter," a poem about "how/to remain/upright" despite the "time/spent pushing/against/the stone." It concludes with Cunningham urging us ever so softly to "rejoice," and, yes, Thru the Heart, in its wise and hopeful voice, gives us reasons, however slim, to do just that. These are, like Cunningham's "hours," poems "that matter."

Order your copy here: Nerve Cowboy, P.O. Box 4973 Austin, TX 78765, $6.00

D. Thompson, Naked Knuckle reviewer, Issue #6
211 Rowland Ave.
Modesto, CA 95354

The new Knuckle also features work from Hosho McCreesh (a personal favorite), Don Winter, Michael Estabrook and others. as always, Greg Edwards does a fine job with the presentation, with a great drawing on the cover by Allen Passalaqua. check it out.

more soon...