CGP 17: Off the Beaten Trakl
by Joel Sloman (20 pp. Saddle-Stitched) $5 ppd.

Responding to Cy Gist Press editor Mark Lamoureux's call for poets to do more translation, Joel Sloman created this homophonic, stereoscopic, phantasmagoric "translation" of the work of Austrian poet Georg Trakl.  Sloman makes a sock poet of the author's solemn memory, dragging Trakl dumfounded into our contemporary world of Robin Williams films, scones and hip-hop workboots.   With a fetching (pun intended) cover by Kate Ledogar.  In the words of the author, "It's fucking hot, Snowy!"

Sanja
by Joel Sloman

A strange woman wearing a green sweater walks by

Open trucks with hoses guard alterations

Sonja’s legs rest on a chair, she is reviled

Cold regulates bums and hobos

I wave to the sightseers on the trolley

Sunflowers and more sunflowers are delighted

By Sonja’s white interpretation of reggae

Red snow—wondrous—bubbles

A blue clerk wears a muscle tee

Sonja’s shirt is dry cleaned, fumes

Tiers of turbans grates England

Ali’s young daughter wears a long red dress with silver sequin patterns

Sonja sips a thick mocha shake

Her son tags along after her

Her sage brow acknowledges loneliness

Her shirt is too stiff, it crackles

Extensions to her blond hair pinned

She’s disturbed, returns to England

Whatever happened to Neil Hornick?

Subterfuge of sunflowers!

The colors of blooms are already autumnal

A loitering, itinerant red wound

Jumps onto Sonja’s thigh

Yolks and whites break up, no more reggae