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| SWATCHES by Erik La Prade Trade Paperback: 26 pages, perfect bound Publisher: Poets Wear Prada (September 1, 2008) ISBN-10: 0981767818 / ISBN-13: 978-0981767819 List Price: $10.00 |
SWATCHES is a very effective psycho-trip to the real, shady, tough guy/gal, real-world essence of New York: “Then, it was midnight showings/Of double features,/leaving the theater/At four o'clock in the morning,/Stopping to eat franks at a Forty Second/Street Nedick's stand more ancient/Then the Second World War./One morning we watched a knife tight/While drinking our sodas./The streets were threatening/With the thrill of living/on our own, without money...” (“Midnight Cinemas,” p.5).. You want more, right? What keeps running through my mind as I read these poems is old-time black and white tell-it-as-it-is films. You're THERE, not in a confuse-the-reader writing lab, but part of everyday/everynight REALITY: “Charlie Green froze to death in an alley.//Leon Rapollo threw his clarinet/Into the lake and eventually went insane…” (“A Bad Record,” p.2). Again your entertainment-hungry voices scream "More!" La Prade has his B..A. and M.A. from City College and all, and there is even one historical-academic masterpiece, “Byron to the Greek Committee” that harkens back to The Westminster Review in 1926, but you can see why La Prade dedicated the book to his parents, swatches of reality they all shared.
~ HUGH FOX
Erik La Prade's SWATCHES has been re-released as perfect bound edition and is now available for online purchase at Amazon.com.
In these clear forecasts of the recent past, Erik La Prade frees the reader to say an eternal Aloha to his phantom New York, a place everyone thinks they know and own, and its 'remnants of an unenclosed frontier.' All times happen at once here, which is why it takes so long to get across town, and which is also why nothing stays ripped up for long, and everything reverts to the 'lived-in look.' A companionable observer inhabits these poems. Why not stay a while?~ JORDON DAVIS
About the Author
Erik La Prade has a B.A and an M.A. from City College, New York. Aegis Press published his first book, THINGS MAPS DON'T SHOW, in 1995, and Linear Arts Books released his second, FIGURE STUDIES, in May 2000. Some of his poems have appeared in FISH DRUM, NIGHT MAGAZINE, THE HAT, THE READING ROOM, THE NEW YORK TIMES, and ARTIST ANT INFLUENCE. He also has articles and interviews in THE BROOKLYN RAIL, CAPTURED: A HISTORY OF FILM AND VIDEO ON THE LOWER EAST SIDE, and THE OUTLAW BIBLE OF AMERICAN ESSAYS.
