Poetry: Selections From John Yamrus
the little mag
was
perfect...
just two
sheets
folded and
mailed out
every week
or two or three,
crammed
so tight
with poems
it had no
room anywhere,
not
even for
bios,
and the
only thing left
to see or
think or feel or read
was
poetry and
truth.
hell yeah!
at the
time of the accident
she
was
16
and the
doctor
had to
shave part
of her
head to fix her up.
she
liked the
look
and shaved
off all the rest,
which her
parents really didn’t like,
but,
she didn’t
care
because
she thought it was cool
and
she
kept it
that way
for many
years except
when she
grew part of it in
like a
Mohawk, and then she met Lennie.
he
talked
her
into
growing it real long
and parted
in the middle because:
it
made
her
“look more
feminine”.
she
hated
that.
and
eventually she hated Lennie, too.
not
much
later,
she got
rid of Lennie
and the
real long hair, and
moved to
Pittsburgh where she
kinda
sorta maybe lived happily ever after,
forever
and ever, amen.
her dad
was
different
from other
dads.
he
took
good
care of
her, and
she loved
him, but,
he
cried a
lot,
and
sometimes
he
looked
scared.
John Yamrus is one of the most prolific writers of poetry on the scene today, He is widely considered to be a master of minimalism and the neo-noir in modern poetry. The relaxed style of his writing can be seen as a continuation of the oral tradition of literature associated with Allen Ginsberg and The Beats, and his poems are best appreciated when read aloud. The unlikely pairing of often dark subjects, combined with humor and irreverence has become something of a trademark of his work. His nearly 50 published books, which include not only poetry, but also novels, memoirs and a children’s book, are beginning to appear in translation, and he is a frequent guest on podcasts and television programs. His acclaimed memoir, The Street, is a look back at his early years, growing up less than wealthy, in a Pennsylvania coal town in the late 1950s. His latest books include: seriously! and Doing Cartwheels on Doomsday Afternoon.