Description

(26 words) Zap, grackle, pop! East meets west in these contemporary urban micro poems. Whether exploring haikai forms or improvising jazz renku pops, these poems swing and bop! (152 words) Zap, grackle, bop! These English language haiku, senryu, tanka, kyoka, zappai, solo renku-like jazz pop sequences both honour the Japanese haikai tradition and play respectfully with it. Bringing a Beat/jazz sensibility and jazz chops to the page, Stevenson explores Kerouac's pop 'ku of idiomatic, beatific epiphany, emblematic verse, even low brow bathroom graffiti zappai and found senryu. The tone shifts from ecstatic to meditative; from bemused to antic; from ironic/sardonic to quiet, introspective; from melancholic to comic and back again, even as the syllables slide, carom, harmonize, swing and bop through a grackle's ratchety racket to a sibilant summer breeze. Largely urban, the themes and imagery sometimes follow the man- in- nature tradition, and sometimes veer off with bemused candor to consider the human circus. Stevenson's comic takes on things will make you grin, toe tap past the two lips of East and West, down to Kansas City where syllables swing best.