Of Mongrelitude

by Julian Talamantez Brolaski

Overview

Poems that break language apart from the inside. Brolaski's third collection combines Latin, pop culture, etymology, politics, and sex in linguistic experimentation. It asks the reader to let go of expectations and be open to a sonically immersive experience. The poems are as radical as they are romantic, rewriting the rules of grammar and creating a personal vernacular.

Julian T. Brolaski is the author of Advice for Lovers (City Lights 2012), gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011), and co-editor of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards (Litmus Press / Belladonna Books 2009). Julian lives in Oakland, and is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in the country band The Western Skyline.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781940696447
Publisher:	Wave Books
Publication date:	04/04/2017
Pages:	112
Product dimensions:	7.00(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Julian Talamantez Brolaski is the author of Advice for Lovers (City Lights 2012), gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011), and co-editor of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards (Litmus Press / Belladonna Books 2009). Julian lives in Oakland, and is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in the country band The Western Skyline (www.thewesternskyline.org).

Read an Excerpt

Of Mongrelitude

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By Julian Talamantez Brolaski

Wave Books

Copyright © 2017 Julian Talamantez Brolaski
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-940696-44-7

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CHAPTER 1

WAR MESSAGE!
we dont want yr tools


look gentlepeople
the only source of likelihood
is a fist in a gentle orifice
if I'da been a ranch
they'da calld me bar none
a fecund desert
full of heartless so-and-sos
the tub of butter thereafter was rancid
we put xir and xir mouth ta rest
along with the chickens in our maw
hey blood, hey sucka
as like to one as to th'other
do you love your sibling
as they do as they do


against breeding

FOR CACONRAD

garbage-gut humans should not continue ourselves
it can only come a frightful cropper
hairbulbs what I mistook to be a form in nature
albatross w/ plastics crowding thir gut
what julie patton is callin supefraja-lilly-of-the-valley
veronica heterophilia snapdraggon nature preserve
pulp them shropshire constabulary
quing of haven sailing for caracas sissy jesus-hag
point to the exact place where the fly shd go in the ballo underpants
just where the shapes come to a point triangularly
15 thousand fish dead at the mouth of tha mississipp
planes go sipsip saying to the poor people
walk fa-ast! walk like yr on hot co-als!
matisse had to get up real close to see that was a burd
turned that viol de gamba right fwds & added a noose
even more clîché than peaches inna bowl
curvy long pear stem and butterdish suspended
in air perhaps the stem is penetrating a clear butter dish
conrad suggested & I knew I was being drawn
into a funhouse of mirrors but I cdnt stop
odilon redon roger & angelica
why I am against breeding


rather like a doubting dog

I performed my own rejection of the species,
Rather like a doubting dog
perhaps I was so earnest in my approach
it appeared too regular,
not like an approach at all
betimes I discovered an odd pair of bruises,
a burnmark and a lesser one
as if the portals for psychic vampires
wound in twos, side by side
perhaps my suffering — but away
w/ phrases that begin perhaps
my suffering! still — it —

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Of Mongrelitude by Julian Talamantez Brolaski. Copyright © 2017 Julian Talamantez Brolaski. Excerpted by permission of Wave Books.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Mongrel, Some Definitions and Etymologies

[WAR MESSAGE] we dont want yr tools
against breeding
rather like a doubting dog
in the cut
on loneliness
I did it for something to do
fire place
most honeyed
lovers reversed: dump hunk
notes from the mummy chamber
the rabbit & the crow
who is not yr cousin?
what’s eating hildegard?
ack, buttery
what do they know of suffering, who eat of pineapples yearround
like w/ like wars not
irreversibly like apples
when will springtime come on in
of mongrelitude
dog on dog aggression
hell and gore
sometimes I feel like I’m the tool of the devil
oceanic feeling
some say an army of horsepeople
what wuz there IZZAYE
red sky at morn
tho the riveulets be finite, the tokens are talking
automat metropolis
melancholy lake
involuntarily I licked my lips
if only there were a glory for that hole
fried-eyed / banned poetry words
how obvious
blathersum
despite of space
for our meeting on the loam
helen source of death
sympathy butters no parsnips
chaparral character
whethersoever it were (marry to be humanlike)
eat dirt, oasis, myn oracle
gon aerial wolfhuntin
widdershins
ambivalence becometh
you dont need to get fucked up to see visions
on antony and cleo
not the sloppy religiosity
the tabloids are filled w/ mancrush and bromance
the myth of the subway
the uselessness of magicking death
poem for r having left new york
poem for shorty courtier
rules for bones
or pause to gaze on the moody chest of spartacus
a bee's feather
airroir
make us all homosexuals, o muse, o privy muse
fowles in tha frith
imaginary and actual koalas, troly loly
dis pure diss
we birds
the death of script
as the owl augurs

Editorial Reviews

03/27/2017
Brolaski (Advice for Lovers) riffs off the eponymous idea of what it means to be a mongrel in this inconsistently pleasing mishmash of languages and structure. True to this definition, Brolaski’s dense linguistic style defies both classification and easy reading, which is likely to alienate many readers. There’s no shortage of indecipherably Joycean lines, such as “ta be bridled// paramatrest/ binite adjaçon.” The poet occasionally contextualizes his obscure references—for instance, explaining that “Isánáklésh” refers to an Apache deity—but readers must largely rely on their own interpretations of unknown words. In this way, these poems become especially flexible and welcome many meanings. Some may argue that this is the whole point: pushing “englyssh” to its borders and creating communications that exist outside of linguistic evolution. A poem that begins with the Old English sounds of “tho what hath been primordial—thir fronte, ofttimes in geste,” gradually transforms to an ending of, “haha, not w/ that guy anyway.” Here is language as mutt, a synthesis of what came before and what most contemporary English speakers employ. Though its sonic qualities are apparent when spoken aloud, this kind of poetry may not be particularly enjoyable for many readers. Nevertheless, Brolaski presents, and seems dedicated to, the kind of experimentation that keeps language evolving and malleable. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly