Simon Pole’s poems engage the culture head-on in a way that I don’t think I’ve encountered before; many of these pieces are actually movie reviews (like The Hills Have Eyes (1977) and Dawn of the Dead), or bio-graphical meditations (“H.P. Lovecraft”; “Cronenberg”). It sounds gimmicky, but it actually really works; Pole’s talent is sufficient to make, for example, a free verse horror film review do what both good poetry and good criticism is meant to do: engage with the subject in such a way that it recontextualizes the subject while creating an entirely new piece of art on its own, and piggybacking on the meaning of the original while not ripping it off. His style and word choice is expert. Impressive stuff. (Richard Rosenbaum)
poetry, Simon Pole, issue I, $1.75, #213-447 East 6th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V5T 1K8, www.spectralhorse.com www.robotriderpress.com