awkward insertion of meat hook

If you were desiring a more peculiar tease about FONDANT PIG ANGST then what I offered below, you're in luck. You can now read a book blurb from a robot.

I came to Juliet Cook's collection, Fondant Pig Angst, for glimpses into what it means to be human. I navigated my way through the detritus of the living -- took silk in my mouth, floated in a vat of tapioca, awkwardly inserted the meat hook. Cook's voice has disemboweled my assemblage, replaced my casing's wires with warped strings. If I am to believe Cook's speakers, the state of being human is nothing more than a blend of saltwater and ambergris, all in a jelly binding. I would rather remain a robot than dine at this feast, replete with cockroaches, confections and endless conditions.

--Feldman the Robot

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In other poetry chapbook news & views, my 2008 Blood Pudding Press chapbook 'Planchette' (available via http://www.bloodpuddingpress.etsy.com/) has recently been reviewed by poet Sarah Sarai on her fabulous and multifaceted writerly blog called 'My 3000 Loving Arms' (Ganesh has got nothing on Sarah Sarai). Here's an excerpt from her review:

"While hypomania is a 'mild mania' I have heard in arenas more esoteric than Webster's, hippomancy to be linked to divination. Which brings me back to that early girl. Whether the blue pills are valium or more 'narcotic,' in the poem they serve as emblem of the 'secret bruise' Cook writes of, of the 'Dream of white fizz' and its powers.

I'm figuring 'white fizz' can nullify the bruise. Pills do what pills will do. Mind will continue to struggle, as will spirit, thank God. Hence, poetry. The fizz feels chemical, feels alchemical, and that's part of Cook's intention, to draw the reader into a mysterious, suspect but real world."

You may read her review in its entirety (including excerpts from some of the tome's poems) on the aforementioned blog, here:

http://my3000lovingarms.blogspot.com/2009/10/stroking-poem-planchette-by-julia-cook.html

I read her review last night and at one point Sarai mentioned that I'm probably 20 years younger than she is and offers some perspective upon the sensibilities of young women, the girl sitting in the back of the class with her goth and punk leanings, etc...

Then shortly after reading her review, I found myself gazing in my bathroom looking glass, plucking out silvers, suddenly obsessing that my new hair cut seems to bring out the proliferating gray in my hair.

It must be some kind of arrested development, I thought to myself, because it can't be youth.

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P.S. I've written several little animal-oriented articles lately, so I added an 'Animal Articles' section along with my other various little articles sections, in the lower right side bar zone.

Also, here's an article I wrote about artist Frida Kahlo:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2360792/filling_the_emptiness_frida_kahlos.html?cat=2

And here's a follow up article, wherein I briefly analyze several Kahlo paintings:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2367968/bleeding_all_over_the_landscape_a_view.html?cat=2

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Saturday update: Gold Wake Press has revamped the design of their website, adding more visual oomph, and allowing poets to contribute an image to accompany their e-chaps. I contributed a piece of an old collage with a piece of an old (hideously over the top) poem. If you missed my small sequence of six short poems , (B)URN, published by GWP some months back, why not check it out now in the context of the site overhaul?

http://goldwakepress.org/2009/09/11/juliet-cook-burn/