At the same time, I started to wonder: What would future sentences look like and what would they do in a present that precedes their use or, at least, precedes the places to which they point? These are descriptions for future sentences, however the plans for those sentences (i.e., their actual futures) are still the drawings.
RENEE GLADMAN Plans for Sentences [Wave Poetry] Pictured above: Gladman, Plans for Sentences #14
“To adorn is also to adore, but ‘adore’ is also ‘a door,’ as in ‘a way in.’ And a way in can also be a way out.”
FRED MOTEN, One Long Black Sentence (w/Renee Gladman)
There’s much to adore this year. Books that have/will stay with me, pamphlets returned to, stand out collections, breakthroughs. KFB Selects titles, works we’ve published (but a few pictured here). If there’s a queer slant, so be it. Poetry is. These, poetry bliss, all.
I could share a lil tidbit about each title… suffice it to say, delight is a primary colour, and nothing enchants more than the surprise of good poetry. “O my goodness, it’s poetry,” (recalling Anselm Berrigan’s Pregrets). Rare. Starting with this collaborative treasure:
this is what i had to do / narrow it down/ it wouldn’t be unused / the end is now / it’s okay / glisten
Richard Capener / Imogen Reid Today is a Thursday [Overground Underground Books, 2022]
Claren Grosz’s perfectly executed starting with the roof of my mouth [Gap Riot Press, 2022] featured at this year’s inaugural Fertile Festival of New & Inventive Works beside Klara du Plessis & Kadie Salmon’s soaring Skin & Meat Sky and Travis Sharp’s searing Behind the Poet Reading Their Poem Is a Sign Saying Applause [both KFB].
The unparalled beauty of Timglaset Editions Herbarium by Danni Storm and Leavings by Kate Siklosi (technically 2021, but launched here earlier this year). Both keepers.
These queer lovelies John Keene Punks [The Song Cave] (and my favourite cover of the year), Richie Hofmann One Hundred Lovers, Paul Cunningham Fall Garment, Raúl Gómez Jattin, translated by Katherine M. Hedeen & Olivia Lott Almost Obscene, CAConrad 18 Corona Transmutations [Golden Boomerang Press], Stacy Szymaszek Three Novenas [Auric Press], Erín Moure Arborescence [Columba], Wayne Koestenbaum Ultramarine Brian Teare The Empty Form Goes All The Way To Heaven [both Nightboat], Brian Dedora Box Set [Viktlösheten], Annick MacAskill Shadow Blight [Gaspereau Press]. I also enjoyed Michael Goodfellow’s debut, and admiration for Luke Hathaway The Affirmations [Biblioasis]. So much beauty here, she weeps.
The momentous arrival of Dionne Brand’s New & Collected, Nomenclature [M&S]. Niina Pollari’s breathtaking Path of Totality, Ayaz Pirani How Beautiful People Are [Gordon Hill], J. Estanislao Lopez We Borrowed Gentleness [Alice James], Jim Johnstone Infinity Network [Signal], Alexandra Oliver Hail, the Invisible Watchman [Biblioasis], Norma Cole Lost Dance [Impart Ink], Damian Rogers Wizard Poems, the mad playful wizardry of Daniel Scott Tysdal’s disarmingly moving The End Is In the Middle [icehouse], the chapbook perfection my hands currently adore, Dale Martin Smith Blur [KFB]. —Kirby
Knife Fork Book 