Want

This book is absolutely perfect. I have favorite poems: Want, The Meanings in More, Need, Infidelity, I'm the Type of Guy, The Pace is Glacial... But I read the book cover to cover when it arrived in the mail (a present long awaited) and each poem feels like a person or destination, their story or map like an imprint on the page that wanders on living when the poem is through. I am in awe. I can't wait for volume II. AJ Rathbun is a talent to watch and his poems are genius.

A.J. Rathbun writes the poems that you wish you would have written. He writes the poems that you wish you would have written after walking home drunk with the certainty that this time it was for real, or the poems that you wish you would have written after she left with your Wallace Stevens, your bootleg cassette of the Clash at CBGB's, and the last third of the Maker's Mark, or, quite possibly, the poems that you wish you had written on the bus to San Francisco as you watched the sunrise burn away the last three years of your life. These poems are solid. They are real. They are right.

When I was 17 I had the distinct pleasure of seeing the Bad Brains at a sweaty, smokey, packed club. I remember alot about that day, but what I remember most of all is how a part of life I felt, how I was existing within a moment. I have felt that same feeling since, but never as strong until I read these great new poems from Mr. Rathbun. The words of Want drip with a life of their own, and with all lives they come in contact with. From casual observances to absolute desire, these are the poems of and for the masses. Read this book, you just might find out what happened to that rather strange fellow who used to live down the street...

Tracy is going to see BR-549 tonight. They opened for Dwight Yoakum one time and the air-conditioning broke. This is summer we're talking about. Everybody was in a swoon. Everyone was real nice and sweating. They could see Dwight sweating through his jeans.This is how I feel about this book. Swooning, sweating, seeing the author through his jeans, seeing the real thing here, pure want expressed like sweat through denim.In other news, experts on British pottery will find little to enjoy here. Unless they put down their teacups and get out a little bit, walk around in the sun and then stretch out in a horse pasture (careful there, Nigel) and hum a little to themselves. Then they will be ready for this book, and they will enjoy its pastoral Kansas passages but because they are businessmen at heart (who isn't really?) they will enjoy the city passages, Seattle's carny avenues and Chicago train windows.Great poet, great book.