Michael Basinski - The Hold

Book Review by Michael Basinski, April 2003. Published in the webmagazine The Hold, Issue #66:

I Know What She Will Say - by Henry Denander. with Foreword by Gerald Locklin $5.00 Bottle of Smoke Press, 503 Tuliptree Square, Leesburg, VA 20176. 703-779-2004 http://www.bospress.net

So, I came upon this thing of delight! DA LIGHT! And Locklin, Gerald's, intro he says - "contemporary poetry can be about anything and it can be any format and style (as long as it has the properties of music)" That is what one finds beneath and running pure and then bubbling up in this premier Henry Denander book. And I thinking Locklin is very correct, we are gunna read a good bit more of Denander before we are done. He has the humor. He understand the ridiculousness and the ironic of each and every day. He likes to overeat. And his art is truly beautifully and yet as simple as rain is wonderful. He holds as master Bukowski and Gerald Locklin. And, it seems, that he has taken a good fist of both and tossed in his own monkey shine and some beer and well - we have a cake baked as fast you can but what such tender sand. Well, you don't want it ever to end. Where is City Lights! Where is Black Sparrow! Where or where has my little press gone? Well, here a bit of it in Bottle of Smoke! And Henry is from Sweden, which makes him I think thank the gods much immune to lots of tainted American stuff so we have a poetry without all the deadly sadness that can be USA. And in Sweden, I hear hardly any one kills themselves and that must be because the women do not shave their legs. Henry, you are Hank The Second. Hail Hank II!

Michael Basinski