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Atari Ecologues
by Alan DeNiro
26 pp.
$4.00
Ships in an Average of 5.0 Mailing Days
Poetry:
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
j
k
l
m
n
o
p
q
r (read excerpt)
s
t
u
v
w
x
y
z
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ProjectPulp.com Review
There are many reasons to read poetry, not the least of which is a simple love of words.
Poetry -- good poetry -- is like a theme park of word slides and sentence coasters, taking
you up, down, and around, until perhaps you don't know exactly where you are and have to
stop a moment to gain your bearings.
This is the case with Alan DeNiro's chapbook atari
ecologues. Twenty-six poems, titled simply A through Z, present us with the playful
imagery of 80s arcade and video games. Remember Pong and Pacman? Remember hours
spent on quarters and pinball in the video-lit cavern of a mall arcade? Perhaps you don't …
perhaps you were never there, and in that case, you may not fully appreciate this chapbook.
However, under the arcade imagery, there is
something more. There is a narrator (or narrators) growing up, losing innocence, discovering
a world outside video games and struggling with the vagaries of reality.
In "J", for example, the narrator feels
"…we're all losers…waiting for money to come back, to hear the words you were not
cheated…even though we know we won't. Death smells like shoe polish, never one's
favorite star."
And in "P", adulthood is greeted with imagery of
wounds and bondage: "My neck is apprehended and/held in place by a cinctured scarf."
The 26 pieces in atari ecologues are peppered
with theme and meaning, but you have to puzzle them out. The writing is challenging,
perhaps somewhat elusive, and full of interesting wordplay. This is not a chapbook for a
casual reader, but offers plentiful bounty for those willing to delve into DeNiro's game.
A definite must buy for anyone with a fond
remembrance for 80s video games, atari ecologues also has a distinctly human side
to which any reader who has been through puberty will relate.
::Sarah Guidry::
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