The Bottle & the Book by J.L. Martindale & Daniel McGinn

(pb; 2015: limited-release poetry chapbook with CD)

Overall review:

All the works in this thirteen-poem chapbook are worth reading -- and publishing. All of them have at least one line that impressed or interested me, though a few stood out (see below). Its accompanying CD, with selective readings by the book authors, further bring these poems to aural, emotion-imbued life: worth purchasing, this. You can buy it here.


Standout poems:

1.) "Sometimes I breathe" (particularly the first/page two version of it) - Martindale and McGinn: Intense, not-quite-a-call-and-response recurrent/evolving work whose stifling desperation alternates with unhearing, different-trip realities and sensibilities. This poem is effective in its display of relational futility, deafness and blindness.


2.) "Let Us Rebel Against the Inevitable" - Martindale: Multi-sensory vivid, feel-like-you're-there work.


3.) "Every Time It Rains" - McGinn: Soothing, interesting rebuttal to the image-intensive "Rewrite My Sorrow" (written by Martindale).


4.) "I Pull You With the Weeds" - Martindale: Sharp, era-specific, sad and darkly funny versework. This, as of this writing, is my favorite poem in this chapbook.