REVIEW of “Border Crossings” by Lynne Bronstein
By Carol
Fondiller
I must cop. I know Lynne
Bronstein. I’ve known her as a Beachhead collectivist, as a
conversationalist, as an outrageously funny and resonant performance
artist.
I do not generally review
acquaintances’ artistic and literary efforts. First of all, who the hell
am I, and second, if one knows the person one is reviewing, people will assume
that one’s review is based on their feelings for that
person.
Unfortunately, I ain’t
built that way. As you can tell, I like and respect Lynne very much. So this is
difficult for me to write without being accused of
bias.
I LOVED her recent self-published
book of poetry, “Border
Crossings.”
Poets are as
courageous as any fire fighter, going into certain fire, not knowing if they
will come out alive, but certainly
changed.
The authentic poets that is.
Bronstein bares her soul from red hot rage polemic in, “Thank you
Dubya”…And I saw flags everywhere and couldn’t breathe, for/He
took away the barriers to industry/And the air became cloudy to hot, hot erotica
as in “Cloud Zero”…And for days I didn’t need sleep or
food./I imagined I lived on thoughts of him. to cool heretic as in “10
Steps,” a clever parody of 12-step
programs.
So many moods, incarnations
compressed in words. So much subtlety and nuance. It’s
wonderful.
Her poems sweet and mean as in her
poem……Oh hell, I could go on quoting her, and by quoting her,
wishing that her words became mine. She brings out the larceny in me. Wish
I’d written that.
Lynne
Bronstein’s book “Border Crossings” is available at Beyond
Baroque and Dutton’s Brentwood Bookstore.
Posted: Wed - September 1, 2004 at 03:22 PM