Post by shayepoet on May 25, 2008 6:20:59 GMT 2
Bus Ride to a Blue Movie
Anne-Marie Levine
Bus Ride to a Blue Movie is as hilarious as it is endearing, as witty as it is often heart-breaking. Anne-Marie Levine has her finger on the pulse of the nation as it exists here, now - at this moment. Again and again, the reader chuckles with little shocks of recognition, as if to say, "Yes, that´s how it is for women today."
These are poems to savor and remember for a long time.
-- Marjorie Perloff
Sample poem:
Tunnel Vision
What, in your own words, are you here for?
(questionnaire in the 48th street MRI office).
In your own words, what are your symptoms?
When was your last period?
Transvaginal sonogram, I wrote.
Jupiter, planet of growth, is passing through
my 6th House. Exuberant growths sometimes appear
under this aspect. My menopausal energy is occurring.
The technician was brusque
and inserted an icy stainless steel pear,
transvaginally.
She moved it around while peering at the monitor.
Her concentration was complete.
How are you? she asked presently.
Do you want to say something?
As a matter of fact, I replied,
I do have something to say.
If you’re ever on a quiz show
and they ask you,
how long does it take for a vagina
to warm up an ice cold transducer,
I've been thinking about it --
the answer is five minutes.
Yeah that’s good, if they ever ask me,
she cackled.
The doctor entered.
How are you? he asked.
Jesus.
He sat down.
I won’t be long, he said,
moving the transducer around,
studying the monitor.
And then, as I moved my knees
ever so slightly
to relieve muscle tension,
Don’t kick me, he said.
(Don’t kick me?)
I was flabbergasted.
Do women kick you? I asked.
I thought you might want to get even, he said.
I began to imagine the inside of his head,
no sonogram or MRI necessary.
His fantasy, or maybe his reality,
that he was transgressing (with a transducer)
and might be, or better yet deserved to be
punished, attacked. . .
I, on the other hand, hadn't even realized
I had a weapon.
I'm not aggressive enough by half.
I don’t think like an adversary.
It’s true, I was perfectly positioned
to give him a swift kick in the face or the chest.
Nothing to it, and I hadn't even thought of it.
There’s always a lot to be learned.
And then he stopped.
You have a fibroid, he said, and a small cyst.
Your endometrium’s thin,
just the way we like it.
Garden variety stuff.
Pumpkins and squash, I thought,
growing in my uterine cavity.
“A field of Ceres, ripe for harvest.”
I felt like a fucking goddess.
It wouldn't be long till Thanksgiving.
Reviews for Bus Ride to a Blue Movie:
Bus Ride to a Blue Movie is, one might say, Frank O´Hara through
Gertrude Stein and Paul Celan into a poetic space - perfect pitch,
subtlety of emotion, repetitions and reminders - bold, brilliant,
vital, and new.
-- Lawrence Joseph
"Nudity was key," Anne-Marie Levine wisely writes. Accordingly, she
gives her all: with the authen-ticity, humor, directness, and charm
of an Edward Field, a Viva, a Grace Paley, a Sandra Bernhardt, she
performs the mordant truth.
-- Wayne Koestenbaum
Anne-Marie Levine is a poet with a deadpan dis-ease: amusia, the loss
of the ability to make music. In its place, she writes poems, wryly
amused at the outrage that passes as normal existence. The key is
comedy and the tempo is love.
-- Wendy Steiner
About the author:
Anne-Marie Levine was born in Belgium, raised in Beverly Hills, and thus
naturally lives in New York City. She’s a poet and painter who began to
write while touring as a concert pianist. A founding board member at Poets
House, she’s the author of three books of poems: Euphorbia, Bus Ride to a
Blue Movie, and Oral History: A Monologue. She has published essays on
Gertrude Stein’s politics, and on art and trauma, and has received grants
from the NYFA, Puffin and Vogelstein Foundations. Her current projects
include a Commonplace Book and solo exhibitions of her visual art around the
country. Please visit the author at her website: www.annemarielevine.com
ISBN 1-888219-22-X
LCCN 200210042
$12.00, trade paperback, 80 pages
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