Thom Gunn, Barbara Guest, Robert Creeley, Philip Lamantia, all ghosts
now, are invoked without sentiment and with plenty of wry humor. --Kevin
Killian, Attention Span
A power ballad was a hair metal band's voyage into the softer side of
rock, compromising to the integrity of the genre, but genuine and
trailblazing. So too is Caples's Power Ballads. His poems and prose
pieces are bizarre and hilarious, in which Dylan and Bowie sit alongside
the French surrealists, with the occasional turn into heartfelt
romanticism.
From Garrett Caples Rides Again:
my concealed carry personality
has deformed my trouser content
to the extent my permit permits
i'm shooting off often in public
i'm a blow dart in a wind tunnel
aimed in the wrong direction
a boycotted russian vodka distiller
an assdial away from arrest
Garrett Caples is the author of the essay collection Retrievals,
two books of poetry, The Garrett Caples Reader, Complications, and the
pamphlet Quintessence of the Minor. He is the co-editor of The
Collected Poems of Philip Lamantia, Particulars of Place by Richard O.
Moore, and Incidents of Travel in Poetry: New and Selected Poems by
Frank Lima. He is an editor at City Lights Books and curates the
Spotlight Poetry Series there. He was also a contributing writer to the
San Francisco Bay Guardian. He has written articles and blogged for
the Poetry Foundation and occasionally blogs for blogcitylights.com. He
has a PhD in English from the University of California, Berkeley and
lives in San Francisco.
