Paper Guillotines
poems by Anthony Frame
(cover © Lisa Albinger)Twenty pages of political poetry by Anthony Frame, plus an introduction in verse by Jim Daniels. Includes poems previously published in Mobius: The Journal of Social Change, Perigee, Diverse Voices Quarterly and other literary journals. Buy it now for $7.00 (including shipping) from Imaginary Friend Press.
Publisher's description: "20 pages of fantastic poetry that takes no prisoners from an American society that wages war and breeds corruption and greed, yet simultaneously tells, with both rage and tenderness, how it is for the rest of us."
Reviews:
"Frame’s mature and searching voice conjures the righteous invective of early Auden and the terse muscularity of middle-era James Wright." -- Adam Tavel, reviewed in Emprise Review.
"... in his chapbook, Paper Guillotines, (available from *Imaginary Friend Press), Anthony Frame is not afraid. He is not afraid to take on racism, homophobia, war, injustice, imperialism. The -isms and the things that people try to ignore because they can seem so overwhelming. Frame is not afraid of being overwhelmed or of showing how much he cares. & while not afraid to care, he achieves that very difficult thing of making the political poetic." -- Ryder Collins, reviewed in the Cervena Barva Press December, 2010 newsletter.
"[N]o amount of labels can define Frame's view of the world. That's what Paper Guillotines is for, and it does the job admirably. So these poems have messages, but they're not message-poems. They stand up for themselves." -- Christopher Frost, reviewed in Neon Literary Magazine.
Sample poems from Paper Guillotines:
"Letter to a Former Student Recently Deployed to Iraq, Summer 2007" (scroll to second poem)
Because I Wanted to Live in a Blue State
November 2004, Ohio
I watched Frontline and read Neruda.
Impotent, I taught my students to stop
the war with touch screens. All my meals contained
Heinz Ketchup. I waited in sleet for hours
with a lesbian who didn't understand
Ohio will never let her wear her love.
America. After a last-ditch drive
to a Kerry rally, I was turned away,
parked across the street and listened as clouds
rolled in. I tried to be invisible,
a superhero for the post-nuclear
generation. I saw my skin cells
as atoms disolving with mercy.
My conscience bitten by wind and sleet,
I voted my blue consciousness.
