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The Best of Impetus: The First Ten Years
. Ed. Cheryl A. Townsend. Implosion Press, 4975Commanche Trail, Stow, OH 44224. 1996; 175 pp.; $10. Order direct from publisher. by Tim W. BrownThis anthology contains work from the first decade of 
 Impetus
, a poetry zine published by Akron- based poet and bookstore proprietor Cheryl A. Townsend. It is an extremely valuable book, because it documents an important movement in contemporary poetry which runs counter to the poetry mainstream seated primarily in universities. In “Naked Poetry in the 1990’s,” a prose poemmanifesto that captures the spirit of this movement, Ron Androla says, “i am not graced by acollege salary, as so many poets in america today.... who cares. we know college poetry isgenerally ridiculous.” (p. 11)Known as the “underground poetry press,” this movement relies mainly on the immediate andvisceral rather than the polished and cerebral. Many of this movement’s mainstays are representedin the anthology. Some contributors have become well-known, such as Charles Bukowski,Sherman Alexie, and Lyn Lifshin. Others are familiar only to members of the underground poetryscene. Several poets are lit mag editors in their own right, like Dan Sicoli (
Slipstream
) andMichael Hathaway (
Chiron Review
). For his role in liberating verse from the academy, the beer-swilling, bar-fighting Bukowski is clearly the model for many poets in the book. The ubiquitousLifshin is godmother to the rest.Although a few of the book’s poets are employed by universities, most are engaged in “real-world” employment. (The editor, for example, was employed as a department store security guardfor a number of years.) As a result, the poetry itself possesses a grass-roots sensibility thatacademic poetry usually lacks. The multifarious subject matter ranges from sex to violence andfrom social concern to fierce individualism. “Slow Dancing” by Hal Sirowitz offers a sweetlyerotic, self-deprecating look at romance:My glasses sliding off my nose, fallinginto her hair. My feetstepping on her toes.I was making a mess of it, but what was important wasI kept pressing my bodyinto hers & she kept pressing back.(p. 144)At the opposite end of the love/hate spectrum is a stinging poem about divorce and child custody by Star Bowers:gift bringer w/stringsI puke in yr hungry mouthfather of nothingsans a 2-wk-a-yr visiting son (“To Disneyland Dad from Everyday Mother,” pp. 23-24)Several poems concern the pain wrought by family dysfunction. In “My Father is a Lesbian,” PatMcKinnon shares these terse words about his male forbears:
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