The Revlon Slough: New and Selected Poems - Softcover

DiZazzo, Ray

9781940939698: The Revlon Slough: New and Selected Poems

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1940939690 ISBN 13: 9781940939698

Publisher: 2Leaf Press, 2018

THE REVLON SLOUGH, Ray DiZazzo's fourth poetry collection represents fifty years of writing that explores life's observations in harmony with both the natural world, and the often anomalous societies we inhabit. This volume is organized into seven sections that explore creatures both exotic and mundane, the fragility of damaged individuals, social and political perspectives, personal observations, science fiction and space, and perhaps most important, what it means to be a human being in this contested, often volatile world. As the collection's title elucidates, DiZazzo has created a narrative initially inspired by his discovery of a farmland slough, with its own biosystem, and natural dichotomy of beauty and ugliness. His poetry, primarily written in free verse (with an occasional haiku) projects an intimacy with nature that resists sentimentality and romanticism, giving the poetry a vivid, unadorned feel throughout the volume. THE REVLON SLOUGH is DiZazzo's most intimate and eloquent poetry collection to date.

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About the Author:

RAY DIZAZZO is an author, filmmaker, and poet. His work has appeared in numerous commercial and literary magazines, newspapers and books, including The Berkeley Poetry Review, Westways, Mother's Manual, The Easter River Review, Valley Magazine, Poetry Now and The Mid-Atlantic Review. He is the author of three poetry collections, The Water Bulls (2009), Songs for a Summer Fly (1978), and Clovin's Head (1976). DiZazzo is the recipient of the Percival Roberts Book Award, the Rhysling Award, and he is a Pushcart Prize nominee."

Review:

Ray DiZazzo's imaginative new and selected poems, THE REVLON SLOUGH, has managed to do the nearly impossible: to enter into the minds and experiences of the human and non-human world he imagines with both fresh imagery and insight. His poems about animals from a humble mouse to a black widow spider munching on an unsuspecting mate prove him to be a worthy successor to the work of Galway Kinnell. It is all a matter of perspective, the ability to get out of one s own way in this complex and alienating world, and find a common humanity, a shared wisdom. A life observed with a keen and surprising vision. --Laurel Ann Bogen, poet, writer, literary curator, author of "Psychosis in the Produce Department: New and Selected Poems 1975-2015" (2016)

Ray DiZazzo is a wordsmith whose poetry is inspired from a life-long journey of human experience. THE REVLON SLOUGH lays those experiences bare for his readers with a wide range of poems: strident, and moving, heartfelt and nostalgic, some loving and some cruel and irreverent. DiZazzo's poems exist entirely to serve the reader: they are easily read and understood and they connect and take hold with the grip of powerful imagery. --Ralph Philips, writer, scriptwriter, producer and director

In THE REVLON SLOUGH, Ray DiZazzo s poetry reflects the influence of poets like James Dickey, Margaret Atwood and Robert Peters. Incorporating his unusual perceptions and vivid craftsmanship to bring them to life in the readers mind's eye. His view of life and its many complexities is refreshing, sometimes inspiring, sometimes self-incriminating and often simply our unspoken truths, words we have often thought but never put down on paper, told through striking imagery. His is a book well worth reading. --Ned Rodgers, corporate media writer, producer, director

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