FLOAT
by David Abel
poetry, perfect-bound, 148 pages
$17
ISBN 978-0-925904-29-4
pub date May 31 2012

This stunning, wry collection is a tonic, triggering memory and the knowledge that we all enter poems in medias res—from anywhere. Rhythmic fragments or grand paragraphs, Float becomes its own mixing board. At times you hear it almost disappear, then reappear as “total sound.” In a long poem titled “Times of Day,” one vertical, vital string, the words “Zoo/ Cage/ Jazz” track to John Cage because of interventions earlier in the book, a startling elegy within and without. Cooked or raw, from the title to the end notes, possibilities abound. Alluring, captivating, it’s a must-read!
— Norma Cole

Black Valentine
by David Abel
poetry
chapbook
36 pages
$10
ISBN 0-925904-57-0

handsewn binding

Reviews

from Standard Schaefer in A Tonalist Notes —

Hey folks, I went to hear David Abel read at Blue Danube the other night, saw Andrew there. I think David is maybe an A Tonalist, too. Particularly, he writes as if "Every step's on someone buried" and knowledge of this culminates in "strata of disappearance" and seems interested in what I think of as notions of place as it corresponds to the music of a poem, or a sort of "world feeling," history or memory as a place where sort of transhuman psychology takes place.

Sunset makes the windows
music lights the sequence
so there is a code

and a precipice--
the basin is inviting
as on a holiday

history seems poetic
grave
but sustaining--

a soapy taste on the tongue
independent of the music
or the prospect

Anyway, I didn't know David's work until then, but I'm becoming a fan of his BLACK VALENTINE. One thing that appeals to me is that it doesn't seem like a book written for a particular audience (not that such a thing is bad), but he doesn't seem to lament being trapped in particular language games or anything, but is more interested in moments when "objects have their/ edges again."