It’s Animal but Merciful
Edited by Jane Ormerod, Thomas Fucaloro, and George Wallace
great weather for MEDIA
ISBN: 9780985731700

Reviewer: Emilia Fuentes Grant


          great weather for MEDIA is a press committed to promoting and growing the artistic community in their native New York City. Out of that effort comes their first poetry anthology, It’s Animal but Merciful.

          The anthology features poets from several nations and various cultural backgrounds. Some have been well established in the industry while others are in print for the first time. In addition to publishing, great weather maintains blogs and social media, and sponsors readings, music shows, and gatherings, all for the purpose of displaying and promoting the work of talented artists, regardless of their connections or credentials in the art community.  

          great weather for MEDIA describes the anthology as part of an ongoing effort to unite artists of all kinds in NYC, celebrating art and striving to “make it new” in their community. With this anthology, great weather sends that message out beyond the NYC metro area. With It’s Animal but Merciful, they “make it new” for all of us.

          The subjects of these pieces vary greatly, but the works all share a common desire to knock their readers flat. This is bold, brash poetry, not a bit timid and completely uninterested in staying within the traditional lines.

          A good example comes from writer, performer, artist, and poet Christian Georgescu. His poem “imMobile” employs the language of a postmodern generation—the text and instant message jargon that have become a kind of shorthand in our everyday speech. With “imMobile” Georgescu foretells the tragedy of a generation so lost in high definition and online presence that it loses the ability to feel in real life.

We’ll lay on our Be Right Backs! Stare at the sky pe, get silly ass
drunk, ask if I should call her or poke her. We’ll go back to MySpace,
I’ll set the Ambien(CE) just right, light the candles that Flickrd out a long time ago.

          For readers less familiar with current media and web trends, some of the lines may read like hieroglyphics. For those up to speed, the language is clever and adept, cutting deep with social criticism. The structure is primarily that of a prose poem with little regard for traditional form. Georgescu plays with the prose just as internet users play with language on the web, but his inclusion of instant message abbreviations and internet buzzwords is, in the end, much more than clever. The message here is painfully relevant. 

....Daddy’s not printer friendly. He is an add-on feature – a second hand notion, an after thought, not worthy of a smoke, a poke in the right direction, a wish, a nudge, a smudged expression. My Face is not a Book, it is a look that can’t be read, an expression that says nothing               is wrong, with MySpaced Look….

          Written for a certain generation, in language only they can completely understand, this poem is an intensely critical, exceptionally crafted inside joke. And it is humor at its best: first disarming the reader with charm and wit, then hitting hard with truth that alters perception.

          The poems in this anthology practically cry out from the pages. Some of the most experimental pieces litter the white space with seemingly random letters and words, delving into the realm of form and language exercises. These pieces, like modern paintings, have the ability to be amusing and a little absurd for the novice, but deeply moving—even liberating—for those more initiated. The more traditional poems similarly command the page with their subject matter and imagery. Together the traditional and nontraditional poems yield a book that is entertaining, emotive, and, at times, gritty.

          Consider these stanzas from “Never Take Peyote and Go to Work,” by poet and wanderer Catfish McDaris.

It shared the smoke with
a seagull, I gave the bird
a stick of gum & it flew away

The spider got jealous & bit
me, I passed out and woke up
in Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

          A somewhat psychedelic poem that at first glance looks remarkably traditional amid so many experimental pieces, “Never Take Peyote” is a great example of a poem that “makes it new.” Not to say that drug-related poetry is uncharted territory, but this particular angle (I believe) is singular, and the free verse form lends a unique charm to the piece. The entire poem is a non sequitur, as if the speaker were relating his peyote story while wearing a well-tailored suit.

          Not all the poetry is concerned with shape and form. Much of it is driven by raw emotion and pure observation. All of it is incredibly current. Consider this piece from poet and fiction writer Lynette Reini-Grandell:

Radio girls want to fall asleep with someone singing in their ears;
Radio girls all developed a huge crush on David Bowie and some never got over it.
Radio girls are nearly inconsolable.

          Grandell describes a generation of young girls who find solace in their ear buds, like the generation before them who found it in Walkman’s, and the ones before that with portable record players. Bittersweet and tender, “Radio Girls” shows the softer side of this anthology, but still hits home with an honest portrayal of fragile beings who fill emptiness with a constant mix and rotation of sound, resembling all of us in some way.

          There are quite possibly too many good poems in this anthology, which can be overwhelming and deserves multiple reads. An ambitious work, and a risky one, It’s Animal but Merciful finds common ground for a diverse group of poets in excellent craft and fearless voices.

          Editors Jane Ormerod, Thomas Fucaloro, and George Wallace of great weather for MEDIA assembled these poems with the lofty goal of making the poetry anthology new. It’s Animal but Merciful is a book of experimental poetry that is itself an experiment.

          This is poetry for poets and good reading for anyone who enjoys encountering variety and expansion in verse and prose. I consider this experiment a success. Read this book. Stick with it to the end. You will not be disappointed. You will be dazzled.