SECTION SIXTEEN 

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COLUMN NINETY-TWO, JUNE 1, 2003
(Copyright © 2003 The Blacklisted Journalist)

BOOK REVIEWS


(Copyright 2002 Joyce Metzger)

SEX TOY
by B.L. Kennedy, 12 Gauge Press, 2002 (p/b 16pp)
Original Limited Edition, Cover and Introduction by B.L. Kennedy

“The colors are inseparable from poetry, the poetry inseparable from art.” –Art Beck

“Kennedy’s seductive and primitive paintings are measured against the mind’s gallery, haunting its walls with color memory that reshape thought and order.”  --Ann Menebroker  (Artists Contemporary Gallery 1990-2000)

“B.L. Kennedy’s book Sex Toy follows the tradition of Kenneth Patchen’s incredible picture poems.  It is but another notch on the gun of this outlaw poet.” –D.R. Wagner, Author of Cruising At The Limit.

B.L. Kennedy’s bio states:  “B.L. Kennedy is a drunk, poet, artist, performer, biographer, scholar & man about town.  A student of Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, Kathy Acker & Ed Sanders. He graduated with a M.F.A. in Writing & Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics.  He also holds a Masters Degree in Performance Poetry, (the only one of its kind, issued by an accredited college) from California State University, Sacramento.  He is the author of fourteen books of poetry.  He is currently the official authorized biographer of the last Cleveland poet d.a. levy.  Kennedy lives in Sacramento where he pisses off a lot of people because he enjoys it!”

We now have the man.  We also have the poet.  And now, we have bold color, which blazes then splashes into an almost purgatorial pattern of exemplar configuration and swirls.  This is artistic pay dirt for patrons, patron saints and weary patrolman.  I am not an official art connoisseur, although I have dappled and do love to mix art and comics with poetry.  I do not profess to know the full details, techniques, or principles of art, therefore, forbid it to me to act as a competent critical judge.  I do know what appeals to the senses; to eyes, to the touch, and B.L. Kennedy also knows.  He celebrates, sees, senses, observes, and perhaps even obsesses, through fingertip touch to brush, brush to paint, as brush licks, then kisses or punches at the empty canvas.

B.L. Kennedy wrote me on 26 November 2002, that he had completed 50 poem (pastel oil) paintings in 36 hours.  Incredible!

I love his sincerity, untiring exuberance, exultation, spiff and spirit!  Poems painted for a blending with the colors should not be dissected; they are a balance, and perhaps, a minor artistic form of explanation.  But with all artistic endeavor, the viewer may discover a hidden labyrinth, he or she can fall into, a rabbit hole down which to slide, another hidden warren of truth unconsciously delivered by mind, hand and brush of one whose intention could be widely diverse from that of the viewer.

Of such material art is created.  Such is poetry also.  Or a novel.  The interpretation will come from inspiration, experience and one’s personal environment.  d.a. levy and Kenneth Patchen integrated sketches and poetry, artwork and verse, and so does B.L. Kennedy.  I will not try to elucidate upon the “meaning” behind these mini-art masterpieces.  My thoughts suspect that each day, one might look at, or study, each, and on that day, new thought-ideas will permeate your understanding.  These are shape-shifter images.  As your mood vibrates variation, so also will these painted images change.

My advice is; look and enjoy.  This was my introduction to the artistic hand and mind of B.L. Kennedy.  I look forward to seeing additional work from this gifted hand.

The author states:  “The picture poems in Sex Toy emerge from a long tradition that dates back to ancient China.  These poems are an extension of my “everyday” poetic outpour. Like Patchen, I am limited in material, so I create with whatever is at hand.”  

            “Flower without a name is a poem of beauty.”
             “You have to know what you see in reel time.
              We are all prisoners of love.”
             “Awake to the poetry of the last moment of my life”
             “In the year of the horse
             We are psychically well hung singing
              For the ghost ponies.”

These are a few of the verses on the paintings.  Color reproduction glows through a bright patina. This book SEX TOY is a joy to behold.  My thanks for #78 from a limited 100 copies!  Order! Don’t be intimidated by the title.  Shock value also sells.  My salute to 12 Gauge Press for publishing this unique volume of colorful picture poetry.  ## 

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