If Ghosts Had Lips, by Jay Passer

Poetry, chapbook, 32 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

A departure from the customary pyrotechnic stylings of the poet's oeuvre, If Ghosts Had Lips is a unique collection encompassing themes of yearning, vulnerability and compassion with poignant emotional depth.

Within this slim volume, the impossible is not only permitted, but celebrated. Reincarnation is stocked in airport vending machines. Love blurs into bear traps dreaming of smooth ankles; a picnic during the Apocalypse. As he paints the world on the head of a pin, the absurdist sublimity of Passer's vision becomes charged with electrifying force.

"These surrealist poems are in the vein of Octavio Paz, using a disjointed, fragmented style, and they all seem to be a genuine expression of love for the women in his life, along with startlingly original turns of phrase about our modern, maddening world. I've been reading Passer's poems for 30 years, and this collection is his most promising, most delicate, most exuberant. The kind of poems I like reading out loud to my wife."

—Brian Pinsker, OuterDark Press

Jay Passer's poetry first appeared in Caliban magazine in 1988, alongside works by William S. Burroughs and Wanda Coleman. He is the author of 15 collections of poetry and prose and has been included in several anthologies as well as print and online publications worldwide. His first novel, Squirrel, was released in 2022. A lifelong plebeian, Passer has labored as dishwasher, barista, pizza cook, housepainter, courier, warehouseman, bookseller and mortician's apprentice. Originally a native of San Francisco, Passer currently resides in Los Angeles, California. His latest collection of poems, Son of Alcatraz, released in February, 2024 by Alien Buddha Press, is available from Amazon.