MUMMERIES, by Michael Gessner

Poetry, chapbook, 28 pages, from Bottlecap Features.

These poems represent a genre of poetry often overlooked, the satire, and what would be considered facetiae. The author could easily blame this satiric tendency on his Mother’s Irish side as he she too had such an attraction. There is something that is impish and giddy that seems to fascinate him. (Any serious literary person with serious literary ambitions would never admit this, after all, just look at what happened to Thomas Hood who, after two books of comic verse, published a collection of serious poems only to have to buy up the edition to save it from being used as wrapping paper.)

Here, there are poems on literary figures, irreverent stances, a note on Billy Collins, a meditation, a trip to the University of Cambridge Library and the discovery of a human bollard, a letter to Sylvia Plath, another in the voice of Holly Stevens, and many other indignant and humorous entries.

Michael Gessner has authored 16 books of poetry and prose. In addition to being nominated a finalist in NAR’s Hearst Prize, the Pablo Neruda Award, he is a voting member of the NBCC. His prose and poetry have been included in The American Journal of Poetry, American Letters & Commentary, American Literary Review, Calliope, Citta Immaginaria (Rome), The French Literary Review, Journal of the American Medical Association, The Kenyon Review, Nimrod, North American Review, Oxford Review (UK), Pacific Review, Patterson Literary Review, Poem, Poetry Quarterly, Rue des Beaux-Arts (Paris), Sycamore Review, Verse Daily, The Yale Journal of Humanities and others. For more information: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/michael-gessner or https://www.michaelgessner.com/