Born in the US, but now based in the north-east, J. Archer Avary is a poet and his latest collection is spry and stuffed with little vignettes, from the quotidian (‘A Game of Scrabble Down at the Hotspur’) to the pithily observational (“being mean is what real men do best / real men are terrified to be anything else” – from ‘Real Men Are Terrible’). Being a writer, and the art of writing, is a theme (‘Living That Literary Life’, ‘This Poem (Is So Bad It’s Actually Kind-Of Good)’, ‘To Finish A Novel in 180 Days Or Die Trying’) and there are also walk-on parts for Picasso, Planet of the Apes, and some blue-eyed blondes. I did take issue with ‘Yobs Will Be Yobs’, which sticks the boot into ‘yobs with no jobs / yobs on the dole / yobs on the metro with nowhere to go’. It finishes: ‘today’s vapist is tomorrow’s rapist’ – seems a bit harsh on us vapers. DP

Published by Payoff Pre$$