during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present
by Brandon Scott Gorrell
Review by Stephen Tully Dierks
I read Brandon Scott Gorrell’s book of poems, during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present, last night. I had previously seen other work by Brandon on the internet, but this was my first time reading the whole book. I found it to be ‘incredible,’ ‘honest,’ sad, highly ‘poetic,’ and ‘sublime.’ Not to mention very cohesive and commanding as a complete work. The book charts the emotional journey from birth—the birth of poem titles, of poems—through anxiety, sadness, loneliness, love, and despair, to acceptance. In its voice, its extremely creative, at times science-fiction-fueled vision, its relentlessness, and in the beauty of its moments, Brandon’s book captures one young man and so many young men in a way that I found, at 3 in the morning, alone in my apartment, almost ‘overwhelming.’ There is palpable intelligence and the saddest love radiating from this book. Cheers, Brandon.
Some of my favorite lines:
“i want to turn into wild grass and get eaten by a soft moose”
“if i could get all the text messages and emails that i will
receive during my life right now there would be no more
questions and i could move on”
“i would have rather flown into outer space with you
stared into a telescope with you next to me
or committed suicide together/or something”
“i said i am sending you a song and we will feel closer/you said can this song play when we meet”
“i feel like a tired robot
on my way to the store i thought about you
i thought about everyone
i feel like a dead echinacea flower”
Stephen Tully Dierks is a writer living in Chicago. He is the editor of the new limited-edition art/literature print magazine Pop Serial. He has never "really" been published before, apart from a eulogy for J.D. Salinger that was accidentally published "as-is" on the Fanzine by an associate editor while the head editor was busy becoming a father, and then retracted for very understandable editorial reasons (he is still listed as a contributor at the Fanzine). He comments on HTMLGIANT "entirely too much" and will have a long-ish piece in his own magazine entitled "Some Trembling Melody."
by Brandon Scott Gorrell
Review by Stephen Tully Dierks
I read Brandon Scott Gorrell’s book of poems, during my nervous breakdown i want to have a biographer present, last night. I had previously seen other work by Brandon on the internet, but this was my first time reading the whole book. I found it to be ‘incredible,’ ‘honest,’ sad, highly ‘poetic,’ and ‘sublime.’ Not to mention very cohesive and commanding as a complete work. The book charts the emotional journey from birth—the birth of poem titles, of poems—through anxiety, sadness, loneliness, love, and despair, to acceptance. In its voice, its extremely creative, at times science-fiction-fueled vision, its relentlessness, and in the beauty of its moments, Brandon’s book captures one young man and so many young men in a way that I found, at 3 in the morning, alone in my apartment, almost ‘overwhelming.’ There is palpable intelligence and the saddest love radiating from this book. Cheers, Brandon.Some of my favorite lines:
“i want to turn into wild grass and get eaten by a soft moose”
“if i could get all the text messages and emails that i will
receive during my life right now there would be no more
questions and i could move on”
“i would have rather flown into outer space with you
stared into a telescope with you next to me
or committed suicide together/or something”
“i said i am sending you a song and we will feel closer/you said can this song play when we meet”
“i feel like a tired robot
on my way to the store i thought about you
i thought about everyone
i feel like a dead echinacea flower”
Stephen Tully Dierks is a writer living in Chicago. He is the editor of the new limited-edition art/literature print magazine Pop Serial. He has never "really" been published before, apart from a eulogy for J.D. Salinger that was accidentally published "as-is" on the Fanzine by an associate editor while the head editor was busy becoming a father, and then retracted for very understandable editorial reasons (he is still listed as a contributor at the Fanzine). He comments on HTMLGIANT "entirely too much" and will have a long-ish piece in his own magazine entitled "Some Trembling Melody."
