More Kind Words for CONNOR & SEAL
More kinds words for CONNOR & SEAL, these from H.L. Hix: "Its architecture is dynamic, and then poem by poem it is elegant and vivid. I especially love "Hi Harlem" and "I Don't Believe in the Long Arc of Justice" and "Strongman from Qinshi Huangdi's Tomb" in the first section, and then the way "form" and "content" (that artificial distinction!) work together in the second section to draw me in and draw me forward is magical."—H.L. Hix
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Praise
“What are the routes, routines, and disruptions for eros in an all too recognizable dystopia? I feel burnt and humbled by entering the near future hotly projected in this book. Jee Leong Koh’s Audenesque gift for tilting and tipping rhyme and meter creates a craquelure of lines upon these poems’ fine and strong shapes. The fierce sun of his intelligence intervenes to vivify neighbourhood and lovers’ voices in our exposed, technologically-reckoned yet still-reckless world.”
—Vahni Capildeo FRSL
“Connor & Seal is an oddly erotic book that imagines a dim future in which violence is the expectation. And yet, it is still a future where two men—despite every obstacle—still can fall in love. Jee Leong Koh finds new and fruitful use for the quatrain in this brilliant and brilliantly grounded volume."
—Jericho Brown
“Jee Leong Koh’s poems dance like drops of oil in a hot skillet. Formally playful yet rooted in the high moral stakes of race and sex, Connor & Seal is a timely reminder that history is made with bodies as much as it’s made on them.”
—Dale Peck
"It's a remarkably interesting book and will keep me occupied thinking about it for some time. I was particularly taken by Seal's quatrains, many of which I found disturbing and memorable and I'm interested also by the relationship you set up between the poems themselves and the characters' time lines. I kept going back and forth between individual poems and the chronology of events and enjoying the way you studiously avoid anything becoming too narratively obvious. The sequence is full of this tarnished world and what seems to be waiting for us up ahead. How to escape narrative while still maintaining the feel of story: it's something that's really hard to achieve but I think you might just have brought it off here. I would love to hear you read Seal's sequence aloud. Anyway, it's such a different performance from Steep Tea and I really admire the way you are pushing the boundaries here."
—David Kinloch
"I so admired the conjunction of the varying forms with the very physical, visceral, and erotic themes – like the Orphic and Dionysiac married together in perfect balance, and in the Seal sequence, I loved the hanging paragraphs from the first ‘sun’ line, with all that takes place on earth hanging beneath. Such an achieved collection, on such powerful subjects."
—Mimi Khalvati
"A very interesting next step in JLK's development as a poet whose emotional sensitivity is enhanced by his technical and tonal restraint."
—Gregory Woods
Free shipping anywhere if you buy from my indie publishers!
Praise
“What are the routes, routines, and disruptions for eros in an all too recognizable dystopia? I feel burnt and humbled by entering the near future hotly projected in this book. Jee Leong Koh’s Audenesque gift for tilting and tipping rhyme and meter creates a craquelure of lines upon these poems’ fine and strong shapes. The fierce sun of his intelligence intervenes to vivify neighbourhood and lovers’ voices in our exposed, technologically-reckoned yet still-reckless world.”
—Vahni Capildeo FRSL
“Connor & Seal is an oddly erotic book that imagines a dim future in which violence is the expectation. And yet, it is still a future where two men—despite every obstacle—still can fall in love. Jee Leong Koh finds new and fruitful use for the quatrain in this brilliant and brilliantly grounded volume."
—Jericho Brown
“Jee Leong Koh’s poems dance like drops of oil in a hot skillet. Formally playful yet rooted in the high moral stakes of race and sex, Connor & Seal is a timely reminder that history is made with bodies as much as it’s made on them.”
—Dale Peck
"It's a remarkably interesting book and will keep me occupied thinking about it for some time. I was particularly taken by Seal's quatrains, many of which I found disturbing and memorable and I'm interested also by the relationship you set up between the poems themselves and the characters' time lines. I kept going back and forth between individual poems and the chronology of events and enjoying the way you studiously avoid anything becoming too narratively obvious. The sequence is full of this tarnished world and what seems to be waiting for us up ahead. How to escape narrative while still maintaining the feel of story: it's something that's really hard to achieve but I think you might just have brought it off here. I would love to hear you read Seal's sequence aloud. Anyway, it's such a different performance from Steep Tea and I really admire the way you are pushing the boundaries here."
—David Kinloch
"I so admired the conjunction of the varying forms with the very physical, visceral, and erotic themes – like the Orphic and Dionysiac married together in perfect balance, and in the Seal sequence, I loved the hanging paragraphs from the first ‘sun’ line, with all that takes place on earth hanging beneath. Such an achieved collection, on such powerful subjects."
—Mimi Khalvati
"A very interesting next step in JLK's development as a poet whose emotional sensitivity is enhanced by his technical and tonal restraint."
—Gregory Woods
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