Is This Thing On?: Another Seth Abramson Review

Wednesday night (March 11), the Mill was packed with a reasonable amount of people—enough to feel a good vibe without the chaos of overcrowding. Talk Art Cabaret promised readings from the Writer's Workshop, and the air of the night felt similar to that of a performance of a promising experimental art rock band just beginning to catch their stride. As such, those attending leaned towards the creatively inclined instead of the older folk one might see at other poetry readings.

Three writers performed last night, but this critic only stayed for two as I had a Midterm to attend to the next morning. However, I truly wished I could have had time for the last reading after thoroughly enjoying the first two. This piece will focus on the poetry of Seth Abramson, but I must mention the work of the previous writer Teal Minton as the two artists' performances blended together like your favorite mixtape. Minton's sci-fi flirting story whose title I can't quite remember (Elvis Presley...) focused on the point of view of a character named Bob and his interactions with his friend Manny over the course of several non-linear encounters in a dystopic Maine where the main characters deal with the complications of their life-threatening cancer. Minton read the story in a cynical weary voice which amplified the resonance of the piece. Appropriately, the audience responded with gracious applause. Clearly most people in attendance had come to enjoy new, brave voices unafraid to experiment in form.

Minton and Abramson seemed to know each other somewhat well, as Abramson mentioned upon taking the stage that Minton requested him to perform some comedic freestyling before his poems, but he resisted. Abramson read a dozen enthralling poems continuing Minton's more cynical tone with vivid examinations on life with the eye of a scientist. I can't claim any real authority on poetry, as it takes me multiple readings and considerable assistance to put a poem in its deserved perspective. However, the fulfilling experience of Abramson's poems on a mind completely out of touch with the field of poetry speaks to how successful Abramson's work was. Abramson's words, read in a similar world-weary voice to Minton, kept an enticing beat pulling the listener along to his fantastic visions whether it be a nineteen armed creature (19 arms), or a drugged out hallucination in my personal favorite, "A Man and Two Boys, or a Horseman." Wary of my small, small short term memory, I resisted taking down his words on my notebook because from the first poem I realized I wanted to allow myself to enjoy this on the same level as a favorite band.

"Three Cuts" seemed to be the crowd favorite of the night, detailing a scene of three virgin attorneys in a barbershop. Abramson prefaced the poem by explaining it did not contain autobiographical information, as it may be mistaken because of Abramson's own profession in law.

One other notable poem he read was titled "Boxer Flyweight In Drag." Poets seem to get a little crazy discussing professions like boxing which involve a degree of self-mutilation, and yet Abramson made the topic his own by, what I may or may not have perceived correctly, to be a seemingly mundane experience of a boxer mulling over his thoughts while walking through an alley.

The night's readings could have offered a more ideal experience without the spontaneous bursts of what seemed to be the scores of "Raider's of the Lost Arks" and/or "Star Wars." However, they did add somewhat of a flair to the readings as the MC noted.

Today I did a bit of internet sleuthing and discovered Abramson to be, by at least my accounts, an established poet, having his work published in a score of important sounding literary journals. He hosts a blog which immediately won brownie points from me for giving me a rush of nostalgia by discussing the narrative merits of a certain classic Playstation game in the context of his large mult-part examination of "2666", a book he's currently reading. He also has a collection of poems coming out this Spring from Ghost Road Press titled Suburban Ecstasies. If the book contains a few of the poems he read last night then I'm sure it will be a worthy purchase. Finally, I highly recommend any readers of this post to catch a Seth Abramson reading if you spot one nearby, regardless of your poetic affiliations.

-Abhijit Pradhan