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“look/bird’s eye poem see-all high!” says the poem “Night Before Morning,” which begins with a recitation of odd, quirky musical instruments – “trump, bandora, kithara” – that illustrates Meltzer’s ties to Beat poetry, the San Francisco Renaissance, and, especially, jazz. Along with his songwriter wife, Tina, and poet Clark Coolidge, Meltzer does performance pieces that incorporate music, poetry, and song. He also works as an essayist, anthologist, jazz reviewer, college teacher, and erotic novelist. No one would dare call these poems polished, but they have a high-energy, Ginsberg-like quality; deft, idiosyncratic humor (e.g., “a lice-fevered bear”), and moments of pure encapsulated description that take the breath away: “a brace of crow/discuss attack in the white exploding cherry tree.” Many poems reflect an Eastern influence, with some short ones showing their cousinhood to haiku: “last night’s seed/a trail of light down your thighs.”
—Library Journal