Saturday, July 18th, 2009...9:50 am

todd moore | doing shots with ben smith in air à boire

Jump to Comments

Ben Smith’s AIR A BOIRE, roughly translated as Drinking Songs, isn’t so much a book of poetry as it is a dramatic gesture, a kicked open door, a drink thrown in the face, a stiff shit of the best boiling down the throat. What got my attention right away was the cover with that sleeping cat in the foreground and the hyper realistic painting behind it of two lesbians with their mouths wide open teeth showing tongues just touching tip to tip. For me, the cover really makes this book pop and the photographer, D’Arne Julia Jamieson, Smith’s girlfriend, really knows how to work that lens.

The back cover blurb, from a review by Bill Chinaski, names Charles Bukowski as Ben Smith’s influence. “Like Bukowski, Smith delves into the existential aspects of everyday life with much humor and pathos….” Bukowski is obviously part of the influence. If you are twenty five years old, you love to drink, you love to get laid, you’ve discovered poetry and it sort of comes easy, and you think you are tough and will live forever, then Bukowski is your man. But a brief word of warning right at the beginning. Bukowski makes it all look easy. When it isn’t and never will be.
However, Ben Smith is no Bukowski wannabe. Buk’s influence might be visible in some of the poems, but Smith is his own man and is capable of probing feelings that Buk, more often than not, hadn’t attempted.

Don’t be mad at me for saying this.

Even to this day,
they were the coldest eyes I ever saw.

All pissed on
with a red wetness,
from the center of her face.

Pinned back by the fury –
of her temper,
with a skull,
attempting to escape its skin

saying something cruel,
underneath her breath.

knowing that nothing can break your heart more
than the snotty bubbles,
popping,
at the end of your girls nose.

What I love best about this poem is its sheer viscerality. The cold eyes looking pissed on, the fury where the skull is attempting to escape its skin. Who knows what caused the trouble, a lover’s quarrel, maybe a fight over money or sex or another girl. Whatever it was, it doesn’t really matter. Most minor poets would go all soft and sentimental here, but not Smith. This is the tell tale mark of a real talent working. Instead, he kicks all sentiment aside and gives us what his girl really looks like, all of it, the warts showing, including the snotty bubbles popping at the end of the his girl’s nose.

Smith also possesses the ability to get at the utter, disgusting truth about himself. It almost seems as though he strips himself bare so the reader can get a good look of both the outer and the inner man.

Clean like a fox

The bath water starts to drain
Grey swirls,
Awash,
With blue bubbles.

It tickles me as it sinks,

Past my nipples,
Past my ass.
Past my balls.

I’m drunk –
to drunk to even finish this beer.

So I pour it in the bath
And mix it up with the water.

Let it swirl all around me.
Around my ass.

The whole beer,
Every thing –
My filth, my stink.
All awash and then down a hole.

Like having sex –
with a virgin.

Who wanted her first time
to be something special.

Smith’s poetry works best when it gets down to this level because it’s right here where he reaches an essential honesty about himself. My filth, my stink. All awash and then down a hole. Right in the middle of mixing beer into his bath, Smith realizes drunkenly that all of life is awash and then down a hole, right down into oblivion.

Party time has some of the grungiest and best descriptions of the left over shit of a party I’ve read in a long time. “One guy vomits,/chunky hurls of stomach gravy.” Buk would be jealous. Peaking duck, a very darkly funny poem, begins with these lines:

We lug a dead duck around,
all day;
stewing in its juices.

For sheer grotesque black humor, this is as good as it gets. One slight sidebar note. Not all the poems in this collection are this good. Some are just filler, throwaways that could have been edited out. Some like Sleeping like a vagina promise more than they actually deliver. But, the poems that are good, are very good, well worth the unknown price of the collection.

Like all first books of poetry or near firsts, the poems could have been edited in a slightly tighter way. I’m not sure if Smith intended all the glitches and misspellings. In some peculiar and just off center way they work this time. But, they also stand out. The darkness and the humor can just as easily be achieved with some tougher editing. Still, who am I to quibble? I love these poems. They hit me in my dark place.

cavity | the cars at the front of dave’s | dont be mad at me for saying this | the holiday tan | bed head (oh, how cute) | your twenty one | get over it cassanova | her popcorn hair | untitled (1) | clean, like a fox, |reprieve, amoment from the glare | untitled (2) | growing into a beautiful flower | lifes a beach | untitled (3) | untitled (4) | party time | sleeping like a vagina | black and white | father and sons | twelve weeks of winter | untitled (5) | god might remember | without | pealing duck | cork sandels | I dont want to dissapoint you | the woman with the wagging finger | the same | no more footsteps | 29 poems in total.  Aire à boire is available via lulu.com and much more on Benjamin Smith can be found on his web page horrorsleazetrasch

some related articles are listed below:

  1. ben smith | air à boire
  2. ben smith | eight shots
  3. todd moore | the second
  4. todd moore | what’s
  5. todd moore | i was
  6. todd moore | when…
  7. todd moore | just before
  8. todd moore | i want it all and i want it now
  9. todd moore | we cut
  10. todd moore | how come
  11. todd moore | i don’t want
  12. todd moore | I don’t
  13. todd moore | this
  14. todd moore | red
  15. todd moore | what I want to know
  16. todd moore | right after…
  17. todd moore | the kid
  18. todd moore | just
  19. ben smith | stars on 45
  20. ben smith | not a crook
  21. todd moore | when dillinger
  22. todd moore | i love
  23. todd moore | cindy was
  24. todd moore | what haunted
  25. todd moore | dynamite
  26. todd moore | the mystery
  27. todd moore | 45 auto
  28. todd moore | peckinpah took…
  29. todd moore | the perfect
  30. todd moore | the bank…
  31. todd moore | lucky
  32. todd moore | fucking
  33. todd moore | burning the…
  34. todd moore | dillinger was
  35. todd moore | the question
  36. todd moore | coleman is
  37. todd moore | the bottle
  38. todd moore | they’re coming
  39. todd moore | the house
  40. todd moore | reading
  41. todd moore | hemingway
  42. todd moore | coming out of…
  43. todd moore | jerry’s old
  44. todd moore | tyler’s
  45. todd moore | burning
  46. todd moore | all the way to the fame
  47. todd moore | lisa was…
  48. todd moore | the name is dillinger
  49. todd moore | outlaw
  50. ben smith | drunk at the matinee
  51. ben smith | uncle jimmy
  52. ben smith | motion sickness
  53. ben smith | charley the brave
  54. todd moore | frito stopped…
  55. todd moore | the sign of the outlaw
  56. todd moore | dillinger stood…
  57. todd moore | parker shot
  58. todd moore | rd armstrong | reads
  59. todd moore | taking on bukowski
  60. todd moore | i write in the blood
  61. todd moore | the sentences are burning
  62. todd moore | walking around in the blood
  63. todd moore | the blood of america
  64. todd moore | going to meet the outlaw
  65. todd moore | jack wilson
  66. todd moore | the nightmare talking
  67. todd moore | devouring the shadow
  68. todd moore | the nightmare of poetry is war
  69. todd moore | working on my duende
  70. todd moore | billie licked…
  71. todd moore | shotgun blues
  72. todd moore | the fever of writing
  73. todd moore | dillinger stepped
  74. todd moore | the nightmare of reading
  75. todd moore | geeshie wiley
  76. todd moore | the blood of the poet
  77. todd moore | the old man’s waiting
  78. todd moore | nightmare frenzy
  79. todd moore | donny shot…
  80. todd moore | the treehouse reading
  81. todd moore | a conversation with raindog
  82. todd moore | i’ll play dillinger
  83. todd moore | shadow of the outlaw
  84. todd moore | black rain
  85. todd moore | everything changes when dillinger arrives
  86. todd moore | inventing the nightmare
  87. todd moore | gimme a shotgun
  88. todd moore | outlaw poetry
  89. todd moore | road testing the kid
  90. todd moore | nightmare splender
  91. todd moore | largo slapped
  92. todd moore | dillinger posed
  93. todd moore | gimme danger
  94. todd moore | the dark country
  95. todd moore | tasting the blood
  96. todd moore | reading the dark
  97. ben smith | Im a world famous poet
  98. todd moore | dillinger, the coyote, and the wolf
  99. todd moore | working the outlaw wind
  100. todd moore | blood and fate under mad stars
  101. todd moore | I work the shattered line
  102. todd moore | and the gunfight at dodge city
  103. todd moore | play it & judy christopher
  104. todd moore | leaving a little blood on the floor
  105. todd moore | stealing dillinger, becoming an outlaw
  106. todd moore | fighting death for the poem
  107. todd moore | the machine gun blood of the poem
  108. todd moore | the dark side of america
  109. todd moore | dillinger and the riddle of the wooden gun
  110. todd moore | death rides the blood
  111. todd moore | that terrible shaking in the blood
  112. mera wolf & todd moore | read
  113. todd moore | stories, ashes, and fire
  114. bone | poetry by todd moore & rd armstrong
  115. todd moore | what are the stakes in american poetry?
  116. todd moore | dancing in the fire with s.a. griffin
  117. todd moore | damage, genius, courage
  118. todd moore | the coyote trickster and the wooden gun
  119. todd moore | night blood, red hands
  120. todd moore | writing dillinger in the eye of the hurricane
  121. todd moore | billy the kid in the theater of blood
  122. todd moore | falling in love with danger
  123. todd moore | cold fire, molten ice
  124. todd moore | the great american poem
  125. todd moore | writing poetry, burning the house
  126. todd moore | washed in the blood of the outlaw moon
  127. todd moore | falling asleep in outlaw country
  128. todd moore | the outlaw poet and those killer eyes
  129. todd moore | living at the movies with dillinger and depp
  130. todd moore | patrick mckinnon and the drunken shamanic
  131. todd moore | scratching it out street level for the poem
  132. todd moore & Lawrence welsh | poetry reading
  133. todd moore | dillinger, outlaws, writing, and murder
  134. todd moore | hustling for drinks, praying for lines
  135. todd moore | the long way home and the blood on the floor
  136. todd moore | dave roskos, the editor’s editor
  137. todd moore | all the dark talking to the angel of death
  138. todd moore | coyote death mask outlaw
  139. todd moore | the fevers and sweats of the nightmare poem
  140. todd moore | reading the movies, watching the poems
  141. todd moore | love, longing, dillinger, disaster
  142. todd moore | chasing jack micheline’s shadow
  143. todd moore | dreaming the dream, paying the price
  144. todd moore | outlaw bonfires and dillinger’s blood
  145. todd moore | the murder and the ecstasy of the everlasting dream
  146. todd moore | love & death & teeth in the blood
  147. todd moore | american metaphors, visions, and nightmares
  148. todd moore | the exalted scar and the annointed cure
  149. todd moore | the last good reading from the outlaw dark
  150. Todd Moore (1937 – 2010) | A Memorial Reading | Vox Audio
  151. todd moore | machine guns, movies, culture, dreams
  152. todd moore | the dillinger convergence: three ways of dreaming the outlaw
  153. todd moore | gary goude and that crushed rotting dawg
  154. todd moore | into the open madness: the poetry of kell robertson
  155. todd moore | blind whiskey and the straight razor blues
  156. todd moore | the rat’s blood had glued my hand shut
  157. todd moore | machine guns, guernica, and the outlaw poem
  158. todd moore | pure blood primal: the poetry of kell robertson
  159. todd moore | mythic blood, psychic movies, outlaw dreams
  160. todd moore | the volcanic death song of baby face nelson
  161. todd moore | scorched trinity: dillinger, billie, and machine gun love
  162. todd moore | danger beyond danger, where the outlaw lives
  163. todd moore | blood calls to blood
  164. todd moore
  165. ben smith | with big red boobs & after sex
  166. ben smith | polaroid
  167. ben smith | the spyder and the fly
  168. ben smith | my first book
  169. todd moore | burning
  170. jared smith | I learned of…
  171. ben smith | shaving my balls
  172. wolfgang carstens | for todd moore
  173. todd moore & john macker
  174. rd armstrong | todd moore and lummox press
  175. benjamin smith | Cộng hoà Xã hội Chủ nghĩa Việt Nam
  176. daryl rogers | near full moon | …for todd moore
  177. todd moore | dillinger, death, and the high mountain air
  178. todd moore | the last good movie I made was a poem
  179. todd moore | dying with dillinger in the corpse is dreaming
  180. todd moore & dennis gulling | shotgun weather
  181. todd moore | las montanas de santa fe: visions of the spirit country
  182. todd moore | outlaw poetry, psychic damage, the survival of wounds
  183. todd moore | the sea, the poem, and the house of all possible myths: the poetry of milner place
  184. bill nevin | todd moore, cinematic poet on the outlaw’s trail
  185. todd moore | the central avenue rundown jazz radio show
  186. john dorsey & s.a. griffin | the dead zone trilogy by todd moore
  187. todd moore | how to survive the coming night: the poetry of john yamrus
  188. todd moore | the gold cane, van gogh’s ear, and the gun in the casket: wandering down this crooked road
  189. todd moore | saturday night desperate, don winter, and the black mitten of poetry
  190. todd moore | stealing the fire, stealing the shadow

Leave a Reply