Reading his machine shop poems by Fred Voss

FRED VOSS doesnt just write about factory life, he lives it. For the past 30 years he has worked as a machinist in various factories in California, transmuting his experiences into three books of poetry published by Bloodaxe Books: GOODSTONE Continue reading Reading his machine shop poems by Fred Voss

Miraculous by Fred Voss

MIRACULOUS Goodstone Aircraft Company decided that it would benefit the company if the workers and management quit fighting each other and among themselves and instead worked together as a “team” like the Japanese, so Goodstone changed the name of Lead Continue reading Miraculous by Fred Voss

Singing In The Rain by Fred Voss

SINGING IN THE RAIN Every time it rains, the machinists begin to glance up hopefully at the roof above their heads and their machines, staring fondly at the wetspots spreading across the cork ceiling, as around the building raindrops begin Continue reading Singing In The Rain by Fred Voss

the shop

Continue reading the shop

fred voss | goodstone

I remember telling Fred about how I almost beat the shit out’ve some dude at my post office job and Fred wrote back suggesting I try to keep my cool. How Fred managed to keep his composure long enough at Goodstone to write this masterpiece I’ll never know. Such incompetence, immaturity, idleness, lifelessness, idiocity, on-th-job drunkeness & insanity as can be witnessed in a Breughal painting. This book is about the end of the Industrial Revolution as personified by the day-to-day workings of a bomber aircraft factory–it certainly documents the coming end of the United States’ long-held boast as #1 industrial nation of the world. One wonders if morale picked up at Goodstone during the “crisis” in the Persian Gulf–did this insane asylum begin to sing & dance for the rich boy’s money & oil war? This book is a knife stuck in the guts, and twisted. And somehow Fred has done it all without getting caught up in the mire of hatred & spite that most of his fellow workmates have lost themselves in. Our dear Whitman would bawl his eyes out if he read this book and found out what has happened to his beloved workers of America (though I imagine every late-20th century factory in the world is like this, except maybe Japan’s). Continue reading fred voss | goodstone