Chris Mason (Gandalf of Baltimore) - Figments (new book)

A few weeks ago, I received a new Chris Mason book in the mail. Figments. I'm thinking like, Figments of imagination, but there's obviously more to the title than that. This book is composed of dream fragments that can be read in thousands of different ways. Maybe hundreds... it's hard to tell... let's say millions of thousands. I'm not going to do that math.

Each poem is in the mind or style of another writer Chris knows. It's a conceptually playful collection and Chris is good at that -- making spells that storm your heart and make your brain fire a little leaner. Words meander and swoop across the page; they loop around and flirt with each other; they're some confrontational cozy occurrences in there. It's all serious and jokey and sexual and fun. These are all the things I try to be, but Chris does it in a mystical, language based way that taps into Jackson Maclow and Louis Zukofsky and sometimes the devil.

Ask Chris for a copy of Figments and crawl into the head-caves of these local writers.

Dreams include: Justin Sirois, Michael Ball, Les Wade, Lauren Bender, Rupert Wondolowski, John Mason, Chris Toll, Marshall Reese, David Beaudouin, Doug Lang, M. Magnus, and Terence Winch.