written in the stubble of 2 torn out pages
advanced praise : "written in the stubble of 2 torn out pages reminds us that the mind wrangles thoughts, not just to survive but to be still alive. The fragment-flashes of beauty and wisdom in these poems thrive in the everyday and eternal at the same time, moving across the page and mind's eye in the fleeting/timeless wisdom that only stevenallenmay can conjure."
Daniel Nester, author of Harsh Realm: My 1990s
Plastic Sunrise
Plastic Sunrise is the first full collection by stevenallenmay. It addresses issues of abandonment and suicide ("Nev Hwy 160 Stop", "Found Dead in Hotel") as well as trying to make sense of a mad world ("Word Seduction", "Vortex Ends in Glory"). An homage to the Beats ("Hippo Stew", "miscellanous overcoat"), this volume also considers the direction poetry is headed in a hypertechnologic world("guitaretard", "infinitesimal"). Ever the experimenter, s - a - m challenges our expectations at the dawning of his literary career. Perfect-bound. 70 pages.
So much of what I find myself looking for in a book of poetry I find in Plastic Sunrise. Frost once said, "No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader," and indeed, I have to believe that stevenallenmay must have found himself pleasantly bewildered, like a headless body, upon the completion of many of these poems. The works showcased in Plastic Sunrise show a heavy resemblance to the works of e.e. cummings combined with the Beats, almost as if cummings and ginsberg have somehow manifest themselves into one poetic body, that of stevenallenmay, complete without capital letters. stevenallenmay's poems from Plastic Sunrise cover over three decades of political protest, insane rambling, and general word excitement. As a reader I find myself drawn to the fact that the poet still creates meaning while at the same time writing in ways that would make a grammar teacher shudder. It is delightful.
- Dave Anderson, Ibbetson Press Update