Poker

Untranslated since 1966, 62-year-old Slovenian poet Toma alamun's first book, Poker, here comes completely into English for the first time in a collaborative translation with Joshua Beckman (Something I Expected to Be Different) and a tiny Brooklyn upstart ""presse."" For those who value alamun's grand (while still trouble-making), neo-modernist persona, the publication of A Ballad for Metka Kraovec (2001) gave some insight into the wilder side of earlier work. This beautifully printed book, going back 15 more years, is perhaps even further out, tracking a ""son of David/ and a squirrel how it falls to the earth/ but I scream rabbits/ thinking they were really rabbits because of bad eyes"" and ""see[ing] hell where my angel used to stand.""