Pain: The Board Game

In his latest provocative reinterpretation of poetry's function, Starkweather (The First Four Books of Sampson Starkweather), a founding editor of the small press Birds LLC, delves with great affect into the gritty reality of being bound to life. The title calls to mind to the board game Life, but Starkweather transmits his experience as a player in a more formidable world%E2%80%94one in which "moms masturbate/ and die," and happiness is as mysterious as angels and emoji. Starkweather divides the collection into four sections, some stronger than others. "The Plays: An Interlude," with its transparent theatrical conceits (including characters such as Ennui and Nihilism), unnecessarily deviates from the poet's deft and lyrical verses elsewhere in the collection. His opening section, "Pain Poems," features lines that shine in their bleakness and are punctuated by subversive humor. Starkweather's not searching for God here or even meaning; he is watching porn instead of praying and accidentally writing more poems despite his reluctance. "I'm full/ of passionate/ apathy," may well be the book's tagline. But deep in there, underneath the denial and dry wit, lie sparks of a gentleness and longing for connection: he provides his phone number and begs readers to call and "please/ leave me/ something/ tender." Here is devastating meta-poetry for the board game%E2%80%93playing, smartphone-scrolling masses, both accessible and enlightened. (Oct.)