Corso

Before we get out of the beats I want to say how much I liked Corso. He's got such an emotional range, and his style changes a bit with each different type of poem. I think he's very confessional at times and it works.

In "The Mad Yak" he's just riffing, in my opinion - he may have seen a yak or not, doesn't even matter, and he just wrote what he thought a yak would say -- so he's funny. He gets funnier in "Marriage." It's not cynical and disrespectful at all - he's telling one on himself as he points out the pitfalls of marriage. I love the "shouted" out nonsense: Pie Glue! Radio belly! Yet he gets serious, wondering how he'd handle dealing with an infant. He's all over the map with this poem but he makes it work. It's a rich subject and he goes deep into it. In "Love Poem for Three for Kaye & Me" he is completely serious and gets really lyrical and romantic, and he pulls it off. Same for "I Held a Shelley Manuscript" - his reverence for Shelley is clear but there's no preaching, which I appreciate. I think Corso's work falls into O'Hara's definition of good poetry: his poems wear those tight pants and folks like it.