LAVANDERÍA NOMBRE

John M. Bennett’s LAVANDERÍA NOMBRE is pamjacked with everything we’ve come to expect of & enjoy in his work — an erudition, his ability with words & their placement (including a remarkable skill to break them up so they break out by themselves), a recognition & appreciation of others, his prolificacy. Plus an underlying social awareness whose presence is always there; & a humor that tends to lurk throughout but sometimes will be allowed to take center stage. I’m still cracking up over “PEPPERONI BRAIN SCAN.” — Mark Young In his most recent book, LAVANDERÍA NOMBRE (which Bennett translates as "A Laundry Called Name"), there is a poem entitled "break fast." Why is there a space in the middle of the word "breakfast." Make a break for it, and do it fast. Put an end to your refusal to eat (to consume? to possess? to process? to ruminate?) And do it at the start of your day, as a source of nutrition. Why do I need to remove the space between before attempting to assess the available or potential meanings? Are Bennett poems always primarily about reading, in the sense that reading is often if not always primarily about thinking? — Jim Leftwich