American Sonnet

Half Inch Press is proud to present John Martino’s debut book, American Sonnet, a rapid-fire series of poems that come together to form a verbal collage of pop culture. Drawing upon ads, fads, snatches of songs, flunkies, junkies, neo-punks, and wrong-headed political punditry, Martino slices, splices, and otherwise Americanizes history itself into one part satire, the other part even more satire. These well-honed poems sing over amplifier distortion and feedback fuzz necessary lyrics, the kind radio can’t or won't play. This isn’t an Italian or English sonnet; it’s the American Sonnet—rude, crude, and very loud.