Colony Collapse Metaphor

“Into the deeper shoals of syntax strolls Philip Jenks, sans machete, instead with a watering can filled to the brim with acto-juice precisely calculated to make those nouns and verbs and articles shoot to record heights and tangles. In the 1970s John Wieners made a similar garden explode in his Beyond the State Capitol book, and now I’m feeling the same propulsive tug on my brain and my nuts.

“Jenks has always been good with the heart stuff, and his writing swings while it crows, he makes you doubt there’s a ground beneath our feet, but when each poem is over you die a little. I’ve got a special crush on this book. Driver, circle the block, get me my furs, then gallop me to Chicago—and spare not the horses.”

—Kevin Killian