Broken Garden & The Unsaid Sings, a new title from Larry Goodell, features poems from 2011 and 2012. Along with the poems all geared to read aloud are some drawings that occurred at the time of the poems. The book follows the notebooks of the poet and is the first of three new books. Digital Remains (poems of 2013) and Pieces of Heart (poems of 2014) are also newly available.
Hear
Many poems here come out of exasperation and anguish from very near problems of drug and alcohol addiction. It would detract from my reality to omit them. Appeals for help come out of the stubbornly helpless situation and yet the odd performer in the wings comes on and characterizes absurdity as good fun, and poems bounce from that too. The clown-priest has mud in his eye and the fool resists characterization. Underneath, the beating of the earth continues to sing to gardens, even in drought.
These poems with some drawings follow my notebooks chronologically. First writing is the given taste of the poem, to return to anytime there's a question about the poem, since, like a jazz solo, it is spontaneous, incorporating all senses of the time of its creation and cannot faithfully be changed since any messing around could only take place in a different time and place. I wish to give a sense of the notebooks since they are central, and that includes some drawings.
Joy Harjo says, "Poetry isn't the property of Academe. It's an alive art – & you prove that."
Robert Creeley has said, "Larry Goodell talks a truth in terms that grab you by the ears and give you a good shake. There is generous wisdom in this genial poet, which is why the horny toads still love a hoe-down, if Larry plays the tune."
Kenneth Irby: (on the poems): The completeness with which they give you & your life there on that hillside, is so rich one can live in it, with it, from the poems – they are their own reality as completely as Duncan’s or Olson’s or Creeley’s – the myriad specific details, turns of direction of thought, uncertainties, flubs, ecstatic pitches, landscapes, touches & lacks, wants – but in such completeness & accuracy that they take one in & allow wandering there – participation? inclusion
Love and nature fill the gap of unknowing. I'm blessed with a small family and a sober connection that is as powerful as anything. Love especially to Lenore, my mainstay, Joel my son, and great friends in the poetry and art and gardening and wildflower loving world.
Larry Goodell, Placitas, New Mexico in my 80th year
on this Planet, 2016