Broken Glosa by Stephen Bett

Description

Poetry. ISBN 978-1-946104-42-7. 154 pages.
Subtitle: an alphabet book of post-avant glosa

This is a really fascinating book―from tricky, resistant, clever to wise, giving, gratifying, and always sonically interesting and funny, funny! These are strange, intricate little machines; I’ve never seen anything quite like them. And that’s what I look for and appreciate most in art, something full of integrity and surprise. Bravo!                              — Michael Kenyon

Broken Glosa is a lament, exultation, beat improvisation, pop incantation, mantric visitation, and resounding of the bardic emanation. It is a prayer, and all that seems in ruins in the world is reborn in celebration here, in the continuous song of the cosmic and eternal muse, reborn in Broken Glosa.
— Michael Rothenberg

Broken Glosa puts a wicked spell on us. Wildly inventive, linguistically tumultuous, and energetically playful, these aren’t just poems but dialogues, chants, and jokes with the poets on whom they riff. Each line bears the delight of a syncopated jazz beat: “dear harmon: that full round tone / & // sound bites /… can break / the heart // in / every / single / groove (doo bop bop.” These poems are full of off-beat bite.                                       — Orchid Tierney