Damaged by Dames & Drinking (one line poems and pinups)

Rp Verlaine

Description

Damaged by Dames and Drinking is a lavishly illustrated collection of haiku, one line poems and streetwise observations on bartenders, the drinking life and New York City. A collection of poems that begin with a jolt: "Alcohol's magic is murder by degrees/ slow enough to be irresistible." The short poems explore dark dive bars and in brief thumbnail sketches, the women who work in them. Many of whom agreed to be photographed for this book. Yet it is the poems that speak the loudest. RpVerlaine's arresting images show an eye for lyrical detail: "closing time/ the bar empty as Casanova/ going up the stairs alone."

Yet, this 46 pg. 62 poem collection also deals with relationships and a love for New York City the poet does not glamorize: "The young fisherman/bringing home what they've caught/ from street hookers." Which is not to say there isn't a lot of humor in this poetry. Excessive drinking can often lead to tragic/ comic events: "Debating wisdom/ of gifting her Christmas knives/ after vomiting in her dresser/I mistook for toilet."

These vignettes like the poems of the bartenders are illustrated with color photographs of models that together form a loose narrative where the author tries to quit drinking, joins/ quits A.A. and drifts through various relationships. They are documented with bemused detachment and sly insight: "Sure, no strings attached/ shows you how even bondage/ gets complicated."

Written in the spring of 2016 and covering the preceding eight years, Damaged by Dames & Drinking is urban, accessible, wise and often laugh out loud funny. Inspired by artists as diverse as Ikkyu, Charles Bukowski, Lou Reed, Richard Brautigan and the comedy of Mitch Hedberg.

It is a collection of poems and pictures which capture a place and time, yet endeavors to remind one at every turn, what it costs.

Sujets

• Loisirs
• Collections photographiques
• Themes
• Subjects
• Poetry

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 15 août 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456627096
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Damaged by Dames & Drinking
(one line poems and pinups)
by RpVerlaine

Copyright 2016 RpVerlaine
All rights reserved
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2709-6
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
All poems and photos by RpVerlaine and not to be used without permission.

Dedicated to all the great bartenders
models, actresses, doomed angels
bouncers and strippers who were
kind more often than not.
And to Rose for all the right reasons.
-RpVerlaine
June, 2016
Introduction
 
A demanding job made the bottle a crutch--easier to hold on to than the women, from a series of doomed affairs, who so brusquely had exited from my life. So I continued to reach for alcohol — an accomplice no less seductive than the glittering top shelf in a jeweler’s window.
 
I drank alone in these downtown bars, speaking mostly to the bartenders, attractive women in their twenties that mixed serving drinks with
performance art. They were as likely to dance on the bar, spit fire, or do
gymnastics on swings or on poles as they were to serve a drink. The best of them — Tella, Natalie, Kelcie, Tahnee and Erica — are here. Night after night I watched them as I drank endless beers, took hundreds of pictures and wrote a score of poems. I was so taken with them that I photographed many of them in studios.
This collection of one line poems, haiku, seneru, and observation attempts to captures those days of the past decade. Additionally several professional models were shot to show the shortcomings of relationships guided by drink. It hangs together with a loose somewhat fictional narrative that expands also to thoughts of New York City at night. I no longer drink nearly as much, and many of the bartenders here no longer list that as an occupation. It was a wonderful time but the price was dear in ways these pages attempt to explain. I hope you enjoy it.
RpVerlaine Summer 2016