Provenzano, Joe

Walking Art Machine: Selected Lyrics of Joe Provenzano

Ann Arbor, MI: Atomic Mailbox Press, 2024. First Edition. Offered today is a volume by Hopwood Award-winning poet, song writer, fellow curator, the Vice President of our beloved establishment, and as the title of this work states, walking art machine, Joe Provenzano (b. 1995). The third work by Provenzano, 2024’s Walking Art Machine, is a collection of selected lyrics that, like many of Provenzano’s works, bleeds with style, oozes erudition, coronates him as the prince of the Beat Generation, and melds the worlds of Walt Whitman (1819–1892) with that of Charles Olson (1910-1970) and Leonard Cohen (1934–2016). Provenzano’s two previous works, Chattering of the Subconscious Toybox: A Radical Anthology of Emerging New Poets (2017), and Starting From San Francisco: Thomas Rain Crowe in Conversation with Third Mind Books (2018) [see item #3071] showcased not only his scholarly acumen but also his, at the time burgeoning, poetic skills. Walking Art Machine, on the other hand, is to date Provenzano’s crowning achievement–literary black-belt on display, Provenzano breaks through bricks of candor, wit, and pathos with a smirk, a glass of bourbon in hand, and the “fuck you” attitude of many of his literary predecessors. Mired in a milieu of bluegrass, folk, blues, 70’s era prog-rock, surrealism, Rimbaud, Allen Ginsberg (1926–1997), Olson, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919–2021); Provenzano’s crystalline style reflects a kaleidoscopic prose approach that evokes the Bohemian-70’s-Americana spirit of aforementioned writers and genres. All in all, Walking Art Machine is a work that succeeds in not only further proving Provenzano’s mettle as a poet, but also in resuscitating the corpse of the long dead Beat-era/Black Mountain approach to the written word. Softcover. First limited edition in a run of 60 hand numbered volumes as stated at colophon page. You will be sent the lowest number (and therefore the rarest copy) that we have on hand. Book is in very-fine-as-new condition with virtually no wear. Very Fine. [Item #7115]

Price: $25.00