This marks my second post on controversial poet Ariana Reines.  I brought along her book “Mercury ” on a recent trip to New York City and took some shots of it, with the city as backdrop.

Reines writes as if she were speaking, albeit in a disjointed way. To read her is to read youth and rebellion, but also wisdom gained via sharp, inquisitive observation.

She has attracted the attention of the poetry community, in part because she writes graphically about sex, often using explicit language. Next week I will focus on this aspect of her writing.

Here is the text of the passage to the right, which is as tame as Reines poetry gets:

I mean

I know

Movies are for murder and sex

More people have sex than do murder maybe

This is the essence of life

What is

Just

Watch

If there were not movies how would we grasp

The essence of life

Like porno you need not need it

For it to succeed

 

– Ana Maria Caballero, “Zeteo is Reading” Editor