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Jay Bartell Reads His New Book At Rust Belt Books

Jaye Bartell, the ambidextrously inclined poet/songman, will be celebrating the release of a new chapbook, Ever After Never Under. The chapbook, another quality Little Scratch Pad Edition, is a collection of 20 so-called choruses—tight, 12-lined poems meandering between memory, desire, and the emotion stirred while staring at an icicle and waiting for it to melt in a dream.

An example:

Chorus 16

In the town where I lived

we the citizens went into

old buildings and hugged

each other while water boiled.

There was a central plaza

where we the citizens would stand

holding placards that read “NO”

and “YES” and “MAYBE.”

The problem with roads is they have no

river under them to fall into and people

age without me in proximity to ignore it.

I’ll always wish I could paint pictures.

Jaye Bartell reads his new work on Friday, August 29 at 7pm, at Rust Belt Books, 202 Allen Street (885-9535).

aaron lowinger