James Brown shakes out oblivion’s final sieve in The Tip Shop. Found poems jostle with autobiographical poems, essayistic with epigrammatic, formally expert with some of his very best freeform sprawls. Alternately poignant and indignant, weary and exuberant – but can the James Brown voice ever be truly described? In these poems God prefers drawn-out sports, and your mind has already set sail.
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‘Funny, dark, insightful and nothing close to a chore to read. Poetry, but it doesn’t suck.’ -Alex Grace, Goodreads
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‘How gifted Brown is at the craft of poetry, the game of word and sounds on the page that are tidy and tight and clever and cool. And also how he lifts aside that cleverness to show us the tender inner self, the moist soft core of James Brown and his world.’ -Anna Livesey, Academy of New Zealand Literature