If that's the method, it works. Smario reels off jabbing lines that pour into each other. His line breaks fall in odd, jagged rhythms, but the effect feels unforced, leaving his verses capable of sudden bursts of speed. He's not afraid to tackle boxing's racial dramas and arbitrary cruelties, or to go after those who oppose the sport. Still, the poet finds an explosive glory in the mayhem.
Notes works as a bracing reportorial plunge into an alternate reality.
Portland's vibrant poetry scene helped draw him here in the '70s, and through the '80s he actively read and published his verse. Then came his long absence from the public eye, which he attributes in part to his growing involvement with boxing. Mike is the premier boxing manager in the Northwest, has been for probably 40 years. And it just kind of took off from that point. Between the boxing work and the hospital job, he finds time to write at night and on weekends.