Denmark, Kangaroo, Orange (Pearl Poetry Prize)
Denmark, Kangaroo, Orange possesses the comic inventiveness that makes the prose poem a beloved form of trickster-poets, but it also possesses the astute and open hearted vision that only a poet of Kevin Griffith's skill can offer. He blends humor and contemplation, dream and domesticity, song and story in poems that manage to be simultaneously intricate and accessible. These are poems of relentless charm. --Terrance HayesWith Denmark, Kangaroo, Orange, the punk in prankster's hat, the wise-ass in five-inch stilettos and squirting boutonniere, has returned to service, both barrels blazing in riotous imagination and cynical splendor. Griffith is in top form in these chiseled "proems," again and again skewering the conceits and small stakes of the poetry game. --Gaylord Brewer"The beauty of most art lies in the fact that it fails to disambiguate itself. You can quote me on that," says the speaker of "Blurb." Leave it to Denmark, Kangaroo, Orange to provide a blurb for itself. In this funhouse of mirrors, these prose poems "fail" exactly as the blurb testifies. Such is the art and beauty of this book. --John Bradley