Michael Friedman & Please Kill Me Authors Remind Readers to Read Steve Benson, Ted Greenwald, John Godfrey, More

At the internet-home of Please Kill Me: the Uncensored Oral History of Punk, by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain, Michael Friedman "highlights ten ‘under-the-radar’ poetry classics, which break all the rules of verse (and that is a good thing)." Included here are 10 poetry classics (ahem, nine by men!), like John Godfrey's Where the Weather Suits My Clothes (Z Press, 1984), and Ted Greenwald's Jumping the Line (Roof, 1999). Here's another favorite:

7. Open Clothes by Steve Benson (Atelos, 2005)

“[C]an you hear my shirt when it rustles?”  “Were the bubbles bursting fast or slow, by the time you walked into the room?” The long pieces in this book, consisting of exact transcriptions of improvisational performances given by Benson in the aughts (including at the Bowery Poetry Club in NYC and Kelly Writers’ House in Philadelphia), are real showstoppers. Each is comprised exclusively of a lengthy series of questions. The actual performances were electric high-wire acts in which Benson’s tone was hard to pin down due to his deadpan delivery. Moments of sly humor are occasionally punctuated by what might or might not be unexpectedly candid or poignant moments of self-reflection. The written texts are just as exciting and funny―and like no other poetry you’ve read. Benson’s other books include the large Blue Book (The Figures, 1988). Open Clothes was brought out by Lyn Hejinian and Traviz Ortiz’s Atelos. (How is it that Atelos with regularity published so many fine books, including Pamela Lu’s Pamela: A Novel, Kit Robinson’s The Crave and Clark Coolidge’s Alien Tatters?)

See what else you're missing at Please Kill Me.