The Condition of Poetry in the Modern World : A Stoogist Manifesto by Paul Fericano (1980)

 The Condition of Poetry in the Modern World

subtitled "A Stoogist Manifesto"

Paul Fericano 

Poor Souls Press/Scaramouche Books

Millbrae, CA 

(c)1980

I was on Ebay tumbling through postings of small press books when I saw this item among a "lot" being sold for an obscene amount of money, at least to me obscene, and I was taken more by the subtitle than the title. "A Stoogist Manifesto"? Three Stooges or Iggy Pop's band? What was all this then?

I found a copy elsewhere and it arrived and I noted that it has a 1980 selling price of a nickel. Yes, five American centavos. 

I never hear of the author or the press involved. The author does have a page on Poets & Writers website though. 

This is an essay that I will grant some clear political forthright since it was written after Reagan was first elected and was already anticipating his 1984 re-election. It was written in November 1980 so after the election but before RR was sworn in. 

However, to me the essay is intentional gobbledygook. The theme of the essay seems to have been that only "Stoogism" was the gleaming poetic light for the future, of course showing no examples of this clear and awesome poetry itself but rather simply ridiculing "existing poetic norms". It does seem that every decade starts out debunking the existing work of the previous one, so perhaps that's what is going on here or maybe it's just some puffery. Not sure. 

I have no better understand of what is or is not "Stoogist" after reading this essay than before opening it's staple-bound cover. 

First Glimmerings from Monsell Laury (1976)

 First Glimmerings

Monsell Laury

Crown Printing 

US Virgin Island

(c)1976

I recently bought a lot of paperback and chapbooks from a seller in Georgia who must have scooped them up from a former US Naval Captain who wrote poetry and visited the Virgin Islands. He had a number of books from there, many signed by their authors to the Captain. 

Monsell Laury was an actress and writer who lived on the Island. This appears to have been her first book. Staple-bound chapbook. Unpaginated. There's a B&W photo inside front of three female poets at a reading. None of whom is the author of this book. That strikes me as odd. The cover image is interesting though. 

Sex Secrets Women Wish Men Knew Rodale Press (1995)

 Sex Secrets Women Wish Men Knew

Rodale Press 

Emmaus, PA

(c)1995

This excerpt was taken from The Practical Encyclopedia of Sex and Health written by Stefan Bechtel and others. I think the note on the cover expresses one woman's response. I have nothing further to add. 

Prairie by Jon and Annie West (1978)

 Prairie

Jon and Annie West

The Blue Cloudy Quarterly

Marvin, SD

(c)1978

This staple bound chapbook is divided in half : Annie, then Jon. Poems by each. Poems are reprinted from Song of Spirit Woman published in 1974 by Banknote Press. The illustration on the cover is by Cherokee artist, Dewayne Mathews who was from Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is the 4th chapbook in the series. 

2 more tiny chaps from the 'one story' series

 one story series

Necessary Bodies by Daniel Montz

The Rat by Yohanca Delgado 

I mentioned this series of one story booklets before, just quickly mentioning the series again. I will now find a home for them both with young readers can scoop them up.