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Poetry | $10 ($8 direct from UDP)
Hand-bound. 24 pp, 6.25 x 8.25 in.
Letterpress printed cover and title page
Distribution: Direct-only
Read Press Release (PDF)
"how much do you rely on planets? Ben Fama poses this question in his astounding astrological sequence of poems, Aquarius Rising. He doesn't depend on planets: he sees signs in all that's around him — sky, sea, sequins. A poetic horoscopist, he knows that there is nothing more difficult or fun than attempting to make sense of the present. For Fama, the present presages another present, and then another; and he reads it with wit and wonderment and wily smarts. I take his words to heart. Fama is the future." -DEREK MCCORMACK, author of The Haunted Hillbilly and The Show That Smells.
"If you love someone you might want to call her and leave Ben Fama’s poems as messages on her voicemail. The messages would be informative and casual and glowing. They would be a big deal—a glamorous shrug from the heart!" -HEATHER CHRISTLE
From Aquarius Rising:
Joe Brainard’s 21st Tan
Opened like the funnies
a picture stuffed
into another picture’s frame
the sky becomes gray
no candles lit
this reality will not suffice
if it isn’t cosmic it isn’t anything
it’s raining and I’m going out
maybe Joe Brainard will show up
maybe a diamond will fall
all the things he talked about
still make the poem a surprise
I once asked to marry the moon
believe a mind could
take hold of the sea
Katie died surfing
I too know the sorrow of wanting love
refuse to tame my vulgar emotions
and I’d like to go home
the long way if I remember
NEWS AND REVIEWS
08.27.10 | Ben Fama, author of Aquarius Rising, interviewed on musefinder.org
08.14.10 | Ben Fama, author of Aquarius Rising, featured on the Corresponding Society blog
07.26.10 | Aquarius Rising by Ben Fama reviewed on the Wooden Spoon blog
Ben Fama is the author of the chapbook Sun Come and co-author of the chapbook Girl Boy Girl Boy (Correspondences, 2010). He is the founder of the Brooklyn-based Supermachine Reading Series and poetry journal. His work has appeared in GlitterPony, Pank! and No, Dear Magazine, among others.
