"I take his words to heart. Fama is the future." — Derek McCormack
In Aquarius Rising Ben Fama lays phrases in your hands like a child with stones saying, look. The poems move in and out of consciousness, through dream and daydream; they are poems of questions and glimpses and cosmic interraction. Drawn in by his crystalline details, it is only when the book ends that you realise he's written you a world and you're waking.
Aquarius Rising is Ben Fama's first chapbook.
Excerpt ˇExcerpt
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
About the Author
Links
Book Details
Hand-bound. 24 pp, 6.25 x 8.25 in.
Publication Date: June 24, 2010
Distribution: Direct only
- 07.15.14 | Ben Fama's Aquarius Rising reviewed in The Volta Blog
- 01.31.11 | A review of Aquarius Rising and Try a Little Time Travel in the Sink Review
- 12.23.10 | Aquarius Rising and The Nature Poetry of Matvei Yankelevich featured on The Towering Irrelevance
- 11.01.10 | Ben Fama's Aquarius Rising reviewed on the Best American Poetry blog
- 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
News and Reviews
Advance Praise
Ben Fama is a new icon of the Brooklyn poetry scene. He’s churning out gorgeous, smart and bitingly aware poetry.—The Towering Irrelevance
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
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