Over at The Lit Pub, a new review by Simon Jacobs of Jordan Stempleman’s No, Not Today really digs deep into what makes these poems work, what keeps them kicking beginning to end. 

“I think I’ve narrowed down where the magic comes from. It’s all about the slippage, the shifts where the normal suddenly transposes with something else, something strange or fantastic or simply unexpected. The interjections foster the shifts, they say, ‘Hey, I’m talking to you, now let me take you away.’”

Over at the Outsider Writers Collective, the fabulous Mel Bosworth reacts to No, Not Today by Jordan Stempleman, MHP’s most recent release. Here’s how he ultimately sees the book:

“Whether identifying beauty by what it’s not or by its ability to change—as a thought or a physical body—Stempleman keeps plenty busy stuffing his poems with the confetti, rice, and rain of life. Instead of a bending to a bearded god or some such deity, these poems urge the reader to submit to originality. They’ll find plenty of that within these pages.”

Edward Mullany wrote about Jordan Stempleman’s new book of poems, “No, Not Today,” for the NY Daily News Books Blog. Among other smooth insights, he says—

“Stempleman knows that our shared American consciousness is something he can rely on; there is, after all, something about each weekday that is recognizable, that gives it a certain ‘feeling’. In this way, his work respects the instincts of his readers.

But to rely on that feeling as an end itself – which Stempleman does not do – could become tiresome, because it would reveal itself as a novelty, something that is interesting for a moment, but that lacks endurance or meaning.

What he does, instead, is allow a kind of purposeful, intelligent meandering from one poem to the next. So that the question of whether those days of the week mean something to the poems to which they lend their names recedes into the background.“

Thanks to Edward for his time and attention with the newest MHP release! Read the whole review here!

Check out Mr. NAP’s awesome discussion of Jordan Stempleman’s new book here.

How many pinches and dashes will it take? I heard you tell the answer to whoever you are in your apartment with. I did not know what language you used, but recognized it as a language. This I am certain. Or it was yourself who you are building inside of yourself and I am listening to you like a neighbor will listen when they see a neighbor with their mattress outside attempting to sleep on every beautiful thing in the neighborhood?

That rolling and scrolling ebook by Richard Chiem and Ana C. gets some lovin’ from Beach Sloth. Read the review here kind people.