Stuart Ross's book, I Cut My Finger, Poems by Stuart Ross is so great it got me all excited and i've read some of it twice already. I hardly ever read things twice. Very rare. I just don't. There is just too much to read and time's a wasting. But this book makes me want to read more Stuart Ross. I didn’t have more with me so i read some more of it. It has a way about it, and it is infectious. It makes certain things stand out and gives them character. Like that ball sitting on the grass in the clover. Now it has a way about it too after reading Stuart Ross all day. It’s because things in the book, objects, have character and have a certain way about them. And it’s because the book is infectious in its charm.
Actually, it is not a book. Well, of course it is a book. But it is not just a book, because it's writing. And writing goes beyond being just a book, which is more exciting. No writing worth its salt wants to only be a book. It wants at least to be a book, perhaps. A lot of books are at least books. And a lot of them are only books. They are not writing, they are only books. But writing is more interesting, and more exciting too. A book can be exciting, and it can be interesting. But writing's more exciting and more interesting than any book because it always goes beyond the book. And that is always better, right? I do like books. But i do like writing better.
I laughed out loud a lot while reading Stuart Ross’s book. At first i thought that i would read it slowly. Like, that's the way you ought to read a book of poems. And then i read it quickly like a book of prose. Which you can read in any way at any speed you like, really. So i read it steady. Like, turning every page eager to get through it. But liking all of it. Gobbling it up. Like, it's going fast, so you better pay attention or you'll miss it. Which is how i like to read. And then it opened up for me.
It isn’t always happy. Sometimes it’s very sad. There are moments very poignant. There are some tragic moments. And there are moments quite surreal. There are times when the writing really does stand out as writing that is written artfully. There is pain and joy and outrage and outright silliness expressed. I could hardly ever get enough of it. And one of the things I really love about it, is that it always is surprising. It is not predictable. It is a pleasure, really.
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