It Wasn't Supposed to Be Like This Poems

by Masters, Greg

• ISBN13: 9780999894729
• ISBN10: 0999894722
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2020-12-02
• Publisher: Crony Books

Summary

In this new book of poems, his ninth from Crony Books, Masters cuts through the lies perpetrated as the American Dream pitched to us like soap detergent over the past 50 years.

The title poem is an attempt at a sort of "Howl 2". Written in a wayward trochaic octameter (eight beats a line) it is a grand kvetch to pierce veneer, call out government miscreants and establish truths attesting to perspectives chronically pushed to the margins and excluded from corporate boardrooms and TV fantasies.

The bulk of the book is taken up by "My East Village," another epic poem (in trochaic octameter) that chronicles the downtown neighborhood Masters has lived in for the past 45 years, celebrating its cultural riches while bemoaning its blandification.

Author Biography

When he arrived in Manhattan's East Village in the mid-1970s, Greg Masters pounded rock and roll drums in basement dives, "alternative" spaces, CBGB and Irving Plaza and attended readings and workshops at The Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church and the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. Along with Michael Scholnick and Gary Lenhart, he edited the poetry magazine Mag City from 1977-1985. In 1977-78, along with a crew of poet comrades, he produced a cable TV show, Public Access Poetry. From 1980-83, he edited The Poetry Project Newsletter. He has worked for a number of book, magazine and web publishers, beginning as a proofreader and copy editor and then for the last 20 years as a managing editor. This is the ninth book of his writing issued by Crony Books.