breathing back words
80 minute performance c.d. by the poet, Spiel, in collaboration with composer, Jack Moss.
A Review of Breathing Back Words by Jonathan Penton, editor of Unlikely Stroies
Georges Bataille wrote "poetry leads to the same place as all forms of eroticism—to the blending and fusion
of separate objects." Such a vision of poetry, both sexual and mystic, both sacred and deeply perverse, runs throughout
the poetry and music of breathing back words. Beginning with The Poet Spiel's voice giving a sultry, unaccompanied
reading of his erotic love poem "chair," the album quickly moves into desperate and disturbing material, exploring
every sort of sickness of society and intimacy as it forces us into an even-handed yet excruciating study of race,
gender, lust, cruelty, and crime. At no point after the opening track can we feel comfortable with our narrators,
but they demand empathy and understanding. We are left, after many deserved listens, with no specific answers
and no real conclusions, but a deeper understanding of the blending of passion and psychopathy. Ultimately,
breathing back words shows us new ways to understand the toxic mixture of hatred and lust, desire and compassion,
Eros and Thanatos that defines the human condition. With nearly eighty minutes of intense and painful words
by The Poet Spiel and music by Jack Moss, this is a complete and moving philosophical and artistic statement
of both despair and freedom from despair.
$12 postage paid to:
Spiel
89 W. Linden Ave
Pueblo West CO 81007
Well concealed cash, personal check or money order only, please.
Spiel was 6 months old when the dark years of WWII were unleashed.
He was 50 and in psychotherapy when it dawned on him the fear present in his parent’s bodies
at that time of unprecedented upheaval surely must have had a profound affect on him.
His newest chapbook, “come here cowboy: poems of war,” recently written at age 65
and released by Pudding House Publications in the fall of 2006, focuses on how wars,
stretching from WWI to today’s aggressive hostilities, have imprinted his life.
Email: Spiel
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