Jonathan Williams (1) (1929–2008)

The poem:

Who Is Little Enis? by Jonathan Williams

Little Enis is
"one hunnert an' 80lbs of
dynamite
with a 9-inch
fuse"

his real name is
Carlos Toadvine
which his wife Irma Jean
pronounces Carlus

Carlos says
Toadaveenie is a eyetalyun name,
used to be lots of 'em
around these parts

Ed McClanahan is the World's Leading Little Enis freak
and all this information comes from a weekend in Winston
with Big Ed telling the lore of Lexington, Kentucky,
which is where Enis has been hanging it out for years and show more years,
at Boot's Bar and Giuseppe's Villa and now The Embers,
pickin' and singin' rockabilly style

Carlus ain't what he was
according to Irma Jean's accounts
(and even to his own):

he was sittin' there one night in the kitchen at home
tellin' stories and talkin' trash about Irma Jean --
with her right there with her hair put up in them pink plastic curlers --
about how these days how he likes to pop it to her dog-style
just now and again and how she likes it pretty damn well
when they wander all over the house
and end up in the living room corner --
"I'm just afraid Carlus will run us out the door and down the street
opposite the automatic laundry . . ."

The 9-inch fuse hung down Enis' right leg
is called, familiarly,
Ol' Blue

Ol' Blue used to be in the pink --
way in

Blue has a head on him like a tom-cat
and ribs like a hongry hound

and he used to get so hard
a cat
couldn't
scratch it . . .

but now that Enis has the cirrhosis
and takes all these harmones
Ol' Blue just don't
stand up like a little man
and cut the mustard
anymore

but Enis will smile and say
let's all have a drink, maybe I can drown thatthere liver of ours,
it's no bigger'n a dime nohow anymore, it just floats in there . . .

Hey, Blue, let's shake that thing!
Turn loose this oldie by my boy Elvis,
a golden oldie --
let's go, Blue!

And off they go
into the wild Blue-
Grass . . .

Carlos & Blue,
thinking of you . . .

hail & farewell! show less

I usually wait a day or two after I read a book to let my thoughts gel before I write a review. However, just moments ago, I finished the last page of this marvelous photo-album/memoir/biography/travelogue and had to write about it immediately.

Williams has written dozens of (mostly) one-page essays combining photographs and the observations made in his journal three or four decades ago with whatever it strikes him to say about them in the light of a couple of (quite full) decades of show more additional living. The subjects are (almost exclusively) creative people Williams has spent a little time with, plus a few that he wishes he had. Included in these pages are writers, poets, photographers, sculptors, painters, thinkers - a lot of folks I've never heard of, a few that I have, and a few that everyone has, and Williams makes me wish that I could sit down and visit with every one of them. The only thing I can see that they all have in common is that there couldn't be but one of each in the world. In the midst of reading these gems, I was struck with a growing sense that my own cloud of family/friends/aquaintances was rapidly expanding - broader and deeper.

A Palpable Elysium is the best argument I've seen yet for making the people in your life the most important thing in your life. It's certainly an odd book, and Williams has made no attempt (hooray) for it to 'fit' into a category. It's odd; sometimes startling; and frequently surprising. I already know it's one of the best things in my library.

Buy this book and keep it by your reading chair/sofa/bed/tree. Read a couple of entries and study the photos every time you sit down.

Os. show less

I have mixed emotions on this one, mostly because Mr. Williams is all over the place with his writing. He's crazy and absurd on 1 page and intricate and complex on another (although the latter appears very infrequently.) Mostly I thought the poetry was odd and strange and really not all that poetic. He did, however, keep my attention...if not only for the simple fact that I was curious just what on earth he'd say next. Not recommended...but not exactly a complete was of time either.

Quirky stuff. Mostly portraits of writers and artists (including some celebrities, some 'outsiders'), with some architechural details and tombstones.

The 6x6 format gives everything an air of gravitas (yay, Rollei), and Williams has been very well served by his printer: old-fashioned color palettes wonderfully translated into the modern digital era. Interesting if not transcendent stuff.