Jim Christy

Oh, Mata,Mata, Gretha
Gretha, I boast no gold
Braid nor proud epaulets.
No Fruit Salad spilled
Across my chest. I don
Only the poet's uniform

This Cockeyed World by Jim Christy is his latest collection of poetry. Christy was born in Virginia in 1945 and raised in the notorious ghetto of South Philadelphia. He moved to Canada in 1968 and became a citizen in 1974. Christy is an a talented artist as well as a poet.

Every so often I come across a poetry collection that completely wows me. Last year show more it was Helen Mort's Division Street. This year the wow came early. This Cockeyed World starts early and does not let up. The poems seem modern, but I kept catching dated references to the sixties and World War II. Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Mussolini all make an appearance.

Ginsberg on Saturday night, bent
Over cabala and Wichita Vortex
Sutras, singing the schwartza's music
At the back of the Synagogue

"'Couver Blues" is a tale of escape from the dark and rainy city. The poet travels in his words to places where life may be better, but all have their drawbacks too. Once he covers all the places he knows, he sees the sun peeking through and forgets all the other places because now he can lose his 'Couver Blues.

The imagery and emotion in the poems are fantastic. It does not take the reader long to realize this is what poetry is about. Some of the poems are near ballads and it seems at times the reader is not reading the poem but listening to a bard weave a tale. Other poems like “Heading North” take the reader on an adventure to find peaceful existence. With today’s very free verse and experimental poetry, it is refreshing to read such a clear and mostly traditional collection. Christy is a true artist with words. His range of subjects and the ability to capture a moment is superb. This is a must read collection. show less

There are glamour gyms, and Glamour venues, and glamour gladiators in the world of fisticuffs for money. This isn't about that. These are the tales of the things that the famous fighters rise above, the places and times where dues are paid. We dealing with the boxing history of the Pacific northwest, the country that produced the great Welterweight Jimmy McLarnin. And not really anyone since. Small gyms where a few dedicated trainers try to find the next big thing. And try, and try, and try show more again. A good book about the sheer difficulty of making an impression on the rest of a world wide sport that has its own axes to grind. Good to read, but daunting, once you think about it. show less

We tend to hear about the simple things that make up a historical moment in time. Take the 1960s for example. For those of us who weren’t around to live through that era, we are bedazzled by simple images and concepts that made up that turbulent time. But we aren’t given insight of what the complexities and the difficulties of that time was like. That is the beauty of a good piece of literature. Through the eyes of a well-created protagonist, we can honestly understand what a time period show more was like. That is why Real Gone by Jim Christy is such a great read.

http://tinyurl.com/pq8u966 show less

The author tries to infuse his writing with as much brio as many of his subjects lived. I'm interested in the subjects, not the author. But it's a great collection of characters. Any one of them would make a great subject for a play or movie.