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My Body the Guitar, by by Karla Linn Merrifield
Jimi Redux
I summon Hendrix
the flames of his immolated guitar
him crouching on stage in my imagination
as he did with a can of lighter fluid
squirting
the
liquid
over his axe and then striking
a match
even as I sanitize
madly
fantasizing too Woodstock
star-spangled
we stood
to believe in electrified
his famed Fender Strats
even as I self-
sequester
burned
burned
into iconography
a fiery fired poem
even as I curse
this scourge
Jimi would understand
my drop
lines
idiosyncratic spacing
he loves me
in the time of coronavirus
I wipe the strings
of the Strat in my future
I unplug
ones I dream
again again
tonight
smokin’ hot
under waning moon
shining in this orbit
together in music
across time zones
and keys
and tunings
even as I sing his
anthems hoping
for a cure
My Body the Guitar is a poetry book inspired by guitars, guitarists, and their music. In “Part I, Mere Mortal,” we follow Karla’s learning curve in poems largely spoken to her guitar in a series of “Études.” In “Part II, Local Heroes,” she honors the master guitarists in her inner circle, teachers, lovers, friends, online git pals, glancing encounters, her deceased brother. In “Part III, “Great Gods,” readers encounter Karla’s idiosyncratic pantheon of immortals, including Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Tom Waits, Joni Mitchell, Paul Simon, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Mark Knopfler…and one for Lindsay Buckingham, greatly influenced by your book. The book has been nominated for the 2022 National Book Award.
Further details and to order:
~130 pages; 116 poems
~Publisher: Before Your Quiet Eyes Holograph Series (Rochester, NY)
Price: $22.00
Publication date: December 2021
To order: 1) from the publisher: Copies of the special edition holograph edition ($45) from Kenneth Kelbaugh via email. 2) from the author: Signed copies ($22) from the author via email query. 3) From Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Body-Guitar-Karla-Linn-Merrifield/dp/1732884064/ref=sr_1_7?crid=3E6N4JAJIOBXL&keywords=karla+linn+merrifield&qid=1642702221&sprefix=karla+linn+merrifiel%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-7
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