Arts & Entertainment
Poet combines offbeat style, spontaneity
ORAL SEX
IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1927
□ occupational
E2 recreational
CD accidental
Courtesy ot Black Oak Press
From The Hideout of the Sigmund Freud Gang' by James
Magorian.
Magorian incorporates poetry, visuals, entertainment
By Mick Dyer
Staff Reporter_
Chasing away gnats
with a flick
of his hand, he
peers at trading
stamps pasted on
the bathroom mirror,
begins to hum
a Cole Porter tune
for reasons known
only to himself
— “Art Historian Pulling Hairs
Out of His Nostrils with Pliers'*
Poet James Magorian has been
painting surreal visions, inspired by
the America he grew up in, for more
than 20 years. During that time, he
has become one of the foremost
chroniclers of the /any post-indus
trial angst that we all sufferas Ameri
cans.
He has had poems published in a
variety of “legitimate" and offbeat
literary magazines through the years
and has published more than 50
books of poems and children’s sto
ries.
In addition to being a prolific
writer, Magorian, who attended
UNL. and is a part-time Lincoln resi
dent, is a publisher at the Lincoln
based Black Oak Press.
“The Hideout of the Sigmund
Freud Gang” (Black Oak Press,
ll)K7) is a collection of some of the
bizarre and satirical poems and visu
als from earlier books. 1 he book also
includes his version ol a play about
Medea entitled “Medea and Fred,
his own version ol the lile and works
of Karl Marx, and such “revisions” of
American history as “The: Emily
Dickinson Jogging Book,” “The
Red, White and Blue Bus" and “The
Great Injun Carnival,” which pur
ports to be the secret diary of Custer.
If you like the nice, bland, safe
variety of poetry, you probably
should skip the rest ol this review.
Magorian’s work probably won t
interest you. It may even disturb you.
Magorian’s poems are about
mania. They are about finding truth
in unusual places. The are irreverent,
spontaneous, playful pieces of his
mind that may try to bite at you once
in a while, just to see il you re still
there.
The poems hold nothing back.
Magorian unleashes one strange
image from the darkness of the
American collective unconscious
ness after another.
Magorian s poems are a celebra
tion of the eccentric.
Sometimes Magorian captures
some of the really w eird moments of
everyday life and makes deep and
insightful observations about them.
Such is the case w ith “Isosceles Tri
angle,” about finding a snowflake
that was just an isosceles triangle;
“Silent Fart,” a poem about know l
edge only the reader is aw are of; and
“2(X)Pushupsat the YMCA,”a poem
about the appearance of a weeping
willow tree.
These are poems that approach
Zen.
Most of the time, however, the
poems are a result of Magorian’s
vivid imagination. They are not
bound by any kind of literary author
ity and arc a joy to read. The poems
will surprise you. They will startle
you. Above all, they arc w ritten w ith
a sense of humor that may help the
reader sec things in a new' way.
As their tales
of daring
become more
spectacular,
a crowd gathers,
asking for autographs.
— “Veteran Sperm Donors
Reminiscing in Front of an Artifi
cial Insemination Clinic"
Magorian also has a knack lor
discovering poems in unusual places.
There are poems taken from techni
cal manual glossaries and footnotes,
symposium programs, musical
scores and a number of other ever) -
day sources.
If you w rite poetry, this book ma\
make you want to w rite more. If you
don’t write poems, the contents o!
this hook may help you learn that
poetry is not a difficult art.
The book is full of fascinating and
informative graphs, diagrams and
other interesting visuals that are
worthy of critical acclaim.
Nearly 1,000 pages long. “The
Hideout of the Sigmund Freud Clang
will provide hours of thought-pro
voking entertainment.
During the past three years, Mn
gorian has worked on a rather length)
novel that he plans to publish in the
future.
.
'
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