John Amen is a Philadelphia based poet, writer, musician, songwriter, artist and editor of The Pedestal Magazine, an award winning literary bi-monthly publication. “More of Me Disappears” is his second volume of poetry published in 2005 following the success of “Christening the Dancer” in 2003.
“Put away the map, where we’re going won’t be on it” is a line from the poem “What I Said To Myself”. It aptly describes the journey Mr. Amen takes us on in his own uniquely down-twisted way. His poetry is part brutal poignant memory, part dream, part nightmare, part vision, part insightfully skewered in-the-moment observation and part hallucination of the disjointed-detoxification variety. Powerful, surreal and compelling images are drawn with strange juxtapositions. Jarring sensations and emotions turn into evocative and usually disturbing observations. He has the moon casting shadows through his eyes.
He describes heroin addiction, detoxification, a new life without addiction, infertility treatments, the decline and death of his Mother, family roots in pre and post-war Germany and a tormented childhood. This is deep, profound, soulful, honest and very, very human writing. “Darkness and dawn wrestled in the alley” from the poem “Ambivalence”; “and she is Cain, who slew Abel, my child-self.” from “Eulogy For My Mother”; “My shoes are on fire with my own persistent story;” from “Breathing”; “I begin flipping the yellow pages looking for an exorcist willing to make a house call” from “Fade”; “By the time the teeth of night grind, I will remember that I am indeed blessed.” from “The Ascent”. I couldn’t put the book down.
You can learn more about John Amen by visiting his website at http://johnamen.com or at http://thepedestalmagazine.com. His music CD, “All I’ll Ever Need” is available at http://coolmidget.com.
http://johnamen.com/books.php?cat=5
You can read several poems from the book at this link.
