The Lineup: Poems on Crime: Issue 4

Today I've been asked to host The Lineup blog tour. I consider that an honor and privilege for several reasons.

I was a co-editor for the first three issues. I know first hand the outstanding work that is submitted for publication and the hard work all the editors put in to produce the final product. The quality of the poems is sublime. I am also honored to host the tour today because I love talking about writing in all aspects: the craft of it and the work that's out there. So: I'm going to add to this post throughout the day. I'm going to share my thoughts on how the poems of Issue 4 affect me. I might mention a specific poem, I might take lines from poems. If you already have Issue 4, please send me your thoughts on what moved you.

And let me say one more thing -- which I've said before. All creative work in the universe is vital. Poetry takes a main place at the table because, well, we've had poetry longer than film, say. When you're thinking/writing/reading about character, or plot, or action -- you are trying to boil it all down to the essence. What motivates the person or the scene? Poetry does that for you. Poetry reduces to the essence. If you want to understand other forms of creativity better: read poetry. You want to enhance your understanding of crime fiction: read The Lineup. Checking back soon-ish.

Any poem or line that I mention is not to be interpreted as these are the best poems in Issue 4. I think the collection as a whole is outstanding.

The issue opens with a bang. The first three lines of John Stickney's Creation simply blew me away: Make me a long coat of a dark cigarette color/Make the cities dark/No one will notice I am ash. Can you dig this? The description is the character's soul, the character's essence.

David Corbett's poem Bargain is simply put: brilliant. It is a psychological portrayal of a killer with gorgeous description that tells you who this narrator is (and gorgeous doesn't always mean pretty): Since we met, fewer insects die...but here a brown moth scurried hot inside the lampshade--I cupped my hand/nursed it all the way downstairs. Later on, the narrator tells us about an eight-year-old girl who was in the wrong place at the wrong time: The face I can't forget because she wasn't meant to be there at all. You think that would change someone, maybe even a stone cold killer? Uh, uh. Not this guy: She has not come home/She might never. This poem resonates loudly. It will stay with me.

And then there's Jeanne Dickey's poem, An Elegy for Susan Atkins, a piece about a twin not born who would have turned out better than the narrator. Wow, nicely done. These lines are terrific stuff: When I met him/When I met Charles Manson/As I inevitably would/My good twin would have singed him without holy water/Shone in his face/as if She were a silver crucifix.

The editors of Issue 4 -- Gerald So with Reed Farrel Coleman, Sarah Cortez and Richie Narvaez -- did a great job here. They have found gems. When I wrote several years ago in Mystery Scene Magazine about crime fiction poetry, I never imagined a chap book series like The Lineup existing. Thank god it does. And I really dig that cover (photo by Kathy Slamen).

Issue 4 is dedicated to David Thompson, the "first bookseller to believe in The Lineup."