in your face
above the
gym urinal
Photo of home phone
house keys on table
“W” on the key fob
— let’s call him
Wally (or Willy)
Digital readout, happy planet
turquoise lettering:
3:00 PM
MESSAGES
63
Breeds success like an
endangered species?
Moby Dick &/or
Willy-Wally
cleverly upstairs
(pushing weight)
Add the subliminal sublime —
sixty-three dames ‘call waiting’
to be boned
T- boned
“W”- boned
(whale-boned)
No corsets
Dead meat
all around
Stephen Bett has had seventeen books of poetry published: The Gross & Fine Geography: New & Selected Poems (Salmon Poetry, Ireland, 2015); Those Godawful Streets of Man: a book of raw wire in the city (BlazeVOX Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 2014); Journal for Breathing Arizona (Ekstasis Editions, Spring, 2014); Penny-Ante Poems (Ekstasis Editions, 2013); Sound Off: a book of jazz (Thistledown Press, 2013); Re-Positioning (Ekstasis Editions, 2011); Track This: a book of relationship (BlazeVOX Books, Buffalo, N.Y., 2010); SPLIT (Ekstasis Editions, 2009); Extreme Positions: the soft-porn industry Exposed (Spuyten Duyvil Books, NYC, 2009); Sass ’n Pass (Ekstasis Editions, 2008); Three Women (Ekstasis Editions, 2006); Nota Bene Poems: A Journey (Ekstasis Editions, 2005); Trader Poets (Frog Hollow Press, 2003); High-Maintenance (Ekstasis Editions, 2003); High Design Refit (Greenboathouse Books, 2002); Cruise Control (Ekstasis Editions, 1996); Lucy Kent and other poems (Longspoon Press, 1983).
An eighteenth book has been completed, making a trilogy with Penny-Ante Poems & Those Godawful Streets of Man; and nineteenth and twentieth books are also recently completed.
His work has also appeared in well over 100 literary journals in Canada, the U.S., England, Australia, New Zealand, and Finland, as well as in three anthologies, and on radio.
His “personal papers” have been purchased by the Simon Fraser University Library, and are, on an ongoing basis, being archived in their Contemporary Literature Collection for current and future scholarly interest.
For reviews of his books, please see stephenbett.com.
