Kiot

by Charles Potts

"I’m completely inside/ Your head no/ But you can relax/ For I won’t be long/ And I’m not dangerous/ Nor habit forming/ But in case you’d dig to know/ Why the sound is coming/ Out of you mouth/ And... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0911287515
• ISBN13: 9780911287516
• Release Date: January 2005
• Publisher: Blue Begonia Press
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

a cagey loner who writes on his own terms...

Charles Potts has aptly named this breathtaking retrospective of his early work Kiot -- the Coyote -- the wary trickster and cagey loner, announcing his existence with penetrating voice. Like the coyote, Potts wanders through time and the cosmos, heralding his protest and outrage with a voice that cuts through human imagination and registers at our prehistoric core. One poem alone -- "Obit Mirage" -- is worth the price of this book. In it, Potts reveals multi-layered worlds within worlds with such skill and grace that only one reading barely scrapes the surface of its content: My people came On a rickety ship From the Favorsham To the land of profits... From the "land of profits", Potts takes us on a journey that enlightens, then amazes with his wily use of words. With him, we experience the: Existential beadwork of despair.... And the: Snapped synapse of communication And we see through his heart and eyes the disfigurement of pristine land: Though the unmysterious Clutter of the mess men make with Unordered hands Can be found on the surface Of the national forest... We experience the laying of a railroad where native Indians once lived: The Golden Spike Came on a hammer To clinch the tie that binds the blinded Termites of a deserted woodwork... Those are chilling words, but Potts has just begun his cry: To the consciously expanding Already rotten basket of Interlocking grids The erratic Cancer America spreads to Defacto territories and Girdles the world with fear... Solutions to such taints and fear-provoking problems are beyond man's ability to grasp: And only the stars know Which way to turn... ........ The mountains do not notice That man has plumbed a line On their rocks Man pays a heavy price for his dysrhythm with the land, as does the poet who protests it, as: The shattered self scattered With too much to place Collecting Specimens in a death heap... Well, those were excerpts from just one poem. Do you know yet why the kiot cries? Potts' use of word and cadence is often stunning, regardless of the topic. Potts adroitly pinpoints human weaknesses and prejudices. With equal ability, he also uses humor and irony while moving forward and backward through generations, addressing religion, class distinctions, government trickeries and lies. His style is more elegant and eloquent than the Beat poets and more engaging than post modern symbolism. Potts sets himself apart from the rest with earthy turns of phrase and cunning metaphors. Not one word or syllable is wasted or extraneous. This poet writes on his own terms. To quote him: I'll neither live nor die For any m