Böcker av Roger Aplon

Many artists often decry their early work. They may either try to destroy it or spend valuable time agonizing over it. I'm among the latter and have been thinking about a revised edition of It's Mother's Day for many years. When Cyberwit Press offered to publish the work I was extremely pleased. In 1996, at that particular juncture in my life, the publication of the first edition represented an expansion in my tone, vision and voice. I had recently left San Francisco, my home for 20years, and was caring for my mother in her waning years. The 'writer's block' - Read: personal upheaval that had inhibited my commitment to writing for many years seemed to have passed. In its place was born a determination to begin again.

MUSTERING WHAT'S LEFT spans forty years of Roger Aplon's career. The poetry collection is a historical investigation into Aplon's transformation as a writer. It's a evolution of spirit, style, and craft. Many of the early poems (especially - The Monologues) were cursed, celebrated, maligned &/but eventually acknowledged as 'in the spirit of their time'. Aplon captures image and tenor via an impressionistic rendering of the color and character of the world. Each rendering plays with voice and tone, generating a spectrum of speakers from one volume to the next. From the monological explorations in Stiletto to the impressionistic responses to contemporary music in Improvisations the rhythms & images Aplon has chosen were meant to encourage the curious reader to respond viscerally - maybe touching a nerve that might otherwise remain innocent.

An extensive collection of impressionistic prose-poetry influenced & shaped by/while listening to recordings of experimental 'new' music by thirteen composers such as Miles Davis, Elliot Carter, Jason Robinson, Denny Zeitlin & John Zorn.