Poetry. Of the poems in THE LENGTH OF AFTERNOON, Cushing writes: Most of the poems in this book concern the way human time astonishes with its simultaneous creation and dismantling of meaning, cycling its children through dreaming and waking, dancing and sitting still, living in intimacy and living in solitude, acting in history and in one's imagination, being borne from the water to the shore and then back: 'activity, not communication' (John Cage). The scared schoolteacher poets and literary hustlers who control the poetry scene in this country will have to choke on this book. Cushing's work proves that one can be part of the insular atmosphere of the academy and still write with brave, bold, noble strokes of poetic integrity -- Michael C. Ford. Cushing is the 1994 winner of Renegade magazine's Warlord of Subculture award, and teaches on the English faculties of California Polytechnic State University and Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo County.

Author City: SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA USA

James Cushing, San Luis Obispo Poet Laureate for 2008-2010, hosts jazz and rock programs on KCPR-FM and teaches literature and creative writing at Cal Poly. He publishes widely. His collections include PINOCCHIO'S REVOLUTION, UNDERCURRENT BLUES, and THE LENGTH OF AFTERNOON.