Description
The poems in MOUTHFULS OF SPACE offer a dissociative journey through the life of a once-homeless recovering drug addict and victim of childhood abuse. In his debut solo collection, Tom Prime's hypnotic, surreal voice reveals his transition from the street to the menial labour of factory work. There is beauty here, too, and mordant, bitter comedy: a sprite-like being imagines his hallucinations are a parallel dimension intermeshed with his lived reality on the street, where indescribable creatures coexist with "hyenas dressed as real estate agents" and those who march in "the skeleton parade." MOUTHFULS OF SPACE explores trauma and the dehumanizing enterprise of factory work with sensitivity but also with suffocating desperation. Still, Prime finds comfort in "the mother-shadow of trees, the old light of vibrating stars."
Poetry.
Author Bio
Tom Prime is the author or co-author of five poetry chapbooks, including A Strange Hospital (Proper Tales Press) and Gravitynipplemilkplanet Anthroposcenesters (above/ground press), as well as A Cemetery for Holes, with Gary Barwin (Gordon Hill Press). His poems have appeared in Brave New Word, Carousel, Ditch, Fjords Review, The Northern Testicle Review, The Rusty Toque, Lana Turner, periodicityjournal, Vallum, and Watch Your Head. His song albums include Time to Die and Gold Medallion. Tom has an MFA in Creative Writing from University of Victoria and is working on his PhD at Western University in London, Ontario.
Author City: LONDON, ON CAN