m Formaro’s poetry takes random and intentional thoughts, glances and earshots, and torques them until some sense of motion emerges. What occurs in this collection is “advice” that is unstable, open, and resonates in multiple directions at once. Surprises from poem to poem, line to line, and word to word. Enjoy the dance and don’t get hung up on the steps.
Endorsements for Advice and Other Absurdities for My Daughter:
Tom Formaro has some advice for us, and I’m following it — every bit. A poem like “Clarification,” for example, tells us in a sheer list what the poet means: turns out, he means anything and everything. His beloved daughter (but, really, he’s addressing us) needs advice on traveling, on bank runs, on floods, on nuclear annihilation, on summer heat, on being cool (“follow edges”), on courtship, on bad advice, on gardening, on how to deal when “something good” finally comes along. That goodness finally is to be found in the very act of writing, poems where when “I confess the untrue/it becomes me.” The pun is intentional: it is becoming, or beautiful; and, in giving advice to a beloved, he is becoming someone who can write about love.
- Al Filreis, Kelly Writers House, founder of ModPo
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