Resistance is a Spanish Guitar poems by George Wallace/ review by Mike Jurkovic

Resistance is a Blue Spanish Guitar

George Wallace

Blue Light Press, 2021

http://www.bluelightpress.com

One can immediately argue that Wallace is an heir, a true descendant of the Beats or the cool visionary who had the balls to mix two guitars, bass, and drums to the old juke joint quartet and bam! here we have Resistance is a Blue Spanish Guitar, a roller-coastering full howl hot desert run through a country tearing at its own torn garments.

Seventy-six gifts from a real road runner, Wallace let’s it all go: language, time, temper, the steering wheel and nuance. America’s up for grabs and everyone’s reaching, clawing, threading the needle and getting stuck reaching for momentary freedoms, ie: the only ones remaining. So he cheers the good saints on as we forge daily through the thinning space between gangs and government with a full throated, sure footed prosody that cries as it exalts, wonders as it reveals. “How the city manages to keep these cars moving is a mystery to me” he readily admits,

joining poet and reader to the same listening heart, the same enlightened soul. As it should be but they don’t tell you that.

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George Wallace is writer in residence at the Walt Whitman Birthplace, editor of Poetrybay, and author of 37 previous collections of poetry, including Smashing Rock and Straight As Razors (Blue Light Press, 2017). Based in the New York City performance scene, he teaches at Pace University in Manhattan and travels internationally to conduct readings and present his work. Recent awards and honors include: Corona d’oro (Korca Literary Festival AB) 2019; Orpheus Prize (Orpheus Festival, BG) 2018; Alexander the Great Gold Medal (UNESCO-Salamis, GR) 2018; Centro Studii Archivio d’Occidente Award (CSAO, It) 2018; Naim Frasheri Prize and Festival Laureate (Ditet e Naimit Festival, MK) 2017; Blue Light Book Award 2017; Laureate, National Beat Poetry Festival 2015-16.

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Mike Jurkovic is a frequent reviewer for Lightwood. He is the President of CAPS, Calling All Poems and has published numerous, poems, articles and reviews.