Thursday, June 22, 2006

An open letter to Amanda Nadelberg from Andrea Baker

Re: Isa the Truck Named Isadore (Slope Editions, 2006)


Dear Amanda,

If I had your cell phone
Number I would call and tell you
How lovely your book and reading were
But actually I’m shy and would not call but
I like to think that I would and I would like to write
A review and say how good your book is which I purchased last night at
Your reading here in Brooklyn hosted by the Burning Chair Series but I don’t know if it’s
Ethical to write a review when we share a press. And I was interested in your work for a while
But when I heard you read that poem about the Fifle in American Tale and
Jews and many other poems which were very very good and so refreshing because they were
Happy and sort of hip but chipper and underscored by goodness, I brought your book home and read it this morning-
It is making me feel so good. Frank O’hara was one of the first poets I felt attached to
I loved that poem Why I Am Not a Painter when I was in high school
But I can’t really get into him anymore though I would like to but
The Frank O’hara-ness of your poems I can get into though they are Midwestern and not
At all New York
I like them so much. So thank you. Also
People should buy your book because the poems are good and fun
Individually but really super-good and super-fun when read all-together.

Roses From,
Andrea

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