David Swartz

Rothko David Swartz

"Rothko," the title long-poem of this slim volume, is an attempt to crystallize 20 texts on a very elusive major "abstract expressionist" (a designation of which the artist himself derived scant satisfaction) into a dramatic monologue in a wholly new verse form, 33 sections of 6 couplets of nearly identical length lines, each section preceded by a brief haiku-like quotation from the 3 most seminal texts. This ambitious "deconstruction" of both man and artist in the very act of his gashing forearms with a razor blade, is of interest to the scholar as well as the general reader, for it provides a fresh and compelling view into the psychology and motivations of one of our greatest Americans. The other 4 long-poems in this volume provide another access to the general reader in particular, insight, that is, into the psyche of the poet himself-"Grove Street," a paen to a quiet suburban setting; "Mundtot," an investigation of the "mouth-death" or curtailment-of-verbal-expression in our own contemporary culture, an over-reliance on market in publishing circles as opposed to the more tangible political repression in the larger past, particularly Nazi Germany; "Beethoven's Teeth," the dark hole of the poet's often wayward consciousness, imagery courtesy of 20th Century's Francis Bacon; and "NORMAN Jack Turner," the concluding work, a requiem for a dear friend, dead of AIDS in 1996. The 4 long-poems exist in their own right but also simply as an aside when juxtaposed to the power and originality of "Rothko" itself.