ACCIDENCY

by Joel Steven Kuszai

Accidency by Joel Steven Kuszai continues Roof's tradition of introducing the first major work of new writers to a global audience. This volume collects two poems. "A Miscellany" is a serial poem based on Shakespearean rhetoric that reveals the tragedy of modern consciousness, "At great doom / with gracious benefits." "Brooklyn Yards" does not appear on the surface to be a procedural work, "-I’m afraid to admit it / out of listening- / replacement parts could be a problem." As it progresses Kuszai wonders "why all the murders aren’t connected."

"Joel Kuszai's anarchist-inflected social lyrics wreak havoc on the simulated sense of our surround-sound society. Kuszai's exuberant poem surge with voicings that pierce thought. Accidency is a pleasure of the senses, mindful of eye and ear. This long-awaited debut is scintillating."
– Charles Bernstein