Dashboard Horus: A Bird's Eye View of the Universe

  If there is no part of you unfulfilled by stock options and prime time programming and cutting edge digital technology – then perhaps these poems are not for you (From “Notes to Self”, Richard Modiano) It’s not often you find a warning label in a poetry book; it’s refreshing, and sometimes necessary. To be honest, poetry is not for everyone, especially poetry that champions the causes of those who are not socially/economically/racially privileged, that’s also political, passionate, and deeply personal. Richard Modiano’s The Forbidden Lunchbox (© 2022 Punk Hostage Press), is all of these things.  Full disclosure: I’ve known Modiano, though not as well as I’d like to, for almost two decades. I know him as an expert haiku/senryu poet, a guy who was instrumental in steering Beyond Baroque back from the brink of financial ruin, and as a certified member of the Industrial Workers of the World . I know him as an honest, forthright, decent man, who, once committed to a cause, integ...

© 2022 Richard Modiano While a resident of New York City Richard Modiano became active in the literary community connected to the Poetry Project, where he came to know Gregory Corso, Allen Ginsberg, Anne Waldman, William S. Burroughs and Ted Berrigan. From 2010 to 2019, he served as Executive Director of Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center. The Huffington Post named him as one of 200 people doing the most to promote poetry in the United States. Richard is a rank and file member of the Industrial Workers of the World. In 2019 he was elected Vice President of the California State Poetry Society.  His collection  The Forbidden Lunchbox  will be released by Punk Hostage Press this summer.   Gaijin (usually translated as foreigner, literally outside person; outsider) Hike into western foothills of Heian Kyo Leave the path A shortcut through the bamboo grove And out the other side, someone's farm Stop to rest, sit ...