February 03

5/5 ( ratings)

"February 2003 may be a rather unmemorable patch in many people’s memories by now, but for Todd Colby, Alex Gildzen, Thurston Moore, and Matthew Wascovich, that month, now over two years old, has a more special significance. The four poets wrote a poem a day that February, encapsulating the day and/or some of its activities in pieces that range from a few short sentences to more extended forms. It’s obvious that some days seemed more poignant than others to each of the contributors, as some of the poems seem like mere afterthoughts, but it’s an interesting facet of the process, with length and style of each piece being signposts of their particular mindset that day as much as the actual contents of the poems. Repeated themes arise, and tendencies become apparent, but, even though it’s not difficult to read the book in a single sitting, the sense of repetition and reprisal is never very tedious. Subjects range from love, life, and politics to the more mundane aspects of everyday life, like the weather, phone calls, and daily meals. February 2003 is an interesting experiment in daily chronicling, and while each of the book’s 112 poems isn’t electrifying, it’s interesting how immersed one can sometimes feel in the lives of the authors. Sometimes the more commonplace musings are the most satisfying, because, in these moments, the poems often exude the book’s heaviest senses of true connection to the daily life of the artists. And while it’s common in poetry for strength to lie in the sublime, February 03, when it celebrates or commemorates the ordinary, finds its impact in more human, earthbound material." - Adam Strohm, http://www.fakejazz.info/fake/archive...