Dodging Traffic Review by Teresa Houle
Ampersand Books has done the literary scene justice by publishing this and the book itself is a quality piece of printing. This book proves to me that poetry and flash are closer than ever. With his images of stretch marks in all their sexiness, bruised knees, inner thighs, broken windshields, light bulbs and bridges exploding, I’ve tried several times over to master what seem like well-placed bricks that make up the structure of J. Bradley’s work. “Do you wear boredom as a plastic bag over your head or use the loose oxygen around it like a chalkboard? Page one hooks me with something I need to understand, and I read on. Each re-reading grows on me and digs further. His words are honest and raw, spilling our dirty secrets out before us as the beautiful experiences we can’t describe. His cadence hops, keeping us on our toes. There are short poems with a push like, “On The Day Of Your Mastectomy” and the hilarious, “What Makes A Man A Man,” and longer pieces with perfect juxtapositions and balances that can mention Tony Danza while remaining sexy. “These Are Vows” was another personal favorite, with stanzas promising to knife fight the snooze button and the sun in order to give his beloved five more minutes and promises of bank robbing adventures with happy endings in the getaway car. Sex is a strong theme to Bradley’s work. I like his approach and sense of humor: graphic, yet somehow not pornographic, even as he successfully uses Ernie, Grover and Yoda to glorify fisting in the crowning jewel of this collection, “Archeology.” It’s three and a half pages of four-fingered poetry. Wow. Before this publication Bradley has had a strong following in the slam poetry scene in Orlando, Florida, where he oversees the longest-running weekly poetry slam in the state, Broken Speech Poetry Slam. But I’ve been seeing his flash fiction pop up a lot lately and am pleased that his next collection will likely be a mix of poetry and flash. My only suggestion to the next house to publish him is spiral binding. It’s easier to hold open with one hand.
Visit Ampersand Books on the web at http://ampersandreview.com/Ampersand_Books.html
Teresa Houle lives in Victoria BC with her family and writes out her fears whenever possible. Links to her published work can be found at http://dragonstories.wordpress.com/.
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