Poems by Elaine Equi
An innovative, whimsical exploration of the effects of technology on everyday life.
Click and Clone explores the tone and timbre of American life as it has been colored by the new metaphors and images brought to us by our continuing technological revolution. Equi is interested in a new form of realism – one that acknowledges the fact that what we think of as normal and everyday is now permeated with the fantastic. These poems draw on the conventions of science fiction and surrealism. Clones, lucid dreaming, and a tarot deck constructed from old movie stills are just a few of the marvelously routine occurrences in this maze of interlocking worlds and poems. Whether she is writing about art, pop culture, consumerism, or reality TV, Equi does so with clarity and wit. As inventive as she is agile, this author is a true original.
Reviews
“Whether celebrating clones or revising Led Zeppelin (‘That stairway only leads half-way to heaven’), Equi melds verse with aphorism, wisdom with wicked playfulness.”
—Entertainment Weekly“Elaine Equi is one who won’t stay ‘inside the line… or outside the line. // I am the line itself,’ she proclaims in the lead poem ‘Follow Me.’ In an age of instant and infinite communication marked by blips, beeps, and tweets, she continues to streamline her unique vision. . . . This troubling topic, seemingly alien to a poetic sensibility, is indicative of Equi’s reach into the future. She also keeps the past magically alive. ” —Brooklyn Rail
“Equi’s name-dropping of fellow poets and friends, her use of various forms—from dialogue script to sonnet to one-line aphoristic phrase—gives this collection an energetic charm.”—American Poet
“Elaine Equi is not a poet’s poet and not a people’s poet, and yet she is both. Her poetry is wry and sparse. Often less than a page, her poems read something like eloquent one-liners that along with laughter effortlessly provoke profundity: a little Wang Wei, a little Frank O’Hara, a little Nicanor Parra, but mostly, just a little.”—Guernica
“Elaine Equi’s poems evoke two situations simultaneously: that of a good friend confiding in you (especially confiding something blunt or off-color), and that of a stand-up comic telling jokes on stage. The alchemy of these two overlapping scenarios produces a voice slightly estranged from its own speaker in advance, a kind of blurted archness that inspires everyone listening to new heights of explosive giddiness. . . . Equi’s smart poems are entrancing, entertaining, and endlessly surprising.”—Third Factory
“Equi’s newest collection is punchy and fast paced; saturated with an urban tang (‘You Know the Type // A NY guy / in an NY hat / walking an NY dog’). Modern yet staunchly accessible in their quirkiness, her poems feel alive. ‘Nowhere is there a poet / who sings the sanitized decadence of our times,’ Equi writes, though one could argue that her collection comes as close as possible.” —Publishers Weekly
“Elaine Equi seems to know all our foibles and, instead of edging toward the door, reports the latest developments with precise, loving equanimity. Her voice is unique: poised, witty, intimate, and somehow interstellar. It’s as if she’s visiting from a future where we all appear transparent. Click and Clone is an electrified pleasure field.” —Aram Saroyan
“Spick and span, cut and dry, shake and bake, and now Elaine Equi introduces Click and Clone. These poetically altered texts punch wholes into the multiverses of pop and splendor, short and longing, prose and dreams. Equi says that art can no longer imitate life, it just needs to keep up. As they might say at the racetrack, she leads by a verse.”—Charles Bernstein
