The Last Time As We Are

by Taylor Mali

Overview

You don't need a classroom to be a teacher, and you don't need to be a teacher to help someone learn a lesson. Taylor Mali's poetry explores this truth in entertaining and plainspoken ways because "the last thing this world needs is another poem" ("The Call to What We Know"). Whether discussing the language of love or the love of language, the poems contained in The Last Time As We Are prove that "He who dares to teach must never cease to learn." Not since Taylor Mali has there been a poet the likes of Taylor Mali-he is a man of unique properties. He is tagged as a performance poet, but his performances, rather than being frontal assaults, are leavened by charm and wit and could survive happily on the page. -Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate In this latest collection, Mali's work buzzes, hums, snaps and zaps, the tour-de-force of Mali on stage having been properly captured and catalogued on the page. -Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, "Everything Is Everything"

Customer Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935904854
Publisher:	Write Bloody Publishing
Publication date:	10/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	419 KB

About the Author

Taylor Mali was one of the original poets to appear on the HBO series Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry. The author of two collections of poetry, What Learning Leaves and The Last Time As We Are, his work has appeared in anthologies and other publications including The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry, The Idiot's Guide to Slam Poetry, Spoken Word Revolution, The Tampa Review, Pank, Taj Mahal Review, Cadillac Cicatrix, Spindle, and Paddlefish. He runs the Page Meets Stage reading series at the Bowery Poetry Club in New York City. For more information, visit www.taylormali.com.

Read an Excerpt

THE LAST TIME AS WE ARE

Because later that morning

the surgeon would cut me

four times, twice on each side,

once on the outside

and once on the inside,

leaving me with nothing

but tiny scars, and I would,

in a few months' time,

be able to be inside you

with nothing - not worry,

nor latex - I kissed you awake

when it was still dark,

and you opened to me,

and we made love

for the last time as we are,

as God made us,

which is to say,

as God made me.

Someday soon,

I will never be a father.

Editorial Reviews

Not since Taylor Mali has there been a poet the likes of Taylor Mali-he is a man of unique properties. He is tagged as a performance poet, but his performances, rather than being frontal assaults, are leavened by charm and wit and could survive happily on the page. -Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate

In this latest collection, Mali's work buzzes, hums, snaps and zaps, the tour-de-force of Mali on stage having been properly captured and catalogued on the page. -Cristin O'Keefe Aptowicz, "Everything Is Everything”

From the Publisher