John M. Bennett, LAVANDERÍA NOMBRE

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John M. Bennett’s LAVANDERÍA NOMBRE is pamjacked with everything we’ve come to expect of & enjoy in his work — an erudition, his ability with words & their placement (including a remarkable skill to break them up so they break out by themselves), a recognition & appreciation of others, his prolificacy. Plus an underlying social awareness whose presence is always there; & a humor that tends to lurk throughout but sometimes will be allowed to take center stage. I’m still cracking up over “PEPPERONI BRAIN SCAN.” — Mark Young

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I remember 30 years ago coming upon my first poem by John M. Bennett. I could tell it was well-made, but I couldn't tell exactly how it was made. Bennett was making decisions, as all poets do when constructing poems, but his were not the normal, obvious, predictable decisions. So, before doing anything else, I thought I should see about identifying some of his compositional decisions. 

In his most recent book, LAVENDERIA NOMBRE (which Bennett translates as "A Laundry Called Name"), there is a poem entitled "break fast."  Why is there a space in the middle of the word "breakfast." Make a break for it, and do it fast. Put an end to your refusal to eat (to consume? to possess? to process? to ruminate?) And do it at the start of your day, as a source of nutrition. Why do I need to remove the space between before attempting to assess the available or potential meanings? Are Bennett poems always primarily about reading, in the sense that reading is often if not always primarily about thinking?

Before reading the first word of the poem, I am offered the opportunity to write a kind of poem of my own, as a way of taking part in Bennett's process of making poetic decisions.

---- jim leftwich