Logorrhea Dementia: A Self-Diagnosis

by Kyle Dargan

Overview

Attempting to stitch a quilt of language for the new millennium, Kyle Dargan finds himself in his third collection propelled forward by a mélange of voices—individuals passed on the street, journalists, philosophers, movie and cartoon characters, hip-hop emcees, and fellow poets—all of which build to a self-diagnosed logorrhea dementia. Dargan’s voice channels an America mentally fatigued from a decade of foreign conflict yet cautiously hopeful about the promise of the country’s renewed introspection.

In these poems, rife with the anxieties of the aughts, Dargan seeks to destabilize social and cultural landscapes believed to be settled—breaking and clearing ground to lay the foundation for a new American perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820336848
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	09/01/2010
Series:	The VQR Poetry Series
Pages:	84
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

KYLE DARGAN's poetry collections include Logorrhea Dementia: A Self-Diagnosis (Georgia); Bouquet of Hungers (Georgia), which received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and The Listening (Georgia), which was a winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. He is the former managing editor of Callaloo and the founder and current editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at American University.

KYLE DARGAN's poetry collections include Logorrhea Dementia: A Self-Diagnosis (Georgia); Bouquet of Hungers (Georgia), which received the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award; and The Listening (Georgia), which was a winner of the Cave Canem Poetry Prize. He is the former managing editor of Callaloo and the founder and current editor of POST NO ILLS magazine. He is an associate professor of literature and creative writing at American University.

Read an Excerpt

“Entropy”
What if our alphabet was full
of atoms :: I would speak in moles—
spill more in my sleep than a drunk
criers’ convention :: Hear Ye,
I could not be silent :: Silence translates
into all things and nothings
like the atom in fission
labs—atomic models braced
on wooden bones :: If atoms
left fossils, they would be etchings,
an ornate script illegible
across all our faces—

Table of Contents

Breathing: A Preliminary
Acknowledgments

[ ~ firstbreath ~ ]

Entropy
You Lost Your Heart in Manhattan
I'll See It When I Believe It
Dear R
No Passengers
The Most Beautiful City in the Wounded Empire
Equinox
Harmonica, Green Line
Wandered, The

[ ~ secondbreath ~ ]

Infomercial Soliloquy against Apocalypse
Ooth Jazz
Sex with America
Dalmatian Syndrome
A Dark Age
Sound Culture
Penny Therapy
Past Parallax
Ask the Devil
Jesus in the Yucatan
Tauromachia
Conflict Chic
Men Die Miserably for Lack
In Praise of Jailbreaks
Gazelle Theory No. 44
The Burning of a Black Hero, and a Dawn (1971)
Try Again
For a Fee

[ ~ thirdbreath ~ ]

O for Operator
Deciduous Youths
Public-Verb Agreement
Flight School
How to Lick a Blade
Man of the Family
Letter Home No. 3
Star-Spangled Sutra
[Habeas Corpus]
Pilot to Bombardier
Mugabe's Glasses
Dr. Imperial's Tree of Knowledge
A History of Fear
The Father Poem
What the Rapture Will Be Like
My Ban-Kai

Editorial Reviews

Kyle Dargan has already demonstrated that he is a good poet. With Logorrhea Dementia he has become an exceptional poet, and the sort of figure we will need in the future.

ronslate.com

Kyle Dargan has not let contemporary poetics fool him, so don’t let Kyle Dargan fool you. He’s a romantic (small r) with an insatiable desire to construct new meaning in order to heal old experiences. In Logorrhea Dementia, Dargan puts his foot not just into his mouth but also into his heart, worrying the reader into reading experiences that are as otherworldy as they are logical. You will either love this poet or be afraid of the way he integrates theory and prosody then pulls them apart again. Both hip and academic, serious and laid back, he seems never to exist on the page without the strength of both of his eyes doing different things in the name of all of his senses.

author of The Maverick Room: Poems - Thomas Sayers Ellis

Dargan imagines parts of his body abandoning the whole, his heart walking out of his chest, but he always 'remain[s] beautiful in the event / of emergency.' His sneaky, cynical humor finds inspiration in sources as diverse as cartoons, bad movies, overheard cell phone conversations. Dargan titles one of my favorite poems ‘I'll See It When I Believe It.’ With vividness, with style, over and over: he's made a believer out of me.

Founder and Editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly - Kim Roberts

Kyle Dargan’s new collection is an uprising—and an extremely artful one. These fierce and abrasive lyrics and jeremiads possess a visceral immediacy that makes much of the writing of his generational peers seem timid. Be forewarned—you should handle this book with asbestos gloves.

author of Interrogation Palace - David Wojahn

“Kyle Dargan has not let contemporary poetics fool him, so don’t let Kyle Dargan fool you. He’s a romantic (small r) with an insatiable desire to construct new meaning in order to heal old experiences. In Logorrhea Dementia, Dargan puts his foot not just into his mouth but also into his heart, worrying the reader into reading experiences that are as otherworldy as they are logical. You will either love this poet or be afraid of the way he integrates theory and prosody then pulls them apart again. Both hip and academic, serious and laid back, he seems never to exist on the page without the strength of both of his eyes doing different things in the name of all of his senses.”—Thomas Sayers Ellis, author of The Maverick Room: Poems

“Dargan imagines parts of his body abandoning the whole, his heart walking out of his chest, but he always 'remain[s] beautiful in the event / of emergency.' His sneaky, cynical humor finds inspiration in sources as diverse as cartoons, bad movies, overheard cell phone conversations. Dargan titles one of my favorite poems ‘I'll See It When I Believe It.’ With vividness, with style, over and over: he's made a believer out of me.”—Kim Roberts, Founder and Editor of Beltway Poetry Quarterly

"Kyle Dargan’s new collection is an uprising—and an extremely artful one. These fierce and abrasive lyrics and jeremiads possess a visceral immediacy that makes much of the writing of his generational peers seem timid. Be forewarned—you should handle this book with asbestos gloves."—David Wojahn, author of Interrogation Palace

“Kyle Dargan has already demonstrated that he is a good poet. With Logorrhea Dementia he has become an exceptional poet, and the sort of figure we will need in the future.”—ronslate.com

From the Publisher