It Starts from the Belly and Blooms: Poems

by Thomas Fucaloro

Overview

A strong dose of Bukowski, Breaking Bad, and brilliance. Intense and gripping, with splashes of outlandish humor, it is a full frontal assault on the challenges of modern life for outsiders. As award-winning poet Mark Bibbins raves, "Thomas Fucaloro is here and he is showing you his big messy heart. (Actually, if you’re looking for other body parts, you’ll find most of them in this book.). Poet Corrina Bain (louderARTS project) applauds the work: "It Starts from the Belly and Blooms dives facefirst into the glory and wildness of life, combining fearless authenticity, humor, and a gut-punching ear for images. All the reader can do is hope that Fucaloro be accorded what he deserves: a lasting mark on the face of American poetics." Thomas Fucaloro is an NYC poet and editor for Great Weather for Media. His first book, Inheriting Craziness is Like a Soft Halo of Light was released on Three Rooms Press in 2010 to rave reviews.  He has been on two National Slam Teams and is currently an MFA student in creative writing at the New School.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780989512541
Publisher:	Three Rooms Press
Publication date:	02/25/2014
Pages:	114
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.80(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Thomas Fucaloro is an NYC poet and editor for Great Weather for Media. His first book, Inheriting Craziness is Like a Soft Halo of Light was released on Three Rooms Press in 2010 to rave reviews. He has been on two National Slam Teams and is currently an MFA student in creative writing at the New School.

Table of Contents

Waking up in a bath tub full of ice cubes 1

Waiting on line at Ralph's Ices 2

Lizards and video cameras 3

He walks to the edge of the George Washington Bridge and whispers Helen 5

Sammy the nerdy, depressed but optimistic poet-penguin-boy 6

Animal of a different fang 8

The moon is a gentle reminder 9

Cheating on your lover on your wedding day 11

The hippo on the diving board 13

There's nothing worse than going to your sister's dance recital, sober 14

My dog knows all my poems 15

No use crying 17

Growing Flowers-after Jeanann Verlee's Country Hard 18

The many uses of knives 20

i before e except after vodka 22

Dear Starbucks 24

If politicians aren't getting into bar room brawls then they aren't doing their jobs 25

Cocks 27

The new literature 28

The new america 30

A Typical Tuesday Night 31

Staten Island brings out the death in me 32

If you claim to be an anarchist then you are not a true anarchist because titles and groups are part of the social order 33

Valentine's Day is a great day for an ex-lover to get engaged 34

No savings, no job 36

Life is a circle to the squares and the squares of the squares or Circling life with a crayon doesn't provide much color in-between the lines or Sons who get their fathers accidentally killed shall one day rise like the sun or The movie the Lion King is about a bunch of hippies who get way too high and think they are lions 37

There will be snow 40

She wouldn't let me into her pants but she let me into her heart 41

Knows no choreography 43

wilting flowers always dance in the moonlight to the beat of each other's poetry 44

Children double dutch in the endless moonlight / the zombies come, eat all their brains/ it's a full moon tonight 46

I want to go to a graveyard and take molly 47

I want to have children so that they can one day grow up and watch me die 48

- is a part of- 49

The killing of Optimus Prime was a business decision 50

You have autumn in your eyes 52

If you don't let anyone in then you can't let anything out 53

Garbage Day 55

i smile 56

The day my mom made me put my childhood into a box and give it to Jared Singer 57

class 59

Using colors as numbers or Using numbers as children or It's not educational until someone's bleeding 60

Touching 62

Felt more like a release 63

Facebook is a graveyard of lost lovers 65

The worst thing we can do is procreate at a time like this 67

How an 8th Grade Geography Student becomes a Man 69

It's hard to tell the students from the madmen 70

(From the point of view of a 64 pack of crayola crayons in your hall closet behind the board games as the spirit of Walt Whitman moves from color to color) 72

Oil canvas paintings of New Jersey with all these bears wearing hunting gear shooting all these humans floating in my head 73

The Three Headed Monster Squid Things 75

Air in a Frame 77

Hair Appointment 79

Good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Thomas Fucaloro and I am a vessel 80

I can't believe I let you touch my balls 82

That shit 84

Some look at the glass as half full / some look at the glass as half empty / I look at it like a six pack or A beautiful wound or I drink responsibly; it is my responsibility to drink or I don't think I should drink anymore yet I think I should drink more 85

What Tom and Jerry said behind the scenes 87

Cancer is so romantic 90

I would do you if the lighting was right 91

When you sew what you reap you have a nice, comfy blanket 92

Why do some lovers just want to give a fuck? 94

Sometimes the best thing about a lover is when they leave 95

On my stoop 96

Editorial Reviews

"Thomas Fucaloro is here and he is showing you his big messy heart. (Actually, if you’re looking for other body parts, you’ll find most of them in this book.) “Love is a napkin,” he says, and I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s going to take. His poems are “angry and emotional and irrational / just like the cops”—but in the end, like the rest of us, the guy’s just trying to get some napkin. Let’s give him some napkin."
—Mark Bibbins, winner of Lambda Literary Award, Sky Lounge

"It Starts from the Belly and Blooms dives facefirst into the glory and wildness of life, combining fearless authenticity, humor, and a gut-punching ear for images. All the reader can do is hope that Fucaloro be accorded what he deserves: a lasting mark on the face of American poetics."
—Corrina Bain, Writer-Performer, Staff at the louderARTS Project

From the Publisher