Ned Discusses Beckett in Key West
by Lawrence Mallory

“Larry Mallory’s Ned Collection is a TED Talk delivered by Descartes, while being heckled by Jerry Seinfeld and Steve Martin. Ned is a forensic detective following the trail of what’s been left out, what’s beneath and outside of. The poems stand on their head to point at or not point at the secrets behind the secrets. Human foibles get a wry tongue-lashing and a pat on the back. In one piece, Ned admits he’s a ‘smart ass.’ Yes, his poetry inspires you to look at the world with one raised eyebrow. Buckle up, a load of surprising words, images and inconclusive obser-vations are coming your way!”

—Madeline Artenberg, author of Awakened, poems by Madeline Artenberg and Iris N. Schwartz

“As a devotee of Kant, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard, Lawrence Mallory not only views humanity through a bemused philosophical prism but his vision is alive to what is comic in our foibles, misadventures, and in our tragedies. The poet is quiz¬zical but never judgmental; he observes the mud wrestling-like chaos of the late 20^th Century and aims to make sense of senselessness. My mother-in-law wants to know/what it means./Krapp’s Last Tape./Is Krapp going to die?/Is there a dis¬ease?/Is he getting ready/to kill himself?/I suggest the meaning is/there is no meaning. What if sense is nonsense? Without pretense or affectation, the poet asks whether all that is beautifully idiosyncratic in us is helpless before the ravenous forces of consumerism and surveillance. It is in the answering of almost unan¬swerable questions where the greatness of Mallory’s poetry lies. This only begins to scratch the surface of what makes Ned Discusses Beckett in Key West: The Com¬plete Poems of Lawrence Mallory, a marvel. These poems are pleasurable in their sardonic darkness; they are made for the 21^st Century.”

—Stephanie Dickinson, author of Girl Behind the Door and The Emily Fables

“Lawrence Mallory was a unique individual and poet who affected an extended family of writers and readers. In Ned The Monster we sense the man behind the Ned persona who argues for living life on his own terms and whose pithy obser¬vations create a kind of existential wisdom. Born in West Virginia, he studied phi¬losophy and literature and spent the rest of his life involved with the arts while making a living as an excellent technical writer. By reading his poetry, you’ll know the man’s essence.”

—Tony Vlachos

Read excerpts from Ned Discusses Beckett in Key West: The Collected Poems of Lawrence Mallory