Mercury

Composed in the direct, accessible, consciousness-piercing style, Mercury comprises a group of long poems. These interlocking works speak to the substance and essence of what is said, transmitted, transacted, "communicated" between persons. Reines proposes that substance and essence are opposites, and explores this in contexts including commercial cinema and internet porn.

"This astonishing young poet is surely destined to be one of the crucial voices of her generation."-Michael Silverblatt, Bookworm

"I applaud Ariana's desire to be disrespectful, lewd, broken, narcissistic-all the unforgivable female crimes which if instead were committed by humans would just be called 'hot.' She does it here and she does it WRONG, cheer, cheer."-Eileen Myles, Poetry Foundation

Your music makes me feel lonely

Your music makes me feel lonely

Your music

Makes me feel lonely

Picking a lemon

Late at night

My heart tightens

I fear nature

Your music makes me feel lonely

I must be responsible for it

I'm alive

I have this hair helmet on

I'm so alive

I say yes to the megaplex

You say it's awful isn't it awful

I say yeah

So what. Something sentimental

This place

I agree

Huge

We're gonna go into the movie

. . .

The day is long enough

The day is long enough

The day is so long enough

"Mercury is the smallest planet and the closest to the sun. Mercury, the chemical, is highly toxic, commonly known as Quicksilver, and is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature. Mercury in its book form is filled with shimmering poetry that tastes like cotton candy mixed with cum and works as an antidote to the poison of withholding."-Liz Axelrod, Luna Luna

Author: Ariana Reines
Publisher: Fence Books
Published: 12/06/2011
Pages: 261
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.05lbs
Size: 8.60h x 6.40w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781934200476

About the Author
Named one of Flavorwire's 100 best living writers and "a crucial voice of her generation" by KCRW's Michael Silverblatt, Ariana Reines is an award-winning poet, Obie-winning playwright, performing artist, and translator. Her books include A Sand Book (Tin House, 2019), winner of the 2020 Kingsley Tufts Prize & longlisted for the National Book Award. Other books include The Cow (Alberta Prize, 2006), Coeur De Lion (2007), and Mercury (2011), all from Fence Books, and The Origin of the World (2014) from Semiotext(e). Her Obie-winning play Telephone (2009) was commissioned by The Foundry Theatre and has been performed and published in Norwegian translation at the Mollebyen Literary Festival (2017) and at KW Berlin (2018) among others. Recent commissions include Possession (2023), a major sculpture & performance collaboration with Liz Magic Laser, at Pioneer Works in Brooklyn, NY, and Divine Justice (2022), a 24-hour theatrical environment at Performance Space New York. Reines' performances & theatrical works include: Mortal Kombat (2015), commissioned by Le Mouvement Biel/Bienne & performed at The Whitney Museum, New York, NY, USA, and Gallery TPW, Toronto, CA, and Lorna (2013) at Martin E. Segal Theatre, New York, USA, both in collaboration with Jim Fletcher, The Origin of the World (2013) at Modern Art, London UK, and many others. Art exhibitions include Pubic Space (2016), a collaboration with Oscar Tuazon at Modern Art in London, UK, Exhaust (2016) at Contemporary Art Tasmania, AU, and Jane Dark (2014) at Western Front, Vancouver, Canada. Reines is the translator of Baudelaire's My Heart Laid Bare (Mal-O-Mar, 2009); Jean-Luc Hennig's The Little Black Book of Grisélidis Réal: Days and Nights of an Anarchist Whore (Semiotext(e) 2009); and Tiqqun's Preliminary Materials Toward a Theory of the Young Girl (Semiotext(e) 2012). Her poetry, essays, and interviews have appeared in Artforum, Art in America, The Believer, The Boston Review, Bomb, Granta, Harpers, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Poetry, and more. She has composed texts for and interviewed many artists, including Nicole Eisenman, Niki de Saint Phalle, K8 Hardy, Seth Price, Oscar Tuazon, Justine Kurland, Liz Larner, Anna Sew Hoy, Carol Rama, Mondongo, Izhar Patkin, Sanya Kantarovsky, and more.