Christopher Nosnibor reviews Black-Listed Thoughts

I like reading, and would fairly describe myself as an avid reader. However, I often wish I had the time to read more. As we all know, time is one of the rarest commodities in today’s insanely hectic society, and while films and music offer instant gratification, the written word requires patience and mental engagement. It’s long struck me as odd, then, that the majority of bestsellers are whopping great 500+ page doorstops (that most of them are complete pap is, naturally, less surprising). Still, contra to the trend, and more in keeping with people’s busy lifestyles, the rise of flash fiction seems entirely appropriate, and short stories have been enjoying a welcome renaissance in recent years. And now, Propaganda Press have started doing a line in something truly innovative, the microbook.

Mike Meraz’s Black-Listed Thoughts is a compendium of pithy bon mots, one-liners, ponderences, reflections and scathing put-downs that’s perfect for dipping into, although just as easily devoured in a single short sitting. There are words of wisdom, words of encouragement, and words that are against wisdom and, well, pretty much anything else. By turns cynical and revelatory, Meraz is never less than sharp in his delivery. I found myself nodding in agreement, before turning the page and laughing heartily: Black-Listed Thoughts is a book for our schizophrenic modern age. A quick read though it is, this wallet-sized tome provides plenty to chew on and leaves a long aftertaste.


http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#black-listed_thoughts

Doug Draime reviews Black-Listed Thoughts

I don't know how old Mike Meraz is but his book, Black-listed Thoughts,is wise beyond his years. These finely honed observations about his inner and outer life are riveting in their power and simplicity, and full of mystical possibilities. The latter, working as a welcome and very refreshing counter-balance to the doom saying and desperation of "realism" poetry and so-called "outlaw" poets. You will find yourself reading this little black book again and again. I know I did.

Doug Draime, author of "Rock 'n Roll Jizz"

Catfish McDaris reviews Black-Listed Thoughts

Mike Meraz's Black-Listed Thoughts is a dynamite firecracker of words. I was reminded of my favorite two Chinese poets: Li Po (701-762) and Tu Fu (712-770), their poems pack wisdom into a short amount of words similar to Meraz's. The quotes leave impressions like the best French painters of an era gone by. A good poem tells a story in a infinitesimal amount of words, Mike takes it one step further. Some people watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials, John Lennon disliked television except for the ads. I think they are short subliminal messages, much like this tiny black book. It's better to read this book in the daylight and I recommend it.

Catfish McDaris
West Allis, WI

Wolfgang Carstens of Epic Rites Press reviews Black-Listed Thoughts

Black-Listed Thoughts by Mike Meraz is reminiscent of two of my favorite authors: La Rochefoucauld and Nietzsche. Like these two masters of maxims and arrows, Mike Meraz is an expert marksman - each well-placed arrow splitting the one previous. This small black book which contains roughly forty epigrams is not something to be read and then forgotten, but words and ideas to be mulled over, tested, and put into practice. Here is a book upon which to rebuild yourself.

The Camel Saloon reviews Black-Listed Thoughts

The Camel hoofed it down to New Orleans a couple weekends ago for the marriage of actress and original jewel in the world Raphaelle O’Neil to her handsome bayou beau Scot Evert. Vows were taken at City Park by the jazz man Patrick Butler Memorial.

All in all, a beautiful affair, with the post-betrothal festivity held at The Maison on the bride’s favored Frenchman Street, the green and verdant day bringing into the world a composition totaling a proof that love insists on love.

Around the corner on Decatur, a thinly shod and vested Paganini played his songs for tourist dollars, his compositions an equal testament that art insists on art.

New Orleans in this fertile spring also brings forth a fine volume of quotations by Crescent City poet and Saloonatic Mike Meraz. Published by Propaganda Press in late March, the book contains sayings written over the years by Meraz, the long-time editor of Black-Listed Magazine.

In less than 40 pages, Meraz's collection ranges from the comical ("when all else fails/show some cleavage") to the political ("do not rage against the machine/replace it").

With a wicked wit and the sharpest of tongues, Meraz never misses his mark. The Camel's personal favorite?

"I have come to realize
the only good thing
about Modern Art
is the free wine and beer."


Now for the link:

The book: http://alt-current.com/pp/pp_item.html#black-listed_thoughts

Paul Harrison author of "Meet Me at Gethsemane" reviews Black-Listed Thoughts

i am writing this on good friday not long after a bird shat on my head and down page 21 of Bohumil Hrabal's Closely Observed Trains and why not when somewhere else:

"it's 9:00pm on the Fourth of July and
I am listening to Samuel Barber's
Adagio for strings. What the hell
is wrong with me?!"

who knows? maybe nothing. just like there's nothing wrong with New Orleans based poet, Mike Meraz's, new chap, Black-Listed Thoughts, a series of musings that can be read as one continous poem or the experiences of forty years lived.

and yes, some hit, some miss but who could fault lines like these:

"I have come to realise
the only good thing
about Modern Art
is the free wine and beer"

and as i crack open another VB and read another line i am drawn to Mike's gentle observations but also those flashes of anger and brilliance as he whispers his truths and "all the centuries surround us.