Janelle Adsit included a great review of Frank Montesonti’s A Civic Pageant in her chapbook roundup for The Pedestal. Here are some of our favorite sections:
This collection is a planet coincident with our own. As Montesonti orbits the Earth—sometimes from a plane, always from an elevated mind—he changes the light readers dwell in. A Civic Pageant has its own gravity. It pulls the detritus of our world in, spinning a varied assortment together. Prayer can take place over a jar of Miracle Whip. The baseball bat, the Devil, and rhubarb pie all exhibit a kind of patriotism. The book is well-stocked. In spellbinding lines, Montesonti can discuss “every 1930s French Novel” as well as dark matter theory. Ask the poet what the weight of the world is, and find not an answer but rather a rendering…
…His is a multi-pointed geometry of attention…
…Montesonti’s craft summons readers from habitual negligence. “[T]he world never runs out,” Montesonti writes. Let him convince you.
You can read the entire review here.
A Civic Pageant, winner of the Spring, 2007 Black River Chapbook Competition, is available from Black Lawrence Press and Amazon.