The Disapproval of my Toaster By Seth Brown

The Disapproval of my Toaster

By Seth Brown

59 pages

ISBN: 978-81-8253-764-4

Cyberwit

Copyright 2021

 

Review by LB Sedlacek

 

Seth Brown’s new poetry book is essentially a pandemic project with poems written during that time.  He is donating half of all of the profits from his book to COVID relief in India home of the Publisher.  Poets and Poetry tend to show kindness while they are attempting to wake up the world so to speak, and Brown has certainly accomplished that with this project.

 

For example here’s a couple of lines from the poem “#140 characters”

“It’s unfair that the space

Counts as a character”

 

He cleverly turns a poem about perhaps tweeting to a poem about isolation.  This poem, as in his others, is a careful consideration of character use and the use of the word character.  It’s exciting to read a poem with so many different layers to unpeel.

 

From the poem “The Disapproval Of My Toaster”

“Everyone yells at inanimate objects

But I can feel them staring at me.

Not all at once;

I’m not crazy.

I’ll just sometimes find myself alone in a room

With a certain object staring at me,

As if to say,

“Hey, what happened to all those plans we made”

 

In this poem, Brown takes inanimate objects and makes them real.  Wasn’t everyone going a little bit stir crazy being quarantined? 

 

Brown captures the feelings of the pandemic but in a way that everyone can relate to.  It’s hard enough living through such a thing without being bombarded with yet more disturbing thoughts and feelings about it. 

 

From the poem “Don’t Be Cross”

“Elvis died on the toilet

And I think if Elvis came back

To find all his biggest fans

Were putting up toilet shrines

And wearing toilet necklaces

The King would be a little confused”

 

Brown examines the King himself in this poem.  I had the opportunity to visit Graceland once simply out of curiosity as I am not a rabid Elvis fan.  The way people worship their idols he likens to a religion which is a fair comparison. 

 

Seth Brown writes in free verse and covers a variety of subjects in these poems.  From his poem “Hope”:  “I tell her / things could always improve.”  Reading Brown’s poetry book will definitely improve your poetry world.

 

 

 

 

~LB Sedlacek is the author of the poetry collections “I’m No ROBOT,” “This Space Available,” “Words and Bones,” “The Blue Eyed Side,” “Simultaneous Submissions,” “Swim,” and “The Poet Next Door.”  Her non-fiction books include “The Poet Protection Plan” and “Electric Melt:  How to Write, Publish, Read Walt Whitman and Survive as a Writer and Poet).  Her short story collection is entitled “Four Thieves of Vinegar & Other Short Stories.”  She writes poetry reviews for  www.thepoetrymarket.com  You can find out more:  www.lbsedlacek.com