Poetry New York

-Sophie Gordon

            I had the pleasure of a mostly private show by Rodrigo Toscano where he read from his book To Leveling Swerve in addition to some pieces I had never read. The mostly bare stage of the Bowery Poetry Club perfectly contrasted Toscano’s high energy, its simplicity complementing his intensity.

            After reading Rodrigo Toscano’s To Leveling Swerve and being entranced yet confused by his odd use of sounds which were seemingly nonsensical, it was a lot of pleasure to watch him perform. When he stepped into the spotlight on the dimly lit stage of the Bowery Poetry Club, he seemed quiet and reserved but charming in an awkward way. He dominated the stage with his charisma and when he spoke, his passion echoed through the ears of the audience.

            Toscano explained that he had been doing meditations on the computer evolution and the poem “Subject Line Subscribed (Society)” reflects his thoughts. He spoke quickly in one to five word phrases and captured the electronic feel in his tone of voice and urgency. He used the volume of his voice to emphasize essential ideas and allow an obscure idea to come to the surface and become obvious to the listener. The evolution of “pod” and having to have it, having to have “new-pod” and all the other “pod” like inventions he inserted became an urgent task but one ending without fulfillment. This tactic was used to propose the idea of useless technology trends developing and the mystifying need to have the next best thing. Words and phrases that were useless on page came to life when expelled from Rodrigo’s mouth, and became sensible enough to for me understand the circular pattern of his poem. We ended where we started: no better, no worse, but with technology.

            It is obvious through reading Toscano that his thought process is very unconventional and the tactics he uses to display his points are even more bizarre, but brilliant nonetheless. During his performance, he migrated to relating modern urbanization, the merging of cultures, and the loss of indigenous language and culture to the spork and development of Spanglish. Yes this comparison is off the wall but when presented to me, I could think of no analogy to describe the merging of cultures better than the merging of fork and spoon. Like Ezra Pound, Toscano stresses the importance of incorporating other languages into one’s life and poetry, and breaks down language barriers by creating his own language made of sounds with no meaning unless enhanced by repetition. Toscano clenched the microphone so tightly that the feedback became unbearable, as he presented the evolution of culture and the evolution of life.

            Even though it seems Toscano is nonsensical on the page, he incorporates more dimensions of contemplation into his work than I thought possible. When these words are brought to the stage and spewed from his lips, they create a story of sounds and phrases that are all brought into harmony by the sounds and pace of his voice.