Books by Jack Phillips Lowe

Jack Phillips Lowe is a Chicago area native, and his poems have appeared in various magazines and literary journals, including Barbaric Yawp, Lucid Moon, The Iconoclast, and others. In 2000, MuscleHead Press published his chapbook SO MUCH FOR PARADISE. His current chapbook, LONG FORM, is published by Free Thought Publications, a division of 12-Gauge Press, San Clemente, California. This is an attractive chap manufactured with a laminated cover, black end papers, and well-designed text on heavy 65-pound paper. LONG FORM is a collection of twelve long poems arranged with a short intermission in the middle of the book.

Never before have I stumbled upon a more imaginative collection of poems. To read Jack Phillips Lowe’s LONG FORM is to find yourself in the presence of a modern-day Hans Christian Anderson. Lowe is a fabulist crafting poetic proverbs with humorous twists. His poems are peopled with macabre characters, and he tells his tales not in terms of fairies and mermaids but within the framework of DVDs, Palm Pilots, sitcoms, and reality TV.

In many ways LONG FORM is a manifesto preaching against the evils of modern society and our preoccupation with the trivial and superficial. TAKE IT AS IT COMES is a good example. In this poem we meet a man at a party who came not because he wanted to, but because his life is so shallow and clueless he can’t ignore the invitation. Although he decides to be antisocial, he is besieged by irritating characters. “I put on my unfriendliest face, / took a seat by the door… // In spite of my best efforts, / two guests just couldn’t see my quills. / They kept returning to me… // One of the pair said his name was Future. / He was an antsy little guy, / constantly moving and talking. / He painted ambitious dreams in the air / and promised to lead me to them. / Try as I did to follow, / he was always a step ahead of me. // The other guy’s name was Past. / We had been previously acquainted, / and he hadn’t changed at all. / He prefaced each sentence with / a wistful ‘Do you remember…’ / and spun endless tales of / bygone days and daring deeds, / and all the things he meant to do.”

Bemoaning our society’s quest for happiness within the trappings of success or the past or the future is nothing new. However this is not a collection that condemns without offering a solution. The answer according to Lowe is what mystics have been telling us for centuries. It’s nice to see the frustrated character in this poem find that answer in the guise of a woman. “In the morning, I asked her name. / ‘Present,’ she said, with a smile. // So I was saved by the love of a good woman. / In the evening, I like to rest / my head on Present’s shoulder, / I savor her sweet lips, and / gaze into her eyes.” Paradise will always be found in the divinity of the present moment. How comforting to realize the solution to the world’s ills has been written in our hearts. The challenge is to slow down long enough to listen.

It is easy to see Lowe has an unmistakable talent for fiction. I wouldn’t be surprised if one day he leaves the structural confines of the poetic form and decides to conquer the short story. From there I expect him to leap to fame and fortune as a best-selling novelist in the fantasy genre. Lowe certainly has what it takes to accomplish this goal.

If you’re in the mood to tackle a collection of poetry from the wild side, poems fertile with some of the most imaginative story lines in the small press today, LONG FORM is the chapbook you’ve been searching for. Fasten your seatbelts…you are about to enter the surreal world of Jack Phillips Lowe!