When Monkeys Feel Rhythms

Poetry

By Michael Amram

Publisher : Trafford

ABOUT Michael Amram

Michael Amram
I've retired from the corporate world America loves so much.  In 2012, after 14 years of releasing medical records, I am focused on releasing things I create. I am the Indie author of the novel The Orthodoxy of Arrogance and poetry book Scenes the Writer Shows {forty-one places a poem ca More...

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Description

"In French the word for my is pronounced mon. When Monkeys feel Rhythms taps chosen veins of humanity. The poems examine how relating to aspects of life has affected us, and how the topics I’ve chosen to write about continue to confound us in spite of their power to enlighten us. For better or worse, some poems look for how far we’ve come from times when vines swung as means of transportation. These sixty poems share a common ancestral link. They chain together the primate mentality that follows those who have prospered in life and those that life has failed. The poems investigate relationships and indicate the advances that have been made since those relative connections were discovered. Monkeys points out the need to think and communicate, all the while watching those basic primal skills deteriorate.

Mundane aspects of marriage, friendship, politics, and technology are explored. When Monkeys feel Rhythmus peels back the layers of where humanity has been, what we’ve lost, and where we have yet to go. In “Evolution Lost another Tale,” a tether of technology is addressed:

“do you ever re-think the calls you made to slap steering wheels as you raged the roads and bumpers were nudged sudden so your middle finger rose to convey simple thoughts?”

This poem points to how a race of drivers has evolved. The poem shows the distance primates have come with the wheel they once invented. It says how the wheel’s novelty is worn out and communication can no longer wait until the trip to end. It asks when the need to communicate defeated the distinct possibility of fatality. It asks when people became so self-important that they would risk their lives just to be heard. It speaks of how technology has enlarged our heads, shrunk the world, and re-aligned priorities:

“…there were no distractions then there were no distractions when-- channels broke for truckers to handle their loads with a sense for humor that wouldn’t talk fierce to rage the roads;”

Metaphors often disguise malignancy. My poems find cancers in society. The rhythms shake; they quiver and flush out the benign. I invite you to examine what is peeled back. When Monkeys feel Rhythms will make you laugh. Some might make you cry. Others look for the moments you like to say “a-ha.” Some are bold, others are shy. I hope you find reading them as fun and enlightening as writing them was."

When Monkeys feel Rhythms is a compilation of sixty poems. Each fit a relation to life we all know. The poems evolved. It was serendipity that this collection gels together to tell a story, to read like a grocery list of caveats to pass by in the supermarket of life.

Amazon Customer review

Multi-layered and enjoyable

Ellen L-7/9/14

~The poems in Michael Amram’s evocatively titled When Monkeys Feel Rhythms range from humorous to gritty.  Grouped in sections—spatial relationships, religion, politics, friendship, marriage, aging and technology—the compact verses paint a concrete picture in the reader’s mind while turning mundane objects lyrical. The poems can be relished literally before letting the mind interpret and interpolate what the poet says using the ordinary to explore the extraordinary. One of my favorites can be found in Labors of Fruits: “she intended to live to a ripe age; like a banana does with spots and sweet smells that would arouse what senses were dulled.”
One of the delights of When Monkeys Feel Rhythms is Amram’s clever word plays. In Squeeze Play, for example, a fired employee is given an accordion file and riffs on adopting a monkey to earn coins in the street. In Hands That Fold Empty, a line about mustard stains is followed by one about planting seeds in minds. As Wheels Turned remembers a time “when gray mattered and earth was ripe to plant seeds that grew once to stem a brain.”
While Amram’s young mixologist friend in Limestone Ruins may spike his drinks with tea and offer mugs of kindness, the poems in When Monkeys Feel Rhythms spike the mind with beauty and offer mugs of reflection.

 

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5.0 out of 5 stars  A great read from the interesting title to the last poem., August 16, 2014

 

By

Mary Jo Reed


This review is from: When Monkeys Feel Rhythms (Paperback)

I enjoyed reading Michael's poetry book. There is a such a wide variety of topics. Everything from religion, to politics, to technology, something for everyone. He has a unique outlook on life which I like learning about. I highly recommend his book to poetry lovers.