Poetry

In his new poetry book Hello From the American Desert, Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo tweaks the phenomenon of email spam-based poetry. Available through Chicago’s Silver Wonder Press, the 40-page volume also features child-like illustrations by Meat Puppets’ Curt Kirkwood. Instead of copy-and-paste word puzzles, Ranaldo draws ideas and imagery from internet spam he’s compiled since 2004 to write wholly original poems. "I find it a joy to open those things because they’re just so out there,” he says. "I mean they’re farther out than most of the so-called language poets. It gives you the liberty to play around with language and brings up words that wouldn’t normally come into your head immediately to use in a poem, yet they’re perfect. I’m just taking them out of one context and using them in another.”

Click here to read the full interview with Lee Ranaldo.