NEW YORK (PRWEB) February 28, 2020
Concorde’s Writing Committee announces the release of Josh Eisen’s new collection of poems and essays. They are publishing the works on a rolling basis on josheisen.com. An announcement for a book deal is expected in the Spring.
In the first selections published, Eisen uses poetry to convey a collective empathy where the reader is both subject and object. His sardonic style is a satire of self-aware satirists who make claims on national perspectives and moods, while distancing themselves in order to make those claims. Eisen’s poems are piss and vinegar in a cauldron of sugar-free vanilla pudding.
Eisen’s first six poems are listed with a brief description:
1. In 'Things of State,' Eisen uses a deformed ode to speak for the meek and embattled in contrast to the politicians who routinely talk to them. Eisen imagines the emotion of the everyday struggle. He contrasts this real struggle with the intellectual resistance of self-appointed leaders motivated by ambition. The ‘ode to the hard-spined governess, single Mother’ is especially poignant.
2. 'Political Man' puts Eisen’s audience squarely at the moment when a good man sacrifices a principle to gain something bigger only to come up empty-handed. The folly of a noble and unambitious politician is on full display.
3. 'America’s Lament' is a playful staccato of a nation imploding into the abyss of its own contradictions. Eisen flips words in routine phrases and juxtaposes dissonant images with jarring, rhythmic power.
4. 'American College' is a witty yet dead-serious critique of the idea of being educated. Eisen exposes the insecurity behind the smugness of a newly-minted college graduate. It serves as a metaphor for national commitments to institutions that divide people arbitrarily.
5. 'Goodwill China' offers a full-throttled sandbagging of the ambivalence toward the plight of the Uighurs. Eisen is unabashed in his call to remember and to be reminded. He burdens the audience with both action and moving others to action.
6. 'The Last Other' portents an abstract but controlled style that will be published later in the series and hearken back to Eisen’s earlier works. The poem’s words and cadence obscure overt pain Eisen attributes to unwarranted suspicion and the discord it stirs.
Concorde’s next release is due in April. Eisen’s selections include political essays in which satire and legislation meld into mundane images wedged into what seems at points to read like an op-ed. The release also includes poems that go further down the path Eisen explores in 'The Last Other.'
Josh Eisen is an Educator and Writer based in New York. He will soon announce a schedule of locations at which he has read his poetry anonymously.
For more information visit josheisen.com. For all questions or press inquiries, email press@concordeeducation.com.