Description

In Ali Alonzo’s *I Think I’ll Be Disgusting*, the poems tumble down the pages, towards the reader. They are restless and intense, as if they know that time is running out on Earth, that this is all there is. The playful and associative cannot be separated from a kind of fleeting gravity. The joy of language neighbours the abyss.

At the centre is a poetic ‘I’ that is both grandiose and pitiful, giving everything to disturb and seduce, with images, stories, promises and exclamations that are by turns ugly and beautiful. He is funny, but intends to be disgusting, because the world is disgusting. He can write, but intends to cause a ruckus, because that is what a ruckus is.

This is poetry that could be called young, but is just as much as old as the street itself. Ali Alonzo builds on a tradition of post-beat poetry where references to popular culture, urbanity, orality and immediacy have long been integral parts of the poem. At the same time, it is as if something has broken and been put back together in a completely new way. I’m Going to Be Disgusting is an insistent and uncool poetry for our times.