Romans/Snowmare

Cam Scott

Both a daybook of anti-capitalist ideation and a homoerotic reinvention of the prairie long poem, this unique debut resonates with a love of language and experiment.

Written from within the strictures of the working day, the book’s title poem issues from a practice of daily collage, comprising the first layer of a potentially interminable personal epic. As a lyric counterbalance, a central section follows a punk band throughout dozens of countries connected by and subjugated to capital.

These poems attempt to preserve the superficiality and sincerity of fast-paced social engagement, alluding to the material conditions that permit some people–tourists, artists, musicians–free movement at the expense of others. Playful and meticulously written, Romans/Snowmare deftly circles the perimeter of the self while drawing the communal inward.