David Mac's These Dirty Nothings (Book review) by David McLean

David Mac's These Dirty Nothings
Reviewed by David McLean

David Mac's new chapbook from Erbacce press is a very modern book; it is about sex, drink, modern life, and the elusive meaning that must be flitting around under the surface somewhere, or so we hope.

This silence can kill but
there’s no such thing as silence anyhow.
Deep down I want my ideas to eat you.
Deep down I want to say something complex,
profound, something that’ll
make your eyes shine like crystals
and not them
dirty old pennies.
Here, rattle your thoughts and drink up.
The sun’s coming out and
I want to see
what it looks like.

The poems are often very funny, often more serious, but never without a vital and engaging voice. As he says in Ejaculation is King:

Shooting your load at least
three times a day
in the same way you
shoot your poems.
Hot and mad, burning
behind the eyes,
the maniac’s grin,
the words no one’ll know
but you. These
dirty nothings are
all your own ...

The answer might be there. The chapbook is a delightful celebration of hedonism that accepts that when we have fun in the pub we might wind up with piss on our trousers, that knows that men need not be ashamed to fart when they piss, that life, ultimately, is not so bad.

Maybe this is good advice:

Thinking: My life has been easy
My life has been simple so far.
I have to just recognise omens
Good or bad and
Roll along to where I’m going.
I have not suffered
I am not suffering
I will not suffer
In the sun.

Buy this chapbook at Erbacce Press and try it out, the poetry and the recommended style of living.

Author bio:

David McLean is Welsh but has lived in Sweden since 1987. He lives there on an island in a large lake called Mälaren, very near to Stockholm with cats, and a couple of dogs. He has a BA in History from Balliol, Oxford, and an MA in philosophy, taken much later and much more seriously studied for, from Stockholm's University. Up to date details of many zine publications and several available books and chapbooks, including three print full lengths, a few print chapbooks, and a free electronic chapbook, are at his blog at Mourning Abortion.