lit

Movies, talkies, film, cinema: a British word referring to motion pictures. The word cinema comes from the French word cinéma--an abbreviation of cinématographe. Phrastic is an invented word. I assume phrastic suggests the definition of phrasal or phrases--fragments of text--relating to the topic of 24 films. Cinephrastics, a chapbook by award-winning poet and editor-at-large, Kathleen Ossip is published by Horse Less Press and contains 31 pages of motion picture poetic excellence--part review, part critique, part personal, all poetry. Kathleen Ossip explores such films as Fahrenheit 911, Monster, Ocean’s Eleven and Finding Nemo. Shorter than a ghazal, longer than a haiku or cinquain, Ossip’s single-strophe poems crunch with rich wit and smart wordplay. In “The Godfather: Part III” she writes:

Good novels make moribund
movies. Middling novels make good
movies. No novels: bad movies.
The only dead novels: good movies.
Never make two when you can make three.
Might I but mourn tonight in thee!”

Ossip’s lines snap with crisp sound of words strategically placed for maximum impact. Read the aforementioned poem and hear the delicious sounds as she utilizes the “oo” and “o” (in “good” and “movies”) in contrast to the “o” (in “no” and “novels”).

In “Lost in Translation” she muses about the actors in the film: “Sex symbol = / Pizza face? Girls get younger and/ younger; this, too, a threat.” And later reflects: “I would like to be in/ bed with some congenial person.” Each poem, titled from the movie presented, in Cinephrastics captures a tight, emotional observation of the film--not entirely an impression or reflection. Ossip avoids technical critiques and offers aesthetic views. However, as in “The Hours” there is a sense of projection if not argument with the film: “Bones of the cheek, bones of the calf, /bones that glimmer.... ‘It’s harder to/ live well for just one day than to write/ a book’? Nonsense, literature/ is hard, you have to live it first.”

Lest you think all 24 poems in this collection are academic, intellectual works, Ossip offers a humorous, yet still punchy, “Home on the Range.” She writes: “Dull high art, certainly.... My daughter recognizes/ Judi Dench as a cow; which repays/ the two hours wasted, the vile snacks--/ that and her soft fierce mind whirring next/ to mine in the dark. And so I re-/ turn to my themes: vision, mother, art.”

Cinephrastics is a hand-crafted 6”x6”, staple-bound chapbook with original silkscreened cover art by Kate Schapira. According to the publisher’s web site, the first run is sold out.