What Just Happened

"The first trade edition of new poems by punk progenitor and acclaimed writer Richard Hell since he largely abandoned poetry at the age of 22 includes also a valedictory essay, "Falling Asleep," and a "list" of recent notebook writings, and art by Christopher Wool. Richard Hell dropped out of high school shortly after turning 17 to move to New York and become a poet, 1967. He succeeded at that but by 1973 had forsaken poetry writing for the composition of aggressive, lyrical songs that would soon be scorned and hailed as punk. After 10 years as a professional musician, in 1984 he switched again, leaving music and resuming writing but now prose-fiction and essays mostly. Come 2020, pandemic time, Hell, at the age of 70, found himself gratified, in lockdown isolation, to finally become a poet, a working poet without distractions or competing intentions, content(ish) to struggle the days into mediums for poems. The result comprises one hal