23 Experiments

The enigmatic and adventurous Tilghman Alexander Goldsborough is a rising star in the poetry world, widely admired for his casual complexity and relentless urbanity. His latest concoction, 23 Experiments, is a bold development of his expansive social perspective, a toasty dérive through the poet’s sense of quotidian experience, troubled as it is by geopolitical menace, positing motion and activity as an antidote to the late capitalist slog that swamps authentic identity. The format and aesthetic were inspired by issues of Jet magazine from the 1970s, with advertisements and comic panels sharing the road with the poet’s blazing stream (or streak) of consciousness. Yeukai Zimbwa writes that the poet “composes to facilitate decomposition, setting a place for language, reader in tow, to reimagine itself, to become the space and act of reimagination.” Goldsborough is no horrified witness to history, he is making the moment, fomenting a revolutionary spirit that recalls the raucous psychic research of Bob Kaufman, William S. Burroughs, and Will Alexander.